My Way: not the full quid

Not all stages on the Camino are good. The busy, dangerous N-120 to Bugos takes the same route as the Camino. The noise and buffeting of the semis plus the frequent crossings make for less than ideal walking.

A pilgrim protests the lack of safety

The drizzle and cold set in so I call a rest stop at pleasant "casa rural" in Beradora looking onto the main pilgrim church and hostel. Yes, those are storks roosting by the bells.

...and after a perfunctory tour of the local sight, settle down to watch the closing of today's stage of the Giro d'Italia with a Tapas and a local barfly.

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My Way: Rioja textures

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My Way: getting lost in a wheat field

Okay, take a left 400 from Cruz de l'as Valientes

1.7km take a right....Oops, no right

In the fat distance and a bramble covered gully away, the high steeple of the Grañon church, the location of my off-Camino adventure

The camino is not really a nature walk. With literally thousands making their way to Santiago de Compostela everyday, you can look ahead and behind and see dozens of pilgrims. With virtually no cover finding a convenient spot for a short toilet break is challenging. Village café are that only alternative. Equally it means that you are never far from helpful hands if something goes wrong or if you need to discuss the meaning of life...or where the next cafe might be.

Fortunately, for those feeling the need for solitude, the guidebooks suggest diversions, some only a few km more, some entire day excursions requiring a bus or a taxi to return to the stream of humanity towards Santiago.

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My Way: Nàjera textures

Extraordinary town. The usual mix of depressing economic stagnation endemic in rural Spain with the usual joy of life...only a bit more concentrated. The old town seethes with clean attractive tapas and restaurants vieing for the tourist and pilgrim patronage but still attractive to the locals who love to gather for their home team soccer on the big café screens . Noisy long after the evening traffic jam clears.



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My Way: a bébé camino

Meeting up with Nancy, we take what we thought would be a break from the Camino, retreating by hire car to the popular seaside resort of San Sebastian on the North coast of Spain.  Nope. More shell symbols and the relentless daubs of yellow arrows pointing to Santiago along the beachside boulevarde. This is that it an alternate route hugging the coast to Bilboa.
A much pretty promenade than Nice, San Sebastian was popular with the crowned heads of Europe in the late 19th Century and was used by Franco as his summer residence after the conclusion of the Civil War. The enormous columns told both the time and the barometric readings Despite the cool weather, scores of youngsters play on the sweeping yellow sand beach and dozens more sail, kayak or do that funny standup paddleboarding. However, far more popular was brisk walking, promenading or cycling the three kilometres between the old town seaport and the ... headland. At the base was one of the few memorials I have seen to the horrors of the Civil War. Over 400 Republicans were executed at a prison there.
Behind the British dominated tennis courts is a century old funicular railway running up the Monte Igluendo which is to a quaint equally old funpark and a 17th century lighthouse converted to a lookout. Nearly everything seemed to have a Coca-Cola ad attached. The cold weather meant that very little was open. Not even the "camas elasticas" trampolines or the "carrera tortagus" ball rolling game. Such places when empty of children's laughter have  a certain melancholy
Lighthouse converted to a tourist lookout, a haunted house and the omnipresent Coke ad







Our bébé camino was 5.7km....a long way for Nancy's legs.

My Way: time out

Across the finishing for many who wanted to get accommodation and eat before the mandatory afternoon siesta

Like rotten teeth, derelict buildings are simply removed and adjoining dwellings coated for protection.

The ho-hum incredibly intricate gold-leafed interior of Santa Maria. Grand organ performance leading up to a 7pm Mass attended by half a dozen locals and four pilgrims.

San Sebastian underground parking. Expensive way of standing still.

And now for something completely different.
Nancy calls. She is booked into a hotel in the North coast seaside city of San Sebastian. Hiring a car she is picking me up at my next halt, the declining but pleasant town of Los Arcos. Although only an hour and a half on the superb and lightly loaded A-19, the hire car people don't know where it is.
The contrast is extreme. At Los Arcos there are almost no vehicles on the twisty narrow streets lined with decaying three storey dwellings. The local dustman pushes a bicycle wheeled cart...but has little to do because and rubbish is carefully placed in the bins by locals and the stream of pilgrims.The massive church of Santa Maria dominates and the only show in town on Friday night appears to be Mass and a couple of friendly bars around the corner. San Sebastian, on the otherhand, is the crowded modern morass created by overcaterering for people who insist on moving by car.
I am dog-tired having walked over 20km in five hours picking up four plastic shopping bags full of rubbish along way. And that was with a full pack, food and two litres of water. The drive to the coast in a car with five-speed manual was pretty stressful, especially when I misread the signage and scored a trifecta of:
1. Driving down the wrong side of the road at a highway intersection.
2. Discovering that the green light on the facing corner in San Sebastian was not for me. Beep.
3. Going the wrong way on a one-way street. Beep, beep, bleep, beep-beep, big bus BEEP. Now, where is the reverse gear again? Beep. Oops, stalled in overdrive!. Big Bus not very happy because I am stationery in his stop. Footpath only alternative.
Never did an expensive 489 car underground carpark look so good.

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My Way: Camino textures

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My Way: there, but for the Grace of God....

http://m.noticiasdenavarra.com/2015/05/21/sociedad/navarra/encontrado-muerto-un-peregrino-en-valcarlos

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My Way: written on the subway walls

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My Way: written on the subway walls

The theme of this post is graffiti of the Camino written on the subways that take the pilgrims under busier roadways such as the A-12. during today's stage between Puente la Riena and Estella (22km) we went through four, an expensive exercise for the road builders. But then the camino is so important to the economy of the area they don't hesitate in spending the cash. It may look rustic but the  is carefully preserved
A blend of local political rhetoric and thoughts of pilgrims, they say just so much about the mind sets of the writers.

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My Way: how hard is the Camino to cycle?

How this pilgrim managed the mountain is beyond me. I have the same trailer for urban shopping but this is a totally different kettle of sardines

So nice to see the diminutive but exceedingly practical Bike Fridays being used on the Camino. This is the 'sherpa' model with the font shock absorbing spring. My BF is the road version and I would not dream using it on these tracks.

Some attempt has been made by local authorities to get cyclists to slow when pedestrians are about.

But in the end we are all still pilgrims once we arrive at the stop for the night and start sharing stories

Remember in the classic dramatisation of the Camino, The Way, th action moved to the top of the 790m Alto de Perdón ridgeline with the metal cut out Monumento Peregrino?
A throwaway line accused cyclists of cheating compared to those on foot.
Well, that's not right. I easily overtook two cyclists on the rough track up to the ridge as the manhandled their heavy-loaded machines. On the otherwise, the track was far too gravelled and capricious for safe handling. As a bike rider for 40 year, and some pretty nasty scares to prove
The cyclist websites (eg http://www.americanpilgrims.com/camino/cycling.html) recommend a lot of alternatives but often these take you along narrow and busy bitumen roads.
The biggest problem is that cyclists have difficulty alerting walkers of their imminent and silent arrival. This is a particularly nasty problem when the track is narrow and the walking pilgrims are humming away to their favourite iTune mixes.
Has no one though it might be a good idea to fit and use good old-fashion bells? They are cheap, distinctive and don't need to be charged. It ain't rocket science to lower the tension guys!

The daily routine for at leat a month if you do the French Way

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My Way: Rolling Down the Rio Arga

I'll skip right over the cold wind and waves of drizzle as I walked down the valley of the Arga. And I will ignore describing the greasy grey mess created by the big magnesium mining operation scarring the verdant green farmlands. I will leap straight into the concrete charms of Pamplona. I say concrete because the bullring of Hemingway fame was rebuilt in 1922, the first such building to be sculpted out of the material. With a capacity of 22,000 it is a booking nightmare for the million or so that turn-up each year for the running of the bulls. This year's in another few weeks starting on the 6th of July for a mad nine days.










What I found delightful was away from the coming carnage and the golden interior of the cathedral. It was a water park created along the Arga incorporating what would normally be an ugly hydro electricity plant. Someone had got all the masses right in adding a footbridge, indoor swimming pool and restaurant jutting out over the river, an aquatic club and a swift public lift to wisked you several storeys to the shopping streets above



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