Nobody tell PETA about this

The town seal of Portugalete. I thought it was cool

These guys

are apparently beating apples out of trees with sticks. Not sure how Spain's economy is going to fare in the 21st century. 

The veneration of Mary here in Spain

is quite something to see. No icon of her can be too beautific, no halo too bright, no gown too resplendent, no crown to ornate. This is an address tile on a country house.

This guy followed me

for a kilometer or two yesterday 

This is the exact spot

where the Camino splts. The left goes to the "primitivo", the right goes to the "coastal". I went coastal . . . not postal.

Just before the long walk

out of villavicicosa

Also, apples are huge here

I mean the amount of production of, not the actual fruit itself. Much is turned into a lightly effervescent, lightly alcoholic cider. It's served in the many "siderias"

It's quite good and the serving and consumption of it is highly ritualistic. I only grasp the basics of it, but it involves this odd contraption.

Lots of eucalyptus forestry all through

northern Spain. From what I gather, it's quite controversial- in that it's an aggressive, water gulping tree, that is harming the traditional farming economy. Apparently the answer is to plant more. Here are some bundles that will ultimately become high quality paper.

This is pretty typical

Surf, turf and cows in Caravia

Hawkeye fans in

Ribadesella

Difficulty getting the wifi machine to work

Here's some catch up pics

Nice little babbling brook

Nice little Saturday farmers market

in Toriello. Worked for me for lunch. Kind a cold puff pastry calzone. And local walnuts 

Strange little shrine.

I thought it was a dog house at first. 

There were a number of smaller churches along the way that were open today to reflect in. Saturday schedule I guess. 

Up and at 'em in Llanes

Don't see too many sunrises. Enjoy even fewer of them. This was an exception. And it was exceptional.

Last night's accomodations.

Looks nice. Rude hostess and cold showers. No thanks

On the way out of comilles yesterday morning

Wow.

Comilles was a neat town

I had dinner there with Charles from Lyon. He looked just like my cousin Tim, but with a ponytail .

Typical road from Santillana to Comilles

The road out of Santillana the next Morning

Nice albergue in Santillana Del Mar

I appreciated it because it wa raining when I got there

Sometime traveling companion Surge

 . . . from Quebec on the ferry to Santander. I also from time to time I run into Pasquale from Switzerland, Shot-a from Japan, Andy from Norway, and two Dutch women.

My attempt at an art picture

. . . of a church on the road to Guemes 

This is the path out of Sontoya

. . .which gets considerably more difficult and breathtaking shortly past this pic, but the wall on the right side of the path is the wall of a prison. It goes on forever. I didn't think there were that many criminals in all of Spain.

This is where I stayed in Sontona

Best way to describe it is: "a very clean dump"

Castro-Urdiales

Tough road to Castro. Didn't like the accomodations either. However I finally went for a swim. It was FREEZING.

Highlight though was the amazing Santa Maria church. Also lucked out and saw the final three cantos of a chamber/choral performance. In a word; angelic. Felt very privileged to be there. This me outside of the church.

The view back at Pobena

I think 

As it was a weekend

There were lots of well turned out informal cycling teams . No pictures 

Saturday was just gorgeous

At Pobena I think

Easiest path so far

Just past portugalete

OK

Lots has happened. And the wifi on my phone is problematic but I'll try to load up some photos at this wifi spot that I can use

You don't see this every day

Here's the Bilboa football stadium for Graham

Also. . .

please excuse the many typos. I'm usually doing this when I'm pretty tired on an iPhone that seems to have a very twitchy autocorrect. 

This is inside the Cathedral of Bilbo

It's on the "old town" of course. I'm a little uncomfortable taking photos Inside such places, but I might be the odd man out if I didn't. Probably not a great excuse. . . 

Impure thoughts / appropriate actions

Part of the camino experience is to walk the whole way, though I know many are not absolutists. I had discussed with Tricia before I left that I wouldn't foolishly hold myself to a standard that would blow my timetable. Today, the informal group that I was with reached Lazema at around 2:40P. No accomodations in sight  untold Bilboa.

While Bilboa was only about 8 kms away, the journey entailed a 400 meter climb and equal decent on a wet unsaved  path. Unlikely we'd be able to do that before sunset. The only option was the bus.

We took the bus. I'm not going to rethink that decision. Here's the famous Bilboa museum. Just as we rolled into town 

Routes and timing

Tricia asks me about the pace, so I made completion marks on my map for the last two days. Note the verticals on the bottom.

These guys

I'd been aware of these guys (not a group) for the last couple of days, but this is the first day we'd walked in close proximity for a good part of the day. It was kind of a time critical day so we were on a similar schedule. 

Rainy Day

It rained much of the morning and early afternoon. Some tough sledding. Pretty though.

The view this morning

Just a minute or two into my journey today. This is the Santa Maria church in the very friendly town of Germika.

This woman

was selling chestnuts (which along with acorns are freaking everywhere) roasted on an open fire.

So I bought some. Tasty.

This is . . .

the Collegiate Chuch of Ziortza just past Markia. It is easily the most beautiful spot on the journey so far. Legend has it that an eagle dropped a human skull on this spot (you may be able to see an emblematic of that in the first picture).  So, they knew they had to build some kind of special church there.  Mission accomplished.

I guess they let travelers stay for free there. To bad the timing didn't work for me.

Afternoon snack

A conundrum

I was walking under these powerlines for some of the morning and they were crackeling. They're not supposed to do that right? I bike under them in the USA all the time and I've never heard that. Which got me thinking about the song "Wichita Lineman". Jimmy Webb is such a great songwriter and Glen Campbell was perfect to sing his songs. Just like Dionne Warwick was perfect for Burt Bacherach.

Still their songs are so great that REM does sizzling covers of JW songs and Elvis Costello really rips some BB songs. 

Can't figure out whose best: REM doing JW or EC doing BB?

Discuss among yourselves . .  

And speaking of ancient . . .

Look what I found inside - it's a Kodak Carossel slide projector. Nowhere near as breathtaking , but almost as much a relic

This was yesterday

If memory serves it is the ancient Church of Santa Maria de la Ascuncion.

A special thanks to my sponsors

I pledge this my first and last "selfie" ever. However I really should thank my apperal sponsors: Aaron Dennuci for the white technical tee - which came out of our wash and fit great (still I should have asked) and Connor Littlefield for the hat which Graham didn't say I couldn't use (as best I remember).

Aaron, I'll return the shirt

On the road

This is a very odd place - the  Chapel de San Migel Aretxinaga. It's an alter under 3 giant bolders in a hexagonal building.

Graham ask for a . . .

pic from the place I called from. Here it is

Just west of Deba

Most of the trail so far is not nearly as gentle as this