Camino del Norte

There is a saying that goes: all roads lead to Rome, but that seems to be the case for Santiago de Compostela too; according to Mundicamino there are 33 different tracks that lead to Santiago. The most famous and by far the most busy path is the Camino Francés and because of that I chose to walk the less crowded Camino del Norte that runs along the Bay of Biscay westward for quite a distance before turning inland and southward towards Santiago de Compostela. Early in May 2016 I went with Vueling to Barcelona where I changed aircraft and continued to San Sebastián. There I took a bus from the airport to Bar Pensión Restaurante Bidasoa in the center of Irún. I spent a couple of days checking out Irún before I started my walk from Hendaya on the French side of the border.

On the first day I did two stages that took me through farm land and oak forests in an undulated landscape. I passed over several fjords on my way, one by a small ferry-boat, and followed the seafront right through San Sebastián ending up for the night in Zarautz. The part between Irún and San Sebastián was actually more strenuous than I had imagined because the path moved up and down all the time with some hundred meters difference in altitude. San Sebastián is a gem with its large sandy beaches and the Bay of Biscay dominating the town picture. There were lots of tourists everywhere. Zarautz on the other hand was very quiet and the restaurant in my hostal closed at eight o’clock which meant that I had to go elsewhere to feed.

The next day I went on to Deba, which is a typical seaside resort, where I checked in at a typical seaside hotel. The walk of the day was mainly spent in a cultural landscape dominated by pastureland and vineyards, billowing along the coast. You could easily imagine the same old families, generation after generation, toiling to keep the landscape open and productive.

The next day was fairly uninteresting and took me through a couple of large, clear-cut areas and a couple of heavily eroded areas. In Marquina/Xemein I found a bar with “Hotel” written all over the sun blinds, but that hadn’t been true for more than two years I learned from the barmaid. But she put a card in my hand with the telephone number to a refuge in the outskirts of the village. I called and was told by the proprietor that, yes there was a room for me and that I was to be picked up right where I stood if I just would be so kind as to wait for five minutes. After a short while a woman in a car came to pick me up 😉 I told her that I needed water and some fruit. Dinner and breakfast were served at the refuge but drinks, fruit and snacks were not to be found there, so she asked me if 45 minutes would be sufficient for me to do my shopping and I told her that it absolutely would do so. She took care of my backpack and I went to the supermarket. An hour later I was installed at the refuge, having a nice shower, and wondering what was for dinner. The refuge was very nice and large and had both single and double rooms as well as dormitories for pilgrims who like to feel a bit uncomfortable on their journey to Santiago. The dinner that was prepared by the proprietor’s husband was abundant and very tasty.

After breakfast on the next day I walked on towards the city of Guernica which is famous for having been bombed by Hermann Goering’s Luftwaffe during the Spanish civil war in the late thirties. This proved to be a day full of social interaction because there were many villages and bars on the way and I just love pinchos, the Basque version of tapas. They are flavored to my taste with generous amounts of salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs and loads of olive oil of course. In Guernica I soon found a combined bar and hotel in the center of the city and had a quiet afternoon and evening in a sunny and friendly little town.

I spent my last walking day on the Camino del Norte for this time walking from Guernica to Bilbao. I like Bilbao, I’ve been there before. Until fairly recently it was a dirty industrial hole that nobody would even think of spending their holidays in. But now it is has been transformed into a modern urban city with very good shopping, great restaurants and an interesting mix between old and new architecture. It also has the Guggenheim Museum with its magnificent façade in titanium and steel. This day was fairly mediocre and included some showers. The end of the path that leads down to Bilbao old city consists of a stone staircase with a thousand steps. I found a guest house in the middle of it all and had a pleasant evening in the center of Bilbao.

Bilbao-Santiago de Compostela by bike in March 2017:

Wednesday March 15: Train from Málaga to Bilbao with change of stations in Madrid (Atocha-Chamartín). Fast train to Madrid and not so fast the rest of the way. Ten minutes before arriving in Burgos with two hours to go an unfortunate human being decided to step in front of my train. I arrived in Bilbao three hours late, in the middle of the night.

Thursday March 16: Picked up my bike at the delivery company MRW in Bilbao and took the N-634 out of the city in direction Santander passing through Portugalete and Laredo ending up in Hoznayo in Cantabria around seven in the evening. Nice landscape with rolling hills covered by forest and grass with an impressive coast with rugged cliffs, huge sandy beaches, and rolling waves that seemed to be perfect for surfing.

Friday March 17: Big breakfast: muffins, potato chips, coke, café con leche and a yesterdays croissant 🙂 Managed to make my way around Santander and drove up through Santillana del Mar (Altamira) and continued on the coastal way that offered several spectacular views of gigantic sandy beaches and houses holding on to the cliffs. A couple of miles into Asturias I was stopped by a Guardia Civil officer on a motorbike that wanted to give me a ticket for not wearing a helmet. I told him that I honestly didn’t know that it was law for adults to wear a helmet in Spain when riding a bike and he let me go without a fine after I had promised to buy a helmet in the next city, and so I did. I spent the night in Llanes after 120 km on the road that day.

Saturday March 18: Nice buffet breakfast and after that ten hours in the saddle on a very undulated road. Stopped for the day in Gijón that reminded me both of San Sebastián with its big sandy beaches and of Huelva with straight, one-way avenues crossing the city center. Had a nice steak and went to bed.

Sunday March 19: Made it out of Gijón after making company with a racing cyclist that kindly enough led me, on cycle paths and small roads, to avoid a web of motorways. The rest of the day was spent in a hilly area passing through village after village until reaching the city of Avilés that also caused me some trouble before I found a way around it. I stopped for the night in Navia that isn’t much of a village but never the less houses the largest paper mill in Spain.

Monday March 20: A cold and tough day in the saddle. In Ribadeo I once again had to ask a local cyclist for assistance on how to pass the motorway bridge that passes over a wide bay. He showed me a narrow pathway that was attached to one side of the bridge that left just enough room for my bicycle with its two bags attached to the luggage carrier. On the other side of the bridge I bought a road map for Galicia and then continued to Vilalba.

Tuesday March 21: It rained for a couple of hours this morning and the temperature was below 10 degrees centigrade. After a while there was some sun after all and things begun to look better. Until I got a flat tyre. There was also a hole right through the outer tyre. I repaired the tube leak and made it to the railway station in Santiago de Compostela where I parked my now quite used bicycle with the keys in the lock and the helmet on the  handlebar for anyone to pick up as I didn’t need it anymore and didn’t want to pay for the transport back to Málaga.

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