Larrabetzu to Bilbao

Lisa wakes me up and we get ready for breakfast at 7am, then it’s back to the room to finish packing up, this takes us awhile. Poor George is probably so sick of waiting for us. We seem to get into our accommodation pull everything out of our backpacks to find what we need, and before we know it, we have stuff everywhere, and our room looks like it’s been ransacked, we have become pretty used to this by now and we just know that if we are staying at a hotel to always put the ‘do not disturb’ sign out on the door handle, the cleaners don’t need to contend with our mess! We are finally ready to go and it’s now 9am, we need to head back down the steep hill we climbed up yesterday and make our way back onto the Camino path. It’s 3 kms and we do it with ease, we walk through the industrial area of Larrabetzu, then into a lovely little village called Lezama, there are open bars everywhere and they all look very inviting, but due to our big breakfast none of us want to stop this morning, I think we all just want to get to Bilbao where we can settle in for the next 4 days. We get to the outskirts of Lezama and we are walking through a beautiful park, it’s level, pretty and an easy walk, once the park ends, we turn onto a service road, and near the end of this road is where the two Camino paths merge together and we see other pilgrims, we pass each other with a “Hola, buen camino”, George is ahead of us by a good 30 metres and I notice these guys pointing to George’s tattoo, they have a little chat amongst themselves, then as they pass George, there is more conversation, I realise then, having walked behind George for three different caminos, this is a regular occurrence. It starts with the tattoo, moves to George’s age, then onto what a legend he is. I feel very honoured and lucky to have walked so many miles with this very dear friend of mine and to be honest, I can’t imagine walking a Camino without him. It’s funny though, sometimes we feel kinda like his security detail and want to put a hand out to keep all these people at bay and say ‘please, no paparazzi’. In our book George is an absolute legend and this year his Camino is going to be a very special one. George will leave Lisa and I on the 16th August and head to Lisbon, Portugal ready to meet up with his 3 children - Todd, Marsha and Tarsha. They will all be doing the Camino from Porto in Portugal to Santiago de Compostela and I know how much this will mean to him. We are looking forward to hearing all about their journey and wish them a Buen Camino! We get to the outskirts of Bilbao, we are a fair way above the city below and we start to head down, once we can make out the buildings, I indulge myself in a game of Where’s the Guggenheim? I have never been to Bilbao before, but I have seen the Guggenheim on the net and in posts from fellow pilgrims who have already visited, so I sort of know what to look for in this beautiful big city. I eventually find it and verify it with George. It is a very steep decent into Bilbao with hundreds of steps, that lead us directly to the old part of the city, as we are walking down the steps we can hear a blues band playing in the distance and as we get closer to our hotel the music is getting louder, when we have finally weaved our way through the narrow maze like streets of Bilbao’s old town we arrive at our hotel, we book in and are in room 202. We have a balcony that opens up and gives a perfect view of the blues festival. We could not have planned this better. Tonight we are dining at La Tagliatella, we have shared many meals with our Camino family in this chain of restaurants and it is not only yummy but holds many great memories. After dinner we meander back to our lovely hotel, enjoying the vibe, music and dancing, we hit the hay and let the music lull us off to sleep.Les mer