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.

Posted from Lee Shipley's phone