My prediction of weather change came true as I woke up to solid rain. Not super heavy, but definitely a solid rain, not a drizzle. Decided to gear up and walk in any case, supposed to be a shorter day, but with all of the ups and downs in volved, it didn’t feel like a light day. I started at 9:00am and other than a quick stop for coffee didn’t reach Deba until 2:00pm. Found a nice spot for lunch and had the menu of the day, Mixed Salad and Bacalao. Tasty and hit the spot. One thing I’ve learned about walking in the rain, is that regardless of what rain gear you have, you will be thoroughly soaked if you walk for long enough. Today was no exception to this rule. Any Goretex type rain gear is good for a certain number of hours but will “wet through” after some period of times. Waterproof boots are pretty much the same and will eventually end up wet. After lunch found my Pension and washed all of my already soaking wet clothes. Interestingly the transit remains so good in this area, I could cross the street, hop on the Euskotren and be in San Sebastain in 55 minutes! This seems to be a surf town with a beautiful beach as a central feature. The town is so steep that there are municipal elevators and escalators to get you up the hills. 22,000 steps.

A beautiful day today, was served a rather full GF breakfast at the hotel and set off in a relaxed manner around 9:00am. When I set this trip up, the initial plan had too many long legs and I am very glad that I asked from them to be shortened. Yesterday was about 16km and with all the hills involved I didn’t mind having a little downtime in the afternoon. Today, it seemed that every time I turned a corner there was another hill to climb. Right from the hotel there was an immediate climb, the through the town of Orio, then another climb and so on. Today the timing worked that I was walking near the town of Getaria around 1:00pm, and after checking with a few locals just a slight diversion put me in the middle of a number of restaurants. Both locals I talked to recommended Politena and it did not disappoint. Appetizer tray and some cod with a desert somewhat like a coffee mouse tiramisu cross. Of course I was immediately hit by a very steep hill leaving town and after few others, dragged into the lobby of tonight’s hotel around 4:00pm. Some spectacular views today, but the wind came up fairly strongly, so I suspect some weather is in the future. 29,000 steps. 75 flights.

Got up nice and early and rearranged various items to make my pack as light as possible and put as much heavy stuff in the roll aboard to be transported. A nice walk along the promenade out of San Sebastián, then a solid uphill to a ridgeline. Today was mostly walking on some form of road with a few trail sections. My stage was quite short and had an enjoyable morning talking to two ladies who were walking the same general plan as I am. Also a young German joined us. They all went on further, while I stopped at my hotel. A little before town, left my stuff and the headed the 1km over a hill into town. Had an ok inexpensive lunch at a local reastaurant, back to hotel. Another family run hotel with very nice room. Should have time for a nap before dinner! Beautiful country!

I had a low key day to day. Had to move from my lovely AirBnb to a hotel, mainly to facilitate the baggage transfer tomorrow. Hotel only a 5 minute walk and although a 2 star, just fine. A/C not working but very apologetic manager called and offered a discount if it couldn’t be fixe, which I declined. Technician came and it turned out a guest had broken into the box and set it to heat, which took out 4 different units on the same circuit. Anyway, once set back to cool, it worked fine. Walked around San Sebastián quite a bit and have to say that it is one of the places where the old and the new are very well integrated. You see plenty of old buildings that have had modern upgrades but in a way that respects the original building. Even though this is the most expensive real estate in Spain, there is no sense of overt snobiness or show off fanciness. The old town area is all pedestrian and wall to wall tapas bars, almost all of which are priced very reasonably. You can easily eat a few things and have a glass or two of wine for under 20 euros. There is a nice mix of different kinds of foreign tourists with locals, and you don’t feel resentment from the locals for being a visitor. The transit is amazing. The last two days I’ve used multiple buses to get to starts and finishes of my walk and the were all driven by people who probably moonlight on the Formula 1 circuit when they are not driving the bus, no fooling around they are going to get you there and fast and smooth. Even with the film festival here, other than plethora of Audis badged with decals, no fancy Ferraris or show off outfits. Tomorrow starts the walking part with full gear. Scheduled for 16km, which isn’t huge but when you add a 20lb pack and bunch of hill climbing it makes for a solid day. The initial proposal I got back from Walkthecamino had unrealistic lets at 24km-28km, which are doable on flatter terrain but not when major climbs or descents are involved. Ok what follows are some pictures from walking around.

I have a saying that “you are never more than a few seconds a way from a bonehead maneuver.” This grew out of my RV days when towing a trailer with a big truck and not being acutely aware of everything could easily result in lots of damage. So I pulled a “bonehead” today but luckily with no harm done. Basically after my walk, went home to regroup and threw all my clothes in the washer. After a quick shower it suddenly occurred to me that my passport was in the cargo pocket of the pants…..Panic mode! After a certain amount of trouble shooting; you could literally be dying and you will not get a Bosch front loader to open before it is ready to. Luckily the AirBNB owner suggested switching to the spin cycle and I was on pins and needles for 15 minutes while it finished up. Now the good news: I keep my passport in an RFID sleeve and in a ziplock bag. So, passport survived just fine, RFID sleeve had a little moisture but was not thoroughly wet. I did check that the NFC biometric chip in the passport is still working and it is. (FYI to do this on your passport, download the READID ME app on your phone and it will walk you through it.) So dodged the bullet on this one, but this is why I prefer not to carry my passport around with me. (France requires you to have National ID, but actually does not say it has to be a passport!).

On to the day, which was excellent: Started with coffee and GF Avocado toast at Simone Coffee Club, a great place that I knew of from previous visits. Then a little walking around town before taking the bus over to Pasaia, near where I left off yesterday. There is a cute little ferry that runs back and forth continually, so I took it over to the far side for an exploration before heading back. Although today was much shorter distance wise, my app shows almost the same amount of vertical. So, walked along the ocean towards the lighthouse and then many many stairs, Rather nice road for awhile and then on fairly well traveled trails. All in all I think I was walking for a solid 3 hours. Came down in the Gros district and ended up with a very reasonable Prix Fixe lunch at Nam, Mushroom risotto and a burger and flan and half bottle of red for 23 Euros! Step count: 21,500 and 60 floors climbed.

Funny how mistranslations can have big impacts. The owners manual at my Airbnb said something about Stores, which didn’t make sense to me so I passed it by. The only window in the place that didn’t seem to have a shade was next to the bed. Bright lights on and off all night combined with jet lag made for a very poor nights sleep. Imagine my surprise when I clicked a normal looking light switch this morning and electric blinds deployed on that window! Should sleep better tonight! Left a post it in the manual for future guests….

So, the plan was to spend a few days in San Sebastián using it as a home base while hiking the first two legs into San Sebastián and then continuing on to Bilbao. Woke up early this morning and took the bus to the town of Irun, which is the first town across to border from France. After a coffee, found the trail and immediate steep hike up the sanctuario de Guadalupe. From there the trail option that I took, called Purgatorio, followed the top of the ridge over a few steep mountains etc. Felt like a very solid first day and I was glad to have my base in San Sebastián to return for a hot shower!

Took the train down to Spain today: Basically, 4.5 hours from Montparnasse to Hendaye, then walk over to the Euskotren that serves the Basque coast and another half hour on the local train. The airBnb that I have is a nice studio on Pl. de La Constitucion in the center of old town San Sebastián. So, since I hadn’t really eaten anything since breakfast, it was off on a tapas crawl. Great food, reasonably priced and small portions…

Back on the evening Delta flight to Paris. Slight delay but otherwise smooth flight. Departure time of 6:00pm gives you the day to get sorted and the arrival time around 1:00pm in Paris means that you miss the rush at passport control and the rush hour traffic going into the city in the morning. I had an unused airport RER ticket so took the train into the city and just by luck ended up on an express, so it was very quick. Walked from St. Michel station to the hotel in St. Germain. After a shower and regroup, it was off to the Storage area to pick up my hiking poles. Then a dinner with John R. And Léopoldine and managed to stay awake till 10:00pm, good for a first night! Off to San Sebastián via train tomorrow.

Inspite of it being a rainy day, I ended up with a pretty full day. Started by trying coffee at the Noir location on Ile St. Louis, then headed to the Tour St. Jacques, another of those things that I have been trying to do for multiple trips, not open Monday and Tuesday, open 10:00am to 6:00pm on other days, but wait, closed for lunch for two hours, something not mentioned. Anyway, this time I succeeded and it was a fairly good tour with a 300 step climb to the top of the tower. Luckily the rain abated so that I could enjoy the views and get some decent photos. Afterwards it turned out that the Rotisserie d’Argent the cafe associated with the famed Tour d’Argent, and much less expensive, had a spot for lunch available. A proper French lunch ensued with Frog legs, followed by Duck confit and then a cheese plate. It poured rain while I was eating so was happy to be inside. Following that I walked over to the Conciergerie, a spectacular castle like building that used to house prisoners including Marie Antoinette. Mostly empty inside and some kind of annoying tablet to be used as a guide. I made short work of it. Alas tonight is the final night that Quentin is running the nearby Le Bucheron cafe. A bit of a party was happening and I brought along a bottle of Delas Croze Hermitage. Some singing and hijinks among the locals and they looked dug in for a long night. I headed back as I need to finish packing, clean up the apartment a bit and then head to CDG tomorrow for the flight back to Seattle.

A rainy day in Paris today. Headed over to NoGlu for a GF croissant. Then off to Montmartre to go to the museum of Montmartre. Lots on the history of the area but mainly focused on some of the artists. From there, a quick tour around Pl. du Tertre and past Sacre Couer before heading down the hill to meet Lily Heise a Canadian Travel writer/podcaster and tour guide for lunch. Her site is “Je T’aime, me neither.” She was doing some tours for Oliver even though it was raining. After that it was back to the apartment for awhile and then a stroll over to Ile St. Louis and around.