Pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Spain
Just getting started on the Camino del Norte. All posts from the first week can be found here.
Perhaps Thoreau put it best when he wrote, "Things do not change; we change." Today was both a day of rest and a walk down memory lane. (Plaza Moyua, heart of Bilbao) In case you did not know, many years ago, Mikey was an exchange student to the Basque Country and …
GOOD-MORNING, GERNIKA!!! It's 6:30am and Mikey is on a 35km mission today. (OK, that was a bit of channeling Robin Williams, but the Irish-American team has to keep up the pace as we move through the bush today. It rained from 2-6am, so we left around 6:30. The fog stayed with us for most …
Today began much better than the previous. After coffee with a couple of new-found Irish friends, Mikey headed out of town for a brief walk alongside the highway. From the very start, the path was well marked and (most importantly) dry! Still, Mikey stopped to empty and then refill his water bottles with …
According to the Eroski "Northern Camino Guide" (Eroski is like a Basque Super Target), today's trek is one of if not the hardest of the entire Northern Camino. As the blisters and calluses have begun, Mikey took an afternoon nap after the beach yesterday and got up extra early this morning. Oh, and that …
Following a mostly restless night, Mikey was happy to get on the trail this morning. Although early departures have thus far resulted in more free time in the afternoon to explore, he's identified two major drawbacks to this strategy. 1) There are no cafés open at 6am, so this means no morning coffee. 2) It's …
So the day began again at 6am. But, as Mikey was leaving San Sebastián, he passed about a hundred teenagers who were just then stumbling out of the beachside discotheques - oh to be young! This is a view of the "Playa de Concha" or Shell Beach from the west side. Mikey got out …
So, there's that classic "journey of a thousand miles" bit, but Mikey's just doing 500. Still appropriate? Anyways, he got started at 6:03am local time and it was 17*C/63*F. While he almost considered a jacket, the uphill climb left him soaking wet in just short sleeves. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. On the way …
Mikey on The Way 