The Hotel Gernika was very nice, had a good breakfast and was generally comfortable. A solid walk out of Gernika, and then the hills and the mud started. Then lots of road walking and then more mud and more hills. Eventually landed in a small town about an hour from my destination at around 2:00pm and was directed to a place a little out of the way with an open kitchen. There ensued a nice simple lunch of Ensalad Mixta, Chicken filets and rice pudding. Lovely young bartender with good English and good people skills. Local gave me a history of the town which dates from the 1300s. Dragging myself on, the walking was a sidewalk along the highway, luckily after about a half hour I checked the QR code at a bus stop and a bus doing what I needed was due in 6 minutes, so problem solved! My lodging tonight is a Casa Rural nice room although low ceilings. Tomorrow only 10km to Bilbao and this stage is done!! 31,667 steps.

The monastery turned out to be more than a little disorganized, but my Swedish friend and I decided to to walk down road to the town of Bolivar and managed some pinchos and wine. Good thing too, since dinner turned out to be one large pot of corkscrew pasta and nothing else. Oh well… The room was fine. Breakfast was only going to be bread and jam, so we set off at 8:00am during a gorgeous sunrise and about an hour on found an open cafe where I managed to have coffee and a large plate of Jamon. After that it was a solid day of muddy up and down but eventually arrived in Gernika (note this is the Basque spelling) and immediately found a lovely shaded plaza for lunch. After checking into the hotel and washing clothes and boots I did a walking tour. A lovely town with a replica of the famous Picasso painting, then to the Basque parliament building and various other places. Ended up at the same plaza and ensued a nice afternoon chatting with a German who used to sell BMW motorcycles and is now retired and driving around in a camper van. Quite the character. 31,777 steps.

The hotel last night was interesting, big center atrium. Turned out it used to be a foundry and was rebuilt beautifully as a hotel. A little off the camino, but very workable. Hotel Antsotegi. Pictures here: http://www.antsotegi.com/. Breakfast didn’t start till 8:00am this morning, but that worked out ok as it was raining hard all through breakfast, and that shower had passed by the time it was time to walk out the door. A short day to day, but plenty to uphill and plenty of mud. Now staying in a fairly large monastery that has both communal Alberque rooms and private rooms. Sort of comical on arriving, found a monk, who had my reservation in his phone, told my luggage had arrived. We then retrieved that walked back to the front of the monastery, back through the cloister and ended up exactly back where we started. Still not sure what that was about. Although they don’t “open” till 3:30pm, he gave me my room, which was great. Was able to de mud and have a shower etc., but now about 3:30pm and dinner is not till 8:00pm. Way up a hill or I would walk back to the nearest town. Lovely train that followed along a river for the most part, before hitting the uphill, which was muddy and rocky. Tomorrow to Gernika, population 17,000!

I was a little concerned that today was not going to go well, as my right knee had been complaining yesterday and I was set up for a 22km day today, with lots of hills. In the end, I developed a couple of contingency plans, but the Pensione was able to get a taxi for me and I had him drop me down the road at the town of Olatz, this meant a solid 16km. It was raining good and hard as we left town in the taxi but by time I was dropped off, it had abated somewhat and eventually turned into a partly cloudy and chilly day, good for walking. As the taxi dropped me off a Swedish lady came up to see if she could get hit to driver her to the destination for the day, he wasn’t really having it, so we ended up walking together, which was good for both of us. She was feeling a little discouraged and I was grateful for the company. She is married to an orthopedic surgeon and has 3 kids the youngest at 18yrs old. We climbed a number of hills and eventually came down in a town near to the large stone hotel in which both of us were staying. As we stopped for a coffee the sole restaurant in the nearby town had a daily lunch menu which translated into an excellent lunch. Vegetable soup, paella, roast chicken and dessert and wine for 15 euros! Really tasty! Hopefully the weather will hold as walking all day in the rain is just not fun. Tomorrow is scheduled for a short day but depending on the hill climbing could still be challenging.

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!