Day 0 (del Norte): SF-Boston-Madrid-Irun

Back in Spain.

To walk again on Camino de Santiago.

Having done Camino Frances, perhaps seeking a similar challenge but being not the one who repeats things, I am naturally drawn to an alternate route. Del Norte is also popular but less traveled, supposedly has great scenery and goes through some fabulous places such as San Sebastian and Bilbao. The decision seemed easy. But this route is more rugged, has fewer towns to rest or stay in, and the weather is often worse. More physically demanding and yeah, my body (and the wife’s) two years older since we first set foot on the Camino.

Perhaps we're pushing our luck but we still have a secret weapon - the pace. We don’t have to rush from one albergue to the next one. We are going to linger in interesting towns. This route is also approximately 500 miles (no wonder Peter, Paul and Mary kept singing 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles…), but we are not even going to cover a third of it this time in the next month or so. That would be the pace at most a half that of a regular pilgrim.

Being true to the LITE motif, I have booked all the hotels and arranged for luggage transfer. We have done a reasonable amount of training in the last couple of months, but not nearly as much as the first two walks on Camino Frances. Maybe we will pay for this complacency but hopefully the experience has made us wiser.

The plan is to do two things on the way to the Basque Country where we will start walking. I consider them last-minute nourishment. Just as we seek balance in the upcoming trek, one might say the first is for the body and the second for the mind.

First, a chocolate buffet in Boston. If there is such a thing, of course I have to try it. What could be a better source of carbs for a long multi-day walk? (I know, probably the most ridiculous form of carbo loading for pilgrimage, but I need any excuse I can get.)

Boston: The Langham. A chocoholics' dream. Glad my next Hemoglbin A1c check is a couple of months away!

Consuming several of these plates is enough to incite the wife's reaction, somewhere between disbelief and disdain.

The second round of nourishment is going to be (and who can be cynical about this) art museum hopping in Madrid. However, that plan is put in jeopardy, as a three-hour flight delay from Boston causes us to miss our connection in Munich (Oh, I love Lufthansa). Fortunately we get on the next plane to Madrid. 

The central Madrid is closed to traffic and the taxi drops us off about a kilometer away from our hotel. Already tired from a long flight we now have to walk with our suitcases. What's the deal here? We are told it is the final day of the popular bicycle race, La Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain). Having never been a big fan of cycling, I am only interested in navigating through the crowds to get to our hotel. 

Madrid: no, these crowds are not here to welcome the refugees, although already weary from a flight delay and having to walk to the hotel with our luggage make us feel like refugees at this point. The latter thanks to traffic closure for La Vuelta a Espana, one of the big bike races.

Madrid: the last day of La Vuelta which ends here brings out big crowds.

Madrid: the banner is for the cycling (12 km mark), not for pilgrimage, and we are not going all the way to Galicia this time, but hey, it says Buen Camino, so I will take it.

After a quick brunch at Plaza Santa Ana, we skip the Prado which is right across from our hotel and head instead to Museo Thyssen-Bonemisza, the only one of the triumvirate art museums in Madrid (along with the Prado and Reina Sofia) that we have not seen before. It is a pleasant and manageable layout, but how did two generations of a family amass such a collection ranging from early Renaissance to modern? And why is their elevator not made by Thyssen?

Madrid: Thyssen Museum

Madrid (Thyssen): Ghirlandaio 

Madrid (Thyssen): van Gogh at Arles

Madrid (Thyssen): Manet

Madrd (Thyssen): Tintoretto and Rodin

At Chamartin Station in Madrid, we board the train to San Sebastian. After a 5 hour trip we check into our Air B&B, which will be our pad for the next several days. It is technically located in the suburb of San Sebasitan, but let’s just say we are staying in Irun, which is the traditional starting point for Camino del Norte.