Portugalete to Castro Urdiales

(Our internet was weak last night and wouldn't load this, so it's a day late.)

This was a miserable day. It poured most of the time we were walking and we both arrived literally soaked to the skin. So much for my brand new Columbia ("waterproof") raincoat. This was probably the hardest rain we've had this entire trip, and there were torrents of water running down gullies along the path. The streams we passed were very swollen and rushing hard. We were cold and miserable. It was about 60 degrees. We took a shorter alternate route which was on the side of the highway, and some guides advised against it because of the danger. We were not planning to do it, but spoke to a Spanish couple who told us it was fine. They said they have walked all over Spain along roads. I wanted to make sure it was not going to be the expressway that we could see ahead. The woman said "Oh, no, no, no! High speeds!" We followed the road for about 4 miles with no trouble, and that was better than adding 6 miles to our day or bussing those 4 miles. We arrived wet, cold, and ready for our private room and hot showers. We're hoping everything will dry by tomorrow.

The scenery today would have been breathtaking today had it not been for the weather. As it is, we took very few pictures because it was raining so hard we didn't want to ruin our phones having them out.

One thing we have noted since our arrival here is that more people are outside doing activities than where we live. There are people biking, running, pushing strollers and walking. Even today in the pouring rain there were local people out taking their walks. They seem more fit than Americans, but they do smoke like chimneys. In Bilbao at 6:00 p.m. we saw families out in the park. The children were playing on the playground and all the adults were socializing.

We walked 17 and a half miles todayRead more