Day 6 Bilbao to Castro Urdiales

In the morning on day 6, Becky, Manolo, our new friend Asia bid farewell to our friend Lordes who wanted to walk every step of the Camino.  We did as well, but many of the people we wanted to walk with had taken the metro the night before to Portugalete and were walking from there.  So, in order to catch up to them, we woke up early, got on the metro and rode to Portugalete as well, before continuing on to Castro Urdiales.

When we arrived in Portugalete the four of us were walking as we saw some fascinating sites including the "floating bus" that takes people from one side of the river to the other (see picture below) and several of the people movers (like escalators that are flat instead of having the steps) that helped people up the steep hill in the city.  Some of the people movers made sense, as it was a steep hill, but a few of the people movers did not travel more than 20 meters and I felt extremely lazy riding them, but I figured why not, I´d only be there once, and I was still going to be walking 27,2 km (16mi) even though we took the 17.7km (11.1mi) metro ride out of the industrialized city.

Floating bus of Portugalete

On the way out of Portugalete we walked about 11km on a bike trail alongside Route 634, who would become a good friend (or nemesis, depending on your opinion) over the trek through Cantabria, as most days required walking more on the side of the road than in the woods and hills as we had grown accustomed to in the Basque Country.


The days journey took us through some beautiful countryside views of the Bay of Biscay.  I eventually started walking faster than the others in my group and I arrived in the town of Pobeña and stopped for a second breakfast.  Right as I was about to leave, Asia joined me and I stayed a little bit longer.  As I was about to leave the second time, Becky joined us and then Manolo.  We stayed for a while before I continued on my way towards Castro Urdiales.

Castro Urdiales was the first stop we had outside of the Basque Country and in the region and province of Cantabria.  I was particularly excited about this, because Cantabria was one of the six regions of Spain I had not been to at that point (That list is now down to three, Navarra-with Pamplona, the university I was originally supposed to study abroad at, and the two island chains: the Canary and Balaeric Islands.).  The boarder between the regions was marked by a tunnel that resembles the old mine shafts, with many signs warning us about the danger of the tunnel, particularly with explosives.  I went through the tunnel and took the picture above once reaching the other side.

Once on the other side, I started to descend the other side of the hill and into the town, where I had to ask for directions to find the albergue.  I knew that the place did not have many beds left because my friends ahead of me sent me a text urging me on.  I arrived and was told by the hospitalero that I was lucky as there were only two beds left, and I was able to sleep in a room with most of the crew I had known, and a girl named Michelle who joined us for the next week of the Camino.  

The hospitalero was a very nice, person, but he seemed particularly nice to me and Tabitha, insisting that I had been there before and we had known each other, although I had never been to the town before.  When I told him that a friend was coming behind me, he held a bed for Becky for a while (despite this being against the unwritten Camino rules) and when the beds filled up, he pulled out mattresses for people to sleep in, including a couple that divided and each slept in opposite halves of the bathrooms, tents for people outside and my favourite, our friend Manolo sleeping on a mattress on top of the dining room table! 

Once I had been reunited with my friends we went in search of pharmacies, food for the next day and dinner.  Barbara caught up with me and told me that Becky had not recovered from her massive blisters and had elected to stay in Pobeña rather than adding a few extra hours to  catch up to me.  As it was Día de San Fermín (7th of July) we saw videos from that days Running of the Bulls and bull fights in Pamplona, but many of us non-spaniards were not able to watch during the bloody bullfights.