Day 3 (del Norte): San Sebastian 1

A rest day, if you will, as far as the walk on the Camino goes. Or it's the first day dedicated to San Sebastian, but it feels like we've been here a while. Anyway, the main agenda item for today is lunch at the second major stop on the culinary part of our pilgrimage. This is a place almost as controversial as it is famous. Mugaritz has rapidly ascended the ladder of global culinary fame in recent years, and I was not going to pass up the opportunity to experience what the fuss is all about, when the place is only a 15 minute drive from where we are staying. People seem to either love or hate the cutting-edge offerings at Mugaritz, so today we will find out ourselves.

Again we get a ride from Pilar, who certainly has her own expertise in the local restaurant scene and is excited to drop us off here. As we enter, we notice an old oak tree, which partly gave rise to the restaurant's name, as well the adjoining vegetable and flower garden which provides fresh supplies. The interior is much more modern and spacious than Arzak. After a friendly tour of the kitchen, the parade of the striking and unusual starts. For example, the lamb tongue is followed by the pig tail. 

I can see why on on-line review sites, neutrals call this cuisine "experimental" while detractors who give one out of five stars, cry out "inedible." But c'mon, not everyone's going to love every one of 23 items or so, and indeed the dish based on sea anemone does not agree with me (who knew, especially the fans of "Finding Nemo," could have guessed it would show up on the table?) But it should be undisputed that the preparation, the presentation and the flavor of all the items are of the highest quality. Add a huge score for the creativeness and you have a clear winner here. I don't mean to be hyperbolic but would go so far as this is the single most memorable meal of my (not so short) life.

Mugaritz: a chef writes down today's available ingredients, while we are being served fermented rice in the kitchen.

Mugaritz: the only decoration on the table (far side), two broken pieces of a plate, seems to signify the theme of breaking with the old, setting the tone for things to come. This early course is eggplant filled with mole on top of garlic-laden breadcrumbs.

Mugaritz: yam empanada with butter

Mugaritz: a (non-cheese containing) fake blue cheese made with the same mold (brown spots) that is a major ingredient of Roquefort. By now it's clear things may not be what they seem.

Mugaritz: this "grilled squid" is nothing but. It's actually a genuine mochi.

Mugaritz: just when you think they have totally abandoned tradition, here is txuleta, a beloved local aged meat dish, which one might say is the Basque answer to Kobe beef.

Mugaritz: the cheese course comes wrapped in English translation of the story behind the supplier.

Mugaritz: the first of the refreshing and highly inventive desserts - frozen yogurt with blackberry and flowers. 

Mugaritz: a new take on Neapolitan ice cream with chocolate, cream and saffron layers. Not sweet at all but totally satisfying to someone with a sweet tooth like me.

Mugaritz: to top it off, we are served "seven cardinal sins," the details of which are skipped here.

After the meal, we spend time chatting with a young lady from the Philippines collecting ingredients from the garden. She is one of the 30 interns who come here from all over the world for a nine-month stint and will earn an important line on their resume.

Mugaritz: strolling through their vegetable and flower garden. The marigold (left) is used in the frozen yogurt dish above.

Mugaritz: the allium flower used in the txuleta dish above.

We normally have a brisk pace when eating a multi-course meal but even without a long delay between courses today, it still took nearly four and a half hours, certain the longest meal we have ever had. Part of the time was spent on conversing with the knowledgeable servers about many of the items. 

But it still leaves time to explore downtown San Sebastian, which after all we have not seen except the few pintxos bars! Our original plan was to check out the famous sculpture by Chillida by the water but right after we get off the taxi on the main beach it starts to pour. so we forego the 1.5km walk to the western end of La Concha and instead walk around the eastern end of the beach including the old town. This certainly has been a memorable day which did't get started until noon!

San Sebastian: La Concha beach is lined with the emblematic white wrought-iron

San Sebastian: seasonal nude bathers are gone and only surfers thrive.

San Sebastian: Alderdi-Eder Park with tamarind (or more accurately, tamarisk) trees. This row of apartments are supposedly the third most expensive real estate in Spain after Madrid's Calle Serrano and Barcelona's Paseo de Gracia.

San Sebastian: Mt. Igeldo on the west side is where we are heading tomorrow.

San Sebastian: Belle Epoch buildings in the Old Town

San Sebastian: back in the pintxos area but we can't possibly eat anymore after the long lunch at Mugaritz.

San Sebastian: Bridge of Maria Cristina

San Sebastian: across Urumea River sits the Kursaal, the main site for the annual Film Festival. (You can see it's the 63rd.) We will be there for the opening night tomorrow. French-style buildings are lining the river.

San Sebastian: the intern at the Mugaritz vegetable garden told us they just finished a documentary which will be shown at the film festival, and here it is (left). Hope we can catch it. The workers are still putting a finishing touch (right).

San Sebastian: time to catch the bus back to our airbnb after a day as satisfying to us as this grandfather probably. The bus stop is right here at Plaza de Gipuzkoa. 

Day 2 (del Norte): Irun to San Sebastian

On our first real day of walking Camino del Norte, we get a ride to Irun from Pilar, the lively host of our airbnb. We start from the Irun albergue, where we received our "credential" yesterday. I have tried my best to reduce the burden of this day by picking the destination of today's walk to be our airbnb which is on the eastern outskirts of San Sebastian. This cuts our "Irun to San Sebastian" walk by several kilometers and avoids the tough terrain in the last part. In addition, we subtract from the weight of even my light backpack, as I don't have to lug my laptop, etc.

I am also equipped with an embarrassing array of navigation aides. (More on this later.) Camino del Norte is the road less traveled and no single comprehensive guidebook in English exists, unlike the book by Brierley for Camino Frances. But the immediate concern is the weather. The prediction was unseasonable heat (almost 90 degrees F), rain, and a wind advisory. Other than that, it will be a fine day! Fortunately we wake up to the wonderful blue sky.  I wish all bad-weather forecasts would turn out to be bad weather-forecasts for the duration of our trip!

Irun: we do spot yellow arrows (one seen in lower right) but they are few and far between. Time to resort to the googlemap.

Soon we are out of the Irun city center.

This is where the cellular network stops and I switch to the off-line Nokia HERE map for navigation. Seen ahead is the mountain ridge we'll be walking along. I don't enjoy wearing a hat but the sun is definitely preferable to the rain.

Imagine how muddy it would have been if it was raining this morning. At least waymarking is getting much better.

These chestnuts seem almost strewn to help with footing on the soft and wet soil.

After a steady climb, we finally arrive at Santuario de Guadalupe. One fifth of the walk is successfully finished. 

Santuario de Guadalupe offers a commanding view. In the foreground is Hondarribia (no relation to the Japanese car maker), and beyond the river is Hendaye, France (not a mispelling of the Korean car maker).

A major decision is made to forego the "alpinist" route and instead take a lower route. The next 10 kms are so ridiculously flat and easy to walk I worry that something bad is going to happen later today, like a torrential rain.

A view of the French Basque Country: beyond the beach at Hendaye, you can see St. Jean de Luz and way back probably Biarritz.

So many chestnuts are wasted. These are eminently edible - we have some for a snack.

Very little human traffic on this route so far, so sheep may safely graze...

Am I crazy in thinking chestnuts in partially open outer shells look like African baboon bottoms?

Amazingly no drop of rain while we were on the mountain trails but as soon as we hit the pavement, it starts to sprinkle.

But I am not ready to don my fancy poncho yet, as my chartreuse Marmot jacket and the National Park ranger-inspired hat covered in plastic do the job just fine.

Finding four-leaf clovers is the wife's specialty and this walk is no exception. Buen Viejo to us.

There are more goats than people on this trail.

Finally, a pair of pilgrims with the unmistakable shell hanging from their backpacks. 

It's a great feeling to have finished the mountain portion (in our abridged route) as we descend to the pier where we take a short ferry to cross to Pasaia for a home stretch to San Sebastian. The town of Pasai Donibane is tiny and boasts, of all people, Victor Hugo, who lived here briefly. As we arrive at 4pm (it's been six and a half hours since we started to walk already?) the Museum is just opening. A serendipity plus luck.

Walking down to Pasai Donibane, which feels like a triumphant run around the stadium after a marathon.

Pasai Donibane: This is where we take the short ferry to Pasaia, well explained in this mural.

Pasai Donibane

Pasai Donibane: Victor Hugo Museum

Victor Hugo bedroom by the sea, which inspired the poem below. No, Les Miserables was not written here.

Victor Hugo Museum: "When we doze off on the shore, All around us sways and strokes our ears: The sound of the wind on the waves, The sound of the waves on the rocks. In our dreams we hear, sea shanties in the distance."

The yellow arrow even directs you to the little ferry to Pasaia. 

Time to explore downtown San Sebastian a little bit this evening. Pilar and I are on the same page - half of her single-sheet introduction to her apartment and San Sebastian is devoted to the pintxos bars she recommends! (Pintxos are the Basque version of the Spanish tapas - just ask the overweight Dutch guy in the movie, "The Way"!) There is plenty of coverage in the media of the pintxos phenomenon, and along with Pilar's list, I take note of the places mentioned in a Huffington Post article. 

We first try Borda Berri, then "designer" pintxos at Bar Zeruko, and finish with the Basque cheesecake at La Vina. All these places are crowded (even on a weeknight) and I am getting too old for waiting to order amid the chaos frankly. (Some places are easier than others and most seem better than the ones in Madrid in this regard.) We order and quickly retreat with our food to an available counter space or a table in the back. Why would anyone continue to occupy the front counter lingering on their food so incoming clients have to wave from the second row? But who am I to re-invent the pintxos bar etiquette?

Our host's "Welcome to my home" sheet is largely devoted the list of pintxos places in San Sebastian.

San Sebastian: this is where we start the pintxos crawl this evening.

San Sebastian: Pulpo with Sangria at Borda Berri, but we are squeezed into a small counter space in the back. 

San Sebastian: at Zeruko, ordering is a bit easier, as many items are on display and you just pick up what you like.

San Sebastian: Bar Zeruko, where all the pintxos are pretty. I can't imagine how crowded this place would be in July and August.

Day 1 (del Norte): Irun

I haven't heard any convincing reasons why Irun is the traditional starting point for Camino del Norte. Perhaps it's simply because Irun is the first Spanish town along the north coast that borders on France, just east of San Sebastian. But in the old days, wasn’t the real starting point, at least for Europeans, the pilgrim’s house? The modern designation of a start location of any version of Camino de Santiago seems arbitrary to me. In any case, call it blindly following the tradition, but we are indeed going to start our walk from Irun. 

Today is not a big walking day. Just a short walk from our airbnb, in the eastern suburb of San Sebastian, is the local train which takes us to Irun. The Irun albergue where we hope to get the "credencial" is not supposed to open until 4pm but we are lucky to spot a lady who's willing to take care of us. It only costs one euro each and there are no other pilgrims in sight - already a big difference from the popular Camino Frances. Irun is urban without much character, unlike its counterpart St. Jean Pied de Port for Camino Frances, but it's a real town which has seen its share of tragedy throughout history. 

Irun: a nondescript town unlike SJPdP, but this shop window definitely has provocative messages which could get some of the pilgrims in the mood.

Irun: ah, the two familiar words - albergue and peregrino. This is where we pick up the "credential (credencial de peregrino)," the pilgrim's passport to be stamped along the way.

We don't have enough time to do a little bit of walking along the Camino that we had planned in Irun before returning to our airbnb for an important appointment at 2pm. Part of this trip is designed to pay homage to the great culinary tradition of the Basque region. Today is our first stop on this mini side-pilgrimage. Arzak, the renowned institution that is now in the fourth generation and has achieved global recognition, is only 150 m from where we are staying, practically a stone's throw. The meal does not disappoint. It is a high quality combination of taste, plating and creativity. We even meet the legendary Juan Mari, a major contributor to the creation of New Basque Cuisine in the 1970/80's, at the end of the meal for a hug and a handshake. (Alas, I didn't get a chance to ask him about his lentil "cookie" based on Korean Ssamjang.)

Arzak: the inventive appetizers: the Basque elements are given an innovative treatment. This item in front is txistorra with beer and mango.

Arzak: apple infused with beet root (behind which hides the foie gras). The septuagenarian Juan Mari and his daughter Elena (who already won the World's Best Female Chef title in 2012) show off their molecular gastronomy skills.

Arzak: my favorite of the meal and one of their signature dishes - "red" egg cooked at 65 degrees C

Arzak: A chocolate dessert containing citric juice brought out on a plate of real Persian black lemon

Arzak: petit fours, not bird eggs (or droppings)!

Even a three-hour lunch leaves us enough time and energy to return to Irun to take care of the unfinished business. We walk to the end of the town to find the bridge that leads to France. Bridge of Santiago has seen important historical events but now pilgrims consider it the very starting spot for Camino del Norte. It has drizzled most of the afternoon and evening, and now even the wind has picked up. It does not bode well for tomorrow, which is predicted to be the worst weather of the week anyway. I will probably feel much better about this time tomorrow.

Irun: after walking across the foot bridge to Hendaye, France and now looking back at Spain

Irun Bridge: moving to the main bridge on the French side and looking toward Spain

Irun Bridge: Now back on the Spain side, where the marker in yellow on the pavement that used to state 830km (to Santiago) has been erased or vandalized. (It is clearly seen in photos taken even a few years ago.) But at least we have our first sighting of the yellow arrow (upper left).

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.