Our plan was to take the train back to Bilbao. This involved a regular service to Ferrol and then two days of narrow-gauge back along our coastal route. After finding it was too late to ‘mail’ our bikes and guarantee delivery in Bilbao before flying back to England, we checked into an unremarkable hotel and …
(Much overdue post; better get it done before the new summer journal starts in a couple of days) Reasonably priced hotels seemed to be in short supply but we found one for a splurge. When we mentioned to possibility of two nights, we were redirected to an apartment the hotel had in the old city. …
Saturday 9th August, 32.8 km, Ferrol – Pontedeume After a typically limited Spanish breakfast, we did battle with the bikes to get them back down to street level, loaded up and then found our way to the tourist office at the beginning of the Camino Inglès. There was some event going on – it looked …
Wednesday 5th August, 61.2 km, Villaframil – Viveiro A long day (for us). Now we’re really off the Camino del Norte, despite seeing a sign for it and the Camino do Mar above a shop. Bev went in to see if we could get any information about the Camino do Mar. No luck as far as …
Friday 31st July, 27.4 km, Aviles – San Esteban de Pravia A frustrating day. We didn’t seem to be able to move more than a couple of hundred metres before having to refer to the guide. Arrows are intermittent. It seems that four hours seems to pass in the mornings before we can cover 10 km. …
Saturday 25th July, Buelna, going nowhere At 1:00 am, Bev woke me up to tell me that almost everyone was up and moving as a result of my nocturnal orchestra. We moved into an adjoining and empty dorm. In the morning, deciding to spend another day, we learned that there were a couple of double …
Saturday 18th July, Bilbao to Probeño, 31.2 km. Repacked and on our way by the crack of noon. Left via the tourist office but they had no info about accommodation later along the camino; their information was for the Basque region which we are just leaving for Cantabria. We followed the right bank (on the …
Wednesday 15th July, Zumaia – Meakur, 28.7 km. Earlyish start from the monastery after a minimal breakfast. Nice trail to start (shared with the hikers’ route) through trees, a bit muddy in places and steep (heart-pounding pushing) in others. After an hour or so, we stopped in a bar in a little village for a …
Monday 13th July, Zumaia – Ondarroa (19km) Left the Conventu de San José a little after the official departure time of 9:00 (Bev hadn’t had a good night’s sleep; maybe we’d had too much sleep during the day), had breakfast (croissant and coffee) at a bakery, did some banking and decided to take the …
Day 2 – Friday 10th July A hot one! Left San Sebastian after a broken night in the albergue. Found breakfast easily and were on the road by a little after 0900. Along the beach for a couple of hundred metres, then away from the coast and up (of course) and up and up. Steep, some …
Our first ‘day’ of riding. And the worst so far. Due totally to bad planning (or none) on my part… We caught the bus from Bilbao, Spain, to Hendaye, France, but weren’t aware of any border control, or anything, between the two countries. We arrived in Hendaye about 1100 am and staggered down the hill to …