After a fitful night’s sleep in the stiflingly hot alburgue in Guernica, everyone in the bunk room got up at 6:00 AM and was upstairs in the breakfast room at 6:30 anticipating a hearty breakfast. Instead we got crackers and stale bread with butter and jam and orange juice and cold coffee. I stuffed myself with crackers and stale bread slathered with butter and jam and drank a whole carton of orange juice. I was on the road by 7:30.
For those of you who know your history, in the late 1930’s the German Armed Forces were helping Franco in the Spanish Civil War. On April 26, 1937, the German Air Force decided to bomb Guernica, a reputed opposition stronghold. This aerial attack destroyed the entire city and there were hundreds of civilian casualties.
Pablo Picasso painted a world famous mural to commemorate this atrocity. This isn’t a Picasso but it as close as I could come as I made my way out of Guernica.
Beautiful flower garden in the main plaza in Guernica.
The first order of business after we got out of the city was to hike up to the top of the ridge to the west of Guernica. This is the view from the ridge we had to climb to get out of Guernica.
As I was walking along the top of this ridge I ran into Paolo and he was kind enough to take this picture.
More spectacular scenery.
This is the trail descending from the first ridge.
This is the view as we descended from the first ridge.
What a beautiful sun dappled trail.
Mid morning I stopped to have a snack near a farmhouse. Cujo sneaked up on me and when he got a couple of feet away he started growling. This scared the crap out of me. After he got my attention, he stopped growling and sat there watching me as I quickly finished my snack and skeedadalded out of there.
Spanish farmer hard at work bringing hay up to the high pastures.
The Basque people are very serious about their political freedom and their cultural heritage.
This is a roadside cross in Larrabetzu, a 17 kilometer hike from Guernica. I stopped here and said a prayer for Anna and everyone else on my prayer list.
This is a beautiful stream running through someone’s backyard in Larrabetzu.
This looks like donkey apples. I wonder if the two old timey Pilgrims and their donkey from last year on the Camino Francés are doing the CDN this summer?
This is the bus from Larrabetzu to Bilbao.
It is about a 15 kilometer hike from Larrabetzu to the eastern outskirts of Bilbao, on pavement most of the way. This is not a scenic hike. I was planning on staying in Larrabetzu tonight and walking into Bilbao tomorrow.
As I was taking a break in a park across from the bus stop in Larrabetzu I noticed a couple of French Pilgrims, Sophie and Sophie, waiting at the bus stop. I sauntered over and asked them what they were doing. They said they were going to take this bus into Bilbao and then take another bus to the municipal alburgue on a hill at the western end of Bilbao, right on the Camino. My first thought was that no self respecting Pilgrim would take a bus into and through Bilbao and lose the opportunity to pound their feet to smithereens on the hot pavement while fighting off hordes of thieves who want to steal their backpack. Then God spoke to me! He said that I have been a moron so far on this Pilgrimage and that any even halfway intelligent Pilgrim would get on the bus. I wanted to walk but as you know I always listen to God when he gives me a direct order.
This is your humble correspondent relaxing on the comfortable air conditioned bus from Larrabetzu to Bilboa.
Sophie and Sophie are my Camino Angels and running into them and taking the bus with them to the alburgue in Bilbao was Camino Magic.
This is the view from the hillside municipal alburgue on the western outskirts of Bilboa.
This is the bunk room at the alburgue. Not too bad.
Pictures from the group dinner at the alburgue tonight.
The table setting.
The mixed salad.
The potato tortilla.
The group at dinner. Pilgrims from Spain, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic.
Potato and chorizo soup.
Today I walked 29,000 steps, 18 kilometers.
That’s it for today. I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday.
Goodnight from Bilbao, Spain.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 
Are you doing something for your scratches, don’t want them to get infected. Once a mother always a mother.
What a beautiful walk. I did the park this morning and i sit and enjoy the scenery and commune with the ducks
Its also called resting.
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As always we look forward to your blogs
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