Blog
5 days on the road
08/16/2010
Wednesday: Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque country and covers the very cramped core of both sides along the Rio Narvión. Everything is located along the promenades and the first thing we did was a duty visit in the Guggenheim Museum. But, Eva then fell in love with the magic of the old city center during the glorious weather - she especially enjoyed the shops. We will have to come home with more baggage than planned! Thursday: The path to the coast took us to the Nervión down to its estuary. It was like a walk through a huge industrial museum: Disused docks and factories, orphaned, and in cloudy and cold weather. But then the oldest suspension bridge in the world thrilled us. In the dizzy height of 50 m, we crossed the mouth of the river in the Bay of Biscay. Friday: We went westward along the Basque coast, and in spite of drizzle and fog were the breathtaking cliffs. In the afternoon it cleared up as we left the Basque country behind us and moved on to the coast of Cantabria. In the evening we enjoyed the 2000-year-old Castro Urdiales, where we explored the old fascination with early Gothic cathedral and fortress for three hours before we lay down to sleep. Saturday: In bright sunshine the Cantabrian coast turned out to be far more rugged and wild as the Basque. We wanted to observe the ruins of San Julián on powerful massif visiting Candina, what took us hours and through a so lonely, inhospitable region, the Sierra La Vida, that we breathed relief when we finally got our day's destination and saw the Bay of Laredo below us. Sunday: on a small ferry we crossed the bay and circled on foot the enormous rock of the Buciero (378 m), always along the steep coast, one of the wildest and most beautiful coastline parts in the north of Spain. Totally exhausted, we were able to descend from there to dunes and beach, which were followed by nearly 6 km, partly wading, to finally get to our destination at the Noja seaside resort. Monday: Today we went to Santander. Our togetherness was now over as we met up with Micha and Basti to continue walking the Camino del Norte.
