Day 19 Thursday 16th April Once again, we left Dav in town to catch the bus while the rest of us headed on our way. The day was just gorgeous, with sunny skies and lovely temperatures, plus views of both ocean and snow capped mountains, making the walk almost a pleasure! About midday we ran into Kjetil and had a drink at a cafe with him. I had an Spanish style ice-coffee - literally a normal hot coffee poured over a glass of ice.... quite a literall translation of the name but wasn´t too bad! We all walked into Comillas [View Full Entry]

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Day 18 Wednesday 15th April Dav´s knee was still an issue to we decided that I would resume walking with Ben and Lauren, and he would catch the bus each day to our destination until he felt that his knee was up to the challenge of walking 20-odd kms. That way he could rest it as much as he felt he needed, but we could still continue with Ben and Lauren. So, in the morning we left him at the bus station and we set off for the day. Meanwhile, we also learned that the walk out of Santander was [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 Friday 17th April Similar start to the day, with Dav staying behind to catch the bus, while Ben, Lauren and I headed off. The weather was once again fantastic, with glorious sunshine heating my pale body. The walk was a relatively short one being only 14km, and so we arrived into town about midday, again meeting Dav at the albergue. San Vincente is a really pretty town, with ocean front and a snowy mountain backdrop. The albergue is privately run by an older enthusiastic couple, who also provide dinner and breakfast, all for a [View Full Entry]

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Day 15 Sunday 12th April The walk into Laredo was a short one, being only 8km, which was good as we only got stuck in a little rain shower. The albergue took some finding but we got there eventually, with it being tucked in beside a church and run by some lovely nuns. The plan was for Dav and I to stay there the night to give his knee a break as it was playing up pretty badly, and then catch a bus the next day to meet Ben and Lauren in 2 nights time when they arrived in Santander. [View Full Entry]

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Day 13 Friday 10th April The next morning, Lauren was still not feeling well and so she caught the bus on to our next stop of Castro Urdiales. Ben went with her to see her on the bus while Dav and I started the 15km walk. The clouds were quite heavy and it wasn´t long before we had our ponchos out. We made a faily good pace but were pretty miserable as it didn´t take long before we were soaked through despite our wet-weather gear, and when we hit the higher grounds and the winds hit our drenched bodies, it [View Full Entry]

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Day 14 Saturday 11th April Off on another day! The weather had improved somewhat on yesterday´s, with patches of sunlight now appearing in between showers.... Ponchos on, ponchos off, ponchos on.... While the weather continued to be challenging, the scenery was once again stunning, with lovely beaches and rolling green hills. Our stop for the night was at a gorgeous little village called Liendo, and it was clear as we walked into town that this was a very wealthy little holiday area. Dav and I walked past a property where we saw a sm [View Full Entry]

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Day 12 Thursday 9th April For those very observent of you, yes we are not sure what happened to Stage 7... We went from one guide to another and apparantly they don´t have the same stages, hence the lack of a Stage 7... Also, the only photo I've added is of Stage 9 as Stage 8 is completely flat, and hence an altitude map is not really needed. So on the morning of Day 12, Lauren was not feeling too well so she and Ben decided to catch the train from Bilbao to Portugalete, and then walk the 12km to [View Full Entry]

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Day 9 Monday 6th April Up bright and early but still not as early as our German friends who were up and gone before sunrise. We packed up and made our way down the road to the bakery where we had a coffee and toast (I know.. coffee... coming around to the dark side...) and a chocolate croissant, as well as getting some snacks for the day. While very scenic, it was a fairly unremarkable day, with us arriving at Larrabetzu just before 3pm. We planned on camping somewhere between Larrabetzu and the next town Lezama, but we arrived during [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 Sunday 5th April Up bright and early with a monk delivering us breakfast - coffee and baguette slices. I swear I will start to look like a baguette by the time this trip is over..! The coffee was cold and the bread a little stale, and hence a little let-down after the super meal the night before, but definitely better than no breakfast at all (or even yesterday's breakfast for that matter!) We set off at about 8.30am, being the last of the pilgrims to hit the road. The 18km day was a relatively good one with only [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 Saturday 4th April After a rationed breakfast consisting of three quarters of a boiled egg and one quarter of a mandarin each, we continued on down the hill for the 10km stint into the town of Markina. The last few kilometers were terrible, being on a slippery, steep goat track, and no good for sore knees. We finally made it into town at about midday where we immediately made our way to the nearest food outlet where we gorged ourselves on tapas! Was very nice to have full bellies again! Before making our way out of town, we [View Full Entry]

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