Since it’s 130km to Bilbao, we’ve decided to split it into two shorter days and we’ll take a full rest day there. (Viki says we’re very excited for the rest day!) Since it’s a shorter day, we had a slow start, slept in until 9am, went to the supermarket, and had morning coffee before leaving. Our morning coffee break was at a fancy place and included a raisin swirl and an almond cake that the lady said was typical from San Sebastian. We accidentally ordered long coffees, which Viki found too bitter.
We set off at 11am in drizzly conditions. The route was super easy today – we just followed the N634 the whole day from San Sebastian to the random small town of Elgoibar. We very much felt like we were on the coast – the coastline is much more rugged than what we remember of the Mediterannean, amd the waves more fierce. A bunch of the towns lately have had surf shops and we’ve seen lots of cars and vans carrying surfboards. The cars have been incredibly patient here, always waiting for lots of space before passing, and often waiting a full minute or so to pass as we slowly go around a blind corner.
We’ve seen lots of indications of the Camino de Santiago. The symbol is a scallop shell, which we’ve seen on people’s backpacks, on trail signs, and on restaurants / hotels. We’ve been wanting to register, but need to find an official alburgue to register at – we think we’ll see one tomorrow in Bilbao.
We made it to Elgoibar around 6pm or so and planned to sleep in the bleachers of a football field, since it’s been drizzling all day and the ground is pretty sodden. As we were getting ready we noticed lots of people entering the field, and a full soccer game proceeded to take place which we watched as we had our dinner (dinner consisted of our typical packet of rice, with tomato sauce and cut up sausage, along with some swigs of wine for me).
Now at 9pm, everyone seems to have left. We were worried we might get locked in, since the stadium is fenced in, but we seem to be fine. A caretaker said that we could shower for €4 each, which sounded like highway robbery to us, so we instead had a pot wash in the bathroom (we take it in turns to take a 500ml pot to the bathroom and towel and soap, fill the pot with water, go to a cubicle and wash ourselves).
