Day 16 (del Norte): Bilbao 1

Today's been set aside for a visit to another gastronomic temple - Azurmendi. Yes, the one located in the small town of Larrabetzu that we passed a couple of days ago. Although we were within a walking distance from it at our closest approach (now I sound like an astronomer), it was simply easier to arrange to have lunch there while we are staying in Bilbao. We have gotten to like the idea of a long midday meal from which we recover the rest of the day as opposed to starting a major culinary experience at 8:30pm or later. The latter just does not jibe with the morning person that the wife is nor is it conducive to walking the Camino.

We have a free morning and decide to walk to the main attraction of Bilbao - Guggenheim Museum. I was going to save the entire Guggenheim experience for tomorrow but my attempt to get tickets on-line this morning failed and I don't want to stand in line long tomorrow. We forego the "tram" that people recommend since we have to walk this segment of the Camino anyway at some point. We stroll all the way along the river, which is a very pleasant walk and the weather couldn't be better. The ticket lines are short surprisingly and the lady at the desk very helpful. We run into the Korean school group who has decided to change course and do the Camino Frances instead - they will be taking the bus later today to Burgos. A wise decision, indeed! Those kids and the two teachers have had enough of a rough time in this first part of del Norte route.

Bilbao: starting the walk by crossing the bridge out of Old Town. The old train station on the other bank.

Bilbao: as we near Guggenheim Museum, there is this pedestrian bridge.

Bilbao: we walk across the pedestrian bridge and now are on the opposite side of the river from the museum. This man is playing "time to say goodbye" soft and slow on his trumpet. A nice choice but we are just starting!

Bilbao: a colorful building along the river

Bilbao: after getting tickets to Guggenheim, we walk back to Old Town.

We return to the hotel on foot again in time to depart for the restaurant. The taxi shows up on time right in front of the hotel door. It's great (at least for our purpose today) that cars can come into Old Town. It's going like clockwork today so far. Life is good. The driver patiently weaves through the pedestrian traffic and in fact even whispers (instead of yelling or honking) politely at someone who is blocking the way. Every single taxi driver in Basque Country we encounter has been nothing but polite, honest and helpful, which can't be said for the majority of large cities in the world.

From start to finish, Azurmendi is absolutely an amazing experience. It combines several elements of the world's greatest restaurants: the taste and flavor of its food are on par with the very best; in cutting-edge creativity it rivals Mugaritz without aggressively challenging your palate; the presentation artistic, whimsical and appropriate for the dish, the service friendly and professional; and there are fun elements reminiscent of places like EMP or Dani Garcia. The visit actually feels like a mini-culinary journey within a meal - food tasting all the way through the garden, at the lounge, in the kitchen and finally the dining room. The emphasis on eco-friendliness of their entire operation completes your holistic experience.

Larrabetzu near Bilbao: the reception/lounge area in Restaurant Azurmendi where some of the food is served

Azurmendi: lunch starts with a visit to the spacious vegetable and flower garden around the glass-and-steel dining complex

Azurmendi: practice of hydroponics - lettuce grown in water, not in soil 

Azurmendi: a drink served on a Basque percussion instrument in the greenhouse

Azurmendi: citrus-based nibbles in little baskets

Azurmendi: a peanut based snack containing foie, placed among peanut plants

Azurmendi: a "cotton candy" containing asparagus presented among cotton plants

Azurmendi: by now you get the idea - these pieces are contained in dried avocado skin

Azurmendi: pickled courgette served, where else, next to zucchini plants

Azurmendi: back at the reception area, the picnic basket contains anchovy mille-feuille and other stuff which is all a blur now... and oh, the txacholi

Azurmendi: the hibiscus infusion and chestnut "leaves" (now gone) we consumed during the kitchen tour. As we leave, the cooks shout "Agur" in unison. 

Azurmendi: now in the dining room, before we actually order, an array of olive preparations are served (with vermouth), including the edible "black earth" (dried chopped olive), which gets a nod even from me, normally not a huge fan of the olive other than the oil.

Azurmendi: tomato-based items, including an ice cream

Azurmendi: an ergonomic fork for a lobster dish (with chives and in herbal oil), well fitting my finger

Azurmendi: artichokes preparations in pesto - sublime!

Azurmendi: petit fours

There is one more reason this meal is so meaningful to me. Many on-line reviews of the restaurant describe the nice or beautiful view from the slick dining room on a hill, although I personally don't think the landscape is particularly distinguishing.  But what most patrons are not aware of is that the restaurant is not too far from the Camino de Santiago. In fact, I confirm that this building is actually what we saw while walking by here two days ago (at the time I had some doubt), as I can locate from my table the fake cow (a fake cow!) that is on the lawn where I took pictures of the designer chickens. Indeed, throughout the meal, we are able to find the tiny moving dots on the road which represent pilgrims walking on the Camino. How many people can say they are having a once-in-a-lifetime meal overlooking the route they were on just a short time before in a once-in-a-life time walking journey.

Azurmendi: our table overlooks the peaceful countryside through which Camino de Santiago traverses. Spider crabs and sea urchin.

Azurmendi: Part of the restaurant complex in view. A red mullet dish.

Azurmendi: on this clear day, looking out the wall-to-wall window of the dining room, we can see the tiny pilgrims on Camino de Santiago moving westward toward Bilbao.

Unfortunately we did not get to meet Chef Antxa but leave extremely content. I would say this has been the best overall dining experience I have ever had. A cheerful taxi driver takes us back to Bilbao, who is eager to chat with us in his limited English. His father is a Spaniard from Salamanca and his mother from French Basque. We get off again at the Guggenheim and I walk into Nerua, the restaurant adjoining the museum to cancel my existing reservation at Nerua for tomorrow night. Walking back to Old Town via Gran Via, the main drag, this city seems very manageable and has a relaxing feel to it.

Bilbao: life along the river

Bilbao: life on the river

Bilbao: pay 2 euros to visit the cloister at the cathedral in Old Town.

Bilbao: the cathedral is located right in the middle of Old Town. Hard to skip a visit to a place named Santiago.

Day 15 (del Norte): Lezama to Bilbao

The hotel is located on the edge of a factory complex, but this is no industrial breakfast. No protein. At the same price of 5 euros, we had much better in Orio and Zumaia. There simply aren't many hotel options here in Lezama. Even though I know exactly where we are, I do get briefly lost leaving the hotel because of raised highways, and a kind local man personally brings us back to the Camino. We are soon in Zamudia, a medium-sized town, modern and characterless. Is the Basque flavor already fading?

Zamudia: the Camino resumes on the highway through this generic looking town.

The Camino turns south to the hills. It's an excellent day for hiking - first foggy but now overcast and still cool. The trail is wide and the terrain easy. We climb steeply toward Mt. Avril, on the other side of which Bilbao lies. Three hours after we started the leisurely walk, we are on the descent and see people from Bilbao coming up for exercise. Distance-wise it is a pretty short day for us. Imagine some people walk from Gernika to Bilbao in one day, which we are covering in three.

The path climbs toward Mt. Avril.

Coming down from Mt. Avril, we deviate from the Camino to look for a good view of Bilbao. It's safer than it looks - otherwise the risk-averse wife would not agree to it.

Bilbao during descent from Mt. Avril: there it is - Guggenheim Museum.

first suburbs of Bilbao: not an instant attraction for us unlike these dogs seem to have for each other

It is downhill all the way to Casco Viejo, Bilbao's Old Town, which is quite appealing, especially seen from above as we approach it. We easily find our boutique hotel even though there is no name posted on the nondescript building. It is a walk-up and shares the building with other tenants. Nonetheless, it is stylish and super-clean.

Bilbao: The Basilica coming into view as we descend into the Begona district.

Bilbao: the Camino takes us to the edge of Old Town

Bilbao: Old Town coming into view

Bilbao: Old Town

Bilbao: our hip and funky boutique hotel with stove pipes to nowhere

Bilbao: good people watching from our hotel room balcony. Restaurants are busy at 3pm

After a little rest, we venture out, well just a few hundred meters, and we are in Plaza Nueva. I am looking for Gure Toki with some trepidation that it might be overcrowded. What do you know, there is no action spilling out to the square. In fact, whoa, we have the whole place to ourselves! We have time to chat with the server and leisurely study the menu in English. The food is superb in taste and presentation. Scratch the original plan to do pintxos crawl - we might as well stay here and order more. I am already liking Bilbao a lot.

Bilbao: exquisite preparations at Gure Toki. A popular scallop pintxo (a foie gras dish on right).

Bilbao: bacalao al pil pil con txangurro at Gure Toki

Bilbao: Plaza Neuva lined with pintxo bars

It's 8:15pm which is normally past our dinner time. We decide to have a light meal which means, yes, more pintxos. But how are we going to have some fruits and vegetables, which we need daily? What would Mrs. Obama say about our diet today? This is probably a common dilemma for visitors to Basque Country - how to fit all the culinary experiences into a limited amount of time and stomach capacity. But for now we want to do justice to Irritzi, another popular bar which thankfully is not too full. We grab the ones we like, eat and pay - all in thirty minutes. I need a place like this for lunch at work!

Bilbao: an attempt to include some fresh fruits in our meals

Bilbao: The creations here at Irritzi are not as slick at Gure Toki, but equally tasty and a lot cheaper. A total of 9 pintxos plus a couple of glasses of txacholi comes out to 18 euros. Hard to beat that!

Day 14 (del Norte): Morga to Lezama

The little cafe near our pension where we had breakfast yesterday is packed this morning. Maybe it is more crowded on Mondays, but compared to other places, they must be doing something right. There is an old man just reading a newspaper while occupying a whole table. It does not seem inappropriate as people standing at the counter are eager to make space for us and we feel well taken care of. 

Gernika: a little cramped but we find our little corner to have a decent breakfast. We are having burnt Basque cheesecake (the pintxo on left) two mornings in a row.

Before going back to the pension to check out, we have just a few moments to look around the market. It is only held on Mondays, we were told by the taxi driver yesterday. This pension has been a model of substance over style, almost the opposite of the hotel in Markina. Everything works so efficiently here and we even took advantage of the laundromat they operate across the street. 

Gernika: the weekly market, still held on Mondays after all these years. It was also a market day on Monday, April 26, 1937, when the Nazi saturation bombing leveled the city.

The same taxi driver picks us up at 10am, a leisurely start. We ask him about the Catalonia elections yesterday in which the pro-independence parties won. He does not seem to like the result. Obviously when it comes to the separation issue, people in the Basque region like elsewhere seem divided. We are let off at the same spot where we deviated from the Camino yesterday near Morga. Immediately we are joined by several peregrinos. I expected this, as we left late and most people would be starting from Gernika. Our cushion of a couple of hours is evaporating! The Camino is either paved or wide-tracked for the first hour or so. Then it becomes variously single track, muddy, rocky, and/or steep. 

This is where the wide track ends and the narrow uphill starts. We yield to a fast-walking French couple who seem older than we are.

A little obstacle course

A muddy challenge. There are construction people fixing the road who we exchange "Kaixo" and "Kon'nichiwa" with.

A sustained descent on good terrain follows. We are soon in the first of the small towns, Goikoelexalde, but not before a close encounter with a tiny ferocious dog during a stretch with no waymarking. Did this dog eat all the signs? All the dogs here have been gentle or chained, but this one is barking and following us very aggressively. For a moment the scene from a Moscow back alley years ago flashes before my eyes - I was chased by a pack of seemingly rabid dogs, one of which tore up my pants. Fortunately this dog here gives up (and maybe goes back to eating waymarks).  

Goikoelexalde: the hermitage dedicated to two Roman martyrs is closed. We follow the Camino which swings around it as if there is a gravitational pull.

Goikoelexalde: we soon find a nice stone picnic table and have tomatoes from the Gernika market. Concerned that there won't be any place to get food in the next few hours, we end up also consuming beef jerky and cookies we brought from home. 

Larrabetzu, which comes up only 1.3 km later, has more action than I had imagined. It has a compact central area with a few restaurants where pilgrims are gathered, reminiscent of Camino Frances. This would have been a good spot to rest and have lunch but we move on. While planning this trip, I originally considered an option to stay in this town, mainly because of its proximity to one of the world's best restaurants, Azurmendi. But I ultimately decided to save the visit for a weekday lunch when we are not walking and so I pull an Arnold as we pass by today - "I'll be back!" I actually look for the restaurant high on a hill south of the highway but can't seem to find it.  

Larrabetzu: an inviting square with restaurants, much like towns along Camino Frances. These pigrims are waving at us, but do we know these people? 

Passing by a school, not a prison

From Larabetzu to Lezama is straight along the highway and I now remember someone telling us earlier that this stretch (and maybe all the way to Bilbao) is uninteresting. But it's flat and straightforward and I will take it. Lezama is spread out and completely modern. Our hotel is off the Camino but with the googlemap on my phone, it is easy to find. At dinner (a simple plato combinado), we chat with a couple from Canada who is using the same tour company that we did during our first walk on Camino Frances. But their pace is almost twice as fast as ours, like most other people. We compare our notes including the gastronomic portion of our trips. They took a guided pintxos crawl tour in San Sebastian, and that makes me think, hmm, should we do that in Bilbao? Also they saved money by staying in a cheap hotel in San Sebastian to be able to have a meal at Arzak. I tell them we are on the same page.

A fancy chicken breed (Sussex?) take your mind off this monotonous section of the Camino.

Approaching Lezama: the French group is happy to get on the sidewalk finally appearing ahead.

Lezama:"free and open" - this bar also serves as a center for community activism. On the walls are announcements likening the local legal authorities to fascists of 1936 (the photo option of Google Translate works great). 

Lezama: a prominent sign directing the guests to our casa rural off the main road/Camino

Lezama: entering our casa rural after a relatively easy walk today. It is run by a hard-working couple with young children.