AgRyan04 said:
Today we did a thing.....we just booked a return trip to hike a leg of the Camino Norte later this summer. We'll go Irun to Bilbao.
Flying into Pamplona and taking the train to Irun (~2 hours) and flying home from Bilbao.
Finished our leg of the Norte on Saturday.....
A couple overarching thoughts first....
- I got my pack dry weight down to 12.9 lb from 14.6 lb on the Camino Ingles and it made a world of difference
- This was significantly more physically demanding than the Camino Ingles. The hardest day on the Ingles was probably equivalent to the 2nd easiest day on this trip. Not discouragingly hard but just not the stroll that the Ingles was. We have also walked the West Highland Way in Scotland and thought this stretch of the Camino Norte was harder.
- I think as a result of the above - the age demographics were drastically different. We're in our mid-40s and we were in the upper quarter of oldest on the Norte. The Ingles we were probably closer to bottom third.
- The Ingles was MUCH better marked - not that this was difficult, it just took a more attention
- I understand the current political climate, and understand Spains history and leanings, but I saw more swastikas in our week on trail than I have my entire life back home stateside. We were in Barcelona for spring break this year, and then back a couple months ago for the Camino Ingles & a couple days in Madrid, so we've been in the country a lot this year - but the blatantly open anti-semitism in the Basque region of Spain was, frankly, shocking.
- We still struggle to wrap our heads around how the (northern) Spanish eat. There are very few restaurants - almost all just cafes & bars with the same 4 things to eat - tortilla (egg/potato omelet), pinches (essentially tapas) , bocadillos (sandwiches - almost all either ham, cheese, or ham with cheese), and potato bravos (floppy french fries). For breakfast you can find croissants and sometimes churros with chocolate but lunch and dinner is limited to the above, a tough streak, or some sort of calorieless fish.....and wine....lots of wine any time of the day.
OK, enough with all that, here is our trip
Flew into Pamplona and ended up catching a cab to Irun (they don't have Uber so we had to D/L and set up an account with Bolt) - it was about an hour drive right along the France border. Irun itself was not that exciting - but we did see a street fight between a grocery store owner (?) and a drunk guy who stole two bottles of Jack Daniels from the store. One bottle of Jack broke and the cops showed up.
Day 1 on trail to San Sebastian (~16 miles)
Ate at a cafe on the way out of Irun....then it started raining. Stopped at Monastery Guadalupe, which was beautiful. There is a route split just afterwards - a high route and a low route - the high route is significantly more elevation but is supposed to have better views, but with the weather we figured the visibility loss wouldn't be worth the extra effort. Along the low route, we did run into a herd of 10 or 12 cattle on trail so we got to do some cowboy stuff and drive them up and off the trail. The views on the ocean side opened up and it was beautiful - I'm not sure how the high route could have been that much better even without the cloud coverage. There were also lots of blackberries which Inspent more time picking and eating than I should have. My wife did slip and smack her head so that was a bit of a scary moment, but she's tough and didn't even bruise. We arrived in Pasajes for lunch just in time for some sort of festival - as we were eating lunch people came into the bar in groups dressed like it was halloween - pilots/flight attendants, Arab shieks, boat captains, soccer players, sailors - it was really funny, except for the poor girl working the bar and restaurant by herself she was getting run ragged. We stayed at a youth hostel just before San Sebastian, got Uber eats to deliver us dinner so we didn't have to walk the extra 4 miles round-trip to town and ate on the patio overlooking the sea. And then crashed!
Day 2 to Zarautz (17.5 miles)
This was comparable milage and less elevation but it took us significantly longer than day 1. It rained all morning long so we did not get great views in San Sebastian, which was kinda disappointing. Once out of San Sebastian there were no cafes open - we even walked to an off route town and everything was closed there too. That was the crux of the day for us - no food or drinks. We got to Orio around 4pm and ate there, about an hour after our official tipping point into "hangry". From there it was 3-1/2 miles to Zarautz, which was a cool little surf town.
Day 3 to Deba (14 miles)
This was easily our toughest day, and there was an "Extreme Temperature Warning" for the afternoon - but I thought it was the most beautiful day on trail. We started out walking along the seawall as the sun was coming up and called our daughter to be the first to wish her a happy birthday (at midnight back home - she's 15, so we knew there was a zero percent chance she was asleep. In fact, she was actually in the shower and had to call us back). There was just a ton of up and down on the day - one town even had an outdoor escalator, which we happily utilized. We stayed in Deba at Hiru Uhinak Hotel, which was amazing - right on the beach. Ate at the hotel restaurant - easily the best meal of the trip
Day 4 - 0 miles
We enjoyed our hotel so much we decided to take a zero and stay an extra night. We slept until noon and only left to eat lunch, have cocktails overlooking the ocean, and then for dinner.
Day 5 to Guernica (16.75 miles)
Took a cab to Markina so we could stay on pace with the rest of our lodging reservations. It wasn't a hard day, just long. We turned south inland from the sea and stopped a lot as there were a bunch of towns with bars and cafes along the route. We got to Guernica where we did struggle to find a proper dinner. Would NOT recommend Hotel Bolina - it was attached to an old bar....and felt exactly like a hotel attached to an old bar would.
Day 6 to Larrabetzu (11.5 miles)
To celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary, we were set for the shortest milage day thus far....but the guide book had a few mistakes for the worse - it listed out three towns along the route - two that had food and one that had a market - the first town didn't exist or was so small we didn't even recognize that we were walking through it. The second did not have the market, and the third did not have food. Thankfully, there was an albergue we passed and the kind lady there sold us some Cokes and chips. There was a fourth town, not in the book, that we walked through that had several bars and cafes - and we were ready for it - buuuut there was a stage and chairs set up in the plaza and my wife read some of the literature and realized there was about to be some sort political rally, of which we did not want to be associated with or linked to as foreigners so we begrudgingly kept moving. Our lodging was at Casa Rural Miramendi, which was slightly off trail - and the driveway up was probably the most physically challenging stretch of the day but it was really nice. The lady that ran it was super sweet - it was like staying at Grandma's. There was a restaurant below us on the hill that was hosting a party and the band was awesome so we enjoyed that. We got food and a bottle of wine delivered - the food was terrible - but the wine was good and the weather was perfect for a wonderful anniversary evening.
Day 7 to Bilbao (10.5 miles)
The shortest day, it could have been 8.5 miles if our hotel was closer to the trail. It was pretty uneventful - we hit an industrial area then back into the trees and hills for a bit before finally dropping down into town proper.
Day 8 - Explore Bilbao
Went to the Guggenheim Museum, walked around town a bit, saw the San Maemo Stadium where Athletic Club plays their home matches. Ate dinner at Natur, which was kinda like much more upscale Chipotle - but it was nice because we could order food food.
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