If we had a dollar for every time we’ve been asked “have you walked the Camino”, we’d have, umm, a lot of coins.

Finally, we decided it was time.  But first up, let’s get something straight.

There’s no such thing as ‘the Camino’.  The Camino de Santiago – or Way of St James – is a network of ancient pilgrimage routes, not a single path.  As this map from the CaminoLovers website illustrates, there are several major and many subsidiary caminos:

What they have in common is purpose and destination – all were routes for Christian pilgrims heading to the tomb of Saint James in what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.

According to Christian tradition, Saint James came to the Iberian peninsula in about 40CE.  In two years he only managed to convert seven people.  Then, after the Virgin Mary appeared to him, he headed back to Palestine.  This turned out not to be a wise choice.  Not long afterwards, he was beheaded on the orders of King Herod Agrippa.  Legend has it that his acolytes placed his body on a stone shaped like a ship which angels guided over the sea back to Spain.  St James’ few local followers buried his body and eventually the grave was forgotten.

Almost eight centuries passed.  By then, Christianity was well established but the Moorish invasion was gathering pace.

In 813CE, a Christian hermit had a vision of a star above a nearby field.  He dug down and discovered St James’ long forgotten bones.  King Alphonso II of Asturias declared him the patron saint of Spain and built a small shrine.  Santiago de Compostela was born.

By the Middle Ages, the three most important pilgrimage destinations in the world were Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela.

French pilgrims first forged a route to Santiago de Compostela from the foothills of the Pyrenees, thus creating the Camino Frances, the yellow dots on the above map.

As veneration of St James escalated, other routes were established from Portugal and southern Spain.  And when the Camino Frances route became too dangerous as lands fell under Arab occupation, French pilgrims began a coastal route, the Camino del Norte – the blue dots above.  This one originates in Irun on the French/Spanish border, follows the Atlantic coast to Ribadeo, then tracks inland to meet the Camino Frances for the final stretch into Santiago de Compostela.

Today, three of the ancient Camino routes exist in coherent form for walkers: the Frances, the Portuguese and the Norte.  Regardless of which route you choose, to gain status as a Compostela pilgrim you only have to walk the final 100km.  Lots of people do that.  Should we?  No, let’s do the mad thing, and walk a whole route.

But which one to choose?

As the ‘original’, the 790km Camino Frances is insanely popular.  Almost 50% of walkers follow it.  The 620km Camino Portuguese accounts for a further 34% of walkers.  The 840km Camino del Norte, a mere 4%.

Which is most attractive?  After clearing the Pyrenees, the Camino Frances involves a 220km seemingly endless march across the Meseta, the featureless flat plain of central Spain.  Boring!  In contrast, the Portuguese and Norte routes offer farmlands, forest and coastal walking.  And with the added benefit of relatively few walkers instead of crowds, choosing the Camino del Norte was a no brainer for us.

Yes, it is the longest of the routes.  Can we do it?  Not sure yet.  We’re only one week into what will be a six week odyssey.  But so far, so good.

Officially the route starts in Irun, a little north of San Sebastián.  We’ve walked about half of the stretch from Irun to San Sebastián on a previous visit and most walkers on the Norte start in San Sebastián anyway, so that’s where we began.  It’s ’only’ 820km to Santiago from here.

In San Sebastián we met up with our friends and regular hiking buddies, David and Noreen from Cornwall, who’d agreed to join us for the first week.

The city was as beautiful as we remember from our visit in 2019.

After a couple of days feasting on pintxos and seafood, we ended our final evening admiring the view over the Bay of Biscay from the rooftop bar of our hotel.

Over the next six days we walked 130km from San Sebastián to Bilbao.  Here are the highlights.

Hiking through the beautiful rolling farmlands and vineyards was a joy.

Mind you, there’s a reason the landscape is so green.  It rains here.  A lot.  Which made for some very muddy trails at times.

Day 2 brought some gorgeous coastal cliff walking.

It’s early spring and the first flowers are appearing.

We passed some cute gardens.

And curious animals eager to make our acquaintance.  Or maybe they just thought we might have snacks.

We stayed in some picturesque towns.

So far, the trail has been well marked with the Camino scallop shell signs.

And some less formal ones!

Part way through the week, this one reminded us we have a long way to go.

The scallop shell is the symbol of all the caminos.  In ancient times, pilgrims would collect one from the coast at Santiago de Compostela as ‘proof’ they had completed their pilgrimage.  In modern times, it’s become a symbol of the walk itself.  Many hikers tie one to their pack or hang one around their neck.  And towns along the way have co-opted the symbol as well.

This was a bonus.  On day 1, coming out of Zarautz, an elevator saved us a long walk up the stairs to meet the trail into the hills.  We’ve since found elevators in a few other towns which are built on steep slopes, but as we were approaching from above, we only used them for descending.  We’re guessing the original pilgrims would have been happy to have them all.

Scattered along the route, locals have set up a few stations to help pilgrims.  Like this emergency first aid box stocked with bandages, antiseptic etc.

And little ‘honesty’ tables where pilgrims can leave money in exchange for drinks, fruit or cakes.

In Guernica – Gernika in Spanish – we visited the Peace Museum which documents the 1937 carpet bombing of the city by the German airforce, with whom fascist General Francisco Franco had made an alliance.  A large part of the museum is also dedicated to an exploration of modern philosophies around achieving reconciliation after conflict.

The attack on Gernika was controversial because although the town had a munitions factory, the bombing targeted civilians and the town infrastructure.  In fact, in what can only be seen as a message to those opposing Franco, that factory was almost the only building left standing.

Until after his death in 1975, Franco’s regime denied responsibility and declared the estimated death count of 1,654 as propaganda. Yes, despots declaring ‘fake news’ is nothing new.

On the street near the museum is a full size reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s iconic Guernica, painted for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris.  With the Civil War continuing to rage, he loaned the mural to New York’s MoMA to be held until democracy was restored in Spain.  The original finally made its way to Madrid’s Reina Sofia Museum of Art in 1981.

And there’s Large Figure in a Shelter, a huge bronze by British sculptor Henry Moore expressing sympathy for Spanish Republican prisoners of war.  He produced it after visiting Picasso while the latter was painting Guernica.

This is Basque country and local identity remains strong.

You have to love a place where the bars are open at 8.00am selling bocadillos – crusty rolls with fillings like jamon, tuna with pickled chillies and anchovies, or scrambled mushrooms – which make for a perfect grab-and-go lunch for the trail.

We have enjoyed the opportunity to try some very local specialties.  Like kalimotxo.  It’s a mix of red wine and cola.  Apparently it’s been around since the late 1800s but initially was rare because cola wasn’t widely available.  That changed when Coca-Cola opened a factory in Spain in the 1950s.  It gained mass appeal in the 1970s.  It’s likely an urban myth, but it’s said that in 1972 a festival organiser discovered too late that some of his wine was off.  He added cola to disguise the taste and it ended up being a hit.

Red wine and Coke.  Sounds disgusting but actually it wasn’t bad.  They don’t use off wine these days.

And pacharan, a Basque liqueur made by soaking sloe berries, coffee beans and cinnamon sticks in anisette for up to eight months.  Its existence as a home made digestif is recorded as far back as the Middle Ages. Slightly sweet, quite pleasant.

And some local oddities.  The Caganer is a typical figurine found in Catalan nativity scenes, traditionally depicted wearing black trousers, a red sash and a barretina, a typical red cap.  He’s a symbol of good luck, joy and good fortune.  It is said that through his defecation the land is fertilised for the following year.  So in the Caganer store ….

You can buy any one of hundreds of figurines of famous people squatting ‘Caganer-style’.

Their most popular seller at present is Donald Trump.  Sadly, they’d run out.  Here’s a photo from their website.

We finished Week 1 in Bilbao, celebrating by tucking into some well earned pintxos and beers in historic Plaza Nuevo.

Bilbao is one of our favourite Spanish cities and we had a scheduled rest day here.  Revisited the Guggenheim.

Did some washing, stocked up on a few essentials and wandered around town enjoying the wonderful architecture.

And of course, hit the pintxo bars.  Bilbao has some of the best you will find anywhere.

Tomorrow we head off on the trail again.  Only 700ish kms to go!

This week:
Day 1: San Sebastián to Getaria: 25km
Day 2: Getaria to Itxaspe: 15km
Day 3: Itxaspe to Markina-Xemein: 27km
Day 4: Markina-Xemein to Guernica: 25km
Day 5: Gernika to Zamudio: 24km
Day 6: Zamudio to Bilbao: 14km
Day 7: Rest day in Bilbao

Total so far: 130km