Bilbao to Pobena

Getting out of a big city on a Camino route can have its challenges: long, boring, traffic, neighborhoods, lack of signage, lack of scenery, and industrial.

When Jamie and the girls and I did our first Camino trip, walking out of Lisbon and Porto was like magic. We had started very early, before sunrise, as there were long, hot days ahead of us. The cities were still slumbering, and we had the streets to ourselves. I’ve had friends share how much they hated these stages, but for us, I remember walking down the middle of these empty European cities like we owned them.

Today’s stage leaving Bilbao isn’t known for being picturesque, even though it takes you back around the Guggenheim Museum. The first 15 or so KM are heading downriver through the outskirts of town. The best term is certainly, "industrial." We also woke up to overcast skies and a drizzle, which set the mood as well.

Several years ago, I was going through the winter blues and bemoaning the lack of anything to photograph. The trees were bare. The sky was gray. The light was muted, and I was depressed. I was given the challenge to go out and find beauty, which I did both in nature as well as in people. My friend Kat told me to come take photos of her daughter Lula. It is a precious memory for me. She didn’t always like being in the camera frame. She already had a lot of attention on her because of a cancer diagnosis, but she was a willing model, and the images are a lasting treasure.

Outside, I found that the conditions were perfect for black and white photography, which is how I got started as a photographer as a teenager, but had fallen out of practice when everything went digital. Industrial doesn’t scare me off anymore, not even walking through it. Industrial is its own kind of beauty, and I happen to love what I captured along the route today.

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A couple of funny stories:

We stopped at a cafe after crossing the river in a suspended ferry. They didn’t have any of the pastries I wanted, so Bonnie kindly looked up a bakery down the street and headed off to get us some treats. I had been hoping for a chocolate or Nutella-filled croissant. What she brought back were eclairs. Normally, we split one, laughing about which one of us would get the side with the filling. With the eclairs, there was no lack of filling. I swear they were as heavy as a 1lb burrito you get late at night at Los Betos. We laughed our heads off at each other trying to eat the pastries without spilling any of the filling. It was a losing battle, but the neighborhood birds were soon flying around us enjoying a second breakfast too.

Later, we entered a church so we could get a stamp in our credential for this town. The church had a culture office on the bottom floor, but there was no attendant. We saw an older lady approaching us, and after trying with words we attempted miming to her that we were looking for a “cello,” a “stamp.” She looked at the empty office, shook her head, and then pointed Bonnie down the hall to where the bathrooms were. We tried to tell her, "no, we don’t need the 'bano,'" but now she became the mime, putting her hands between her legs, thrusting them downward, and making a loud gushing noise! We couldn’t help but start laughing! Thankfully, the gentleman running the office came by at that time and stamped our Camino passports for us. We left without using the facilities.

The second half of our walk today was along a bike path. It was so different not being on trails and dirt roads, as so much of the last week had been. It was flat; however, this meant we made great time, putting us back at the oceanside with our afternoon free. When we first arrived, the beach was deserted, and the tide was low, but after lunch and showers, it was packed with sun worshippers and surfers as the tide and the sea breeze were accompanied with perfect blue skies and puffy white clouds.En savoir plus