Burgos to Leon

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Reached Burgos by bus from Bilbao ( you can take bike on bus for €10 as long as it's covered & dismantled; I used garbage bags and straightened out handlebars, seemed to be enough...)

Evening, cold & wet, managed to find campsite thanks to info from Italian cycle tourer named Marcelo who was also escaping the rain in Bilbao...

Met Alain & Benoit, 2 Belgians en route from Belgium to Finisterre along the Camino Frances. They had nearly covered 2000km by the time I met them...

 They had been accommodated in a shed full of bunk beds on the campsite, overflow from the Albergue Municipal, and were preparing a 3 course meal...complete with wine... how organised were they? the picture below is breakfast set up for the following morning, once dinner had been cleared away...

Burgos is an important city on the Camino Frances, with a strong presence of medieval Monasteries, the Cathedral, and a modern University (also home to black pudding...)

After breakfast, the Belgians went off to get their bikes fixed, and I went into the city to do my tourist duty:

 No rain, but very cold (4 degrees Celsius...)

 Cathedral

 Monastery

Alain's back wheel was fixed by now, and I met them again on the road out of Burgos by chance. So we went on together ( this was actually my birthday, although I hadn't told them about it yet...)

By about lunchtime, the temperature had risen considerably, and we reached the picturesque town of Castrogeriz where for the first time the sun came out! We sat on a terrace on Plaza Mayor, drinking half litres of beer, and celebrating my birthday with a picnic lunch in the sun...

(not my photo, but this was the bar terrace,  bathed in SUN!!!)

Now that we were on the Camino Frances proper, there were lots of walkers everywhere, and despite being in May, still the off season, we heard that walkers were arriving at the Albergues as early as 12pm, to guarantee a bed for the night..

We tried the next Albergue, only to be told that cyclists had to wait till 7pm to give walkers priority... so we went on to Fromista

... where we got the last 3 beds...(out of 56!)

No kitchen, so Benoit took over the courtyard to cook a slap up meal of chuletas con patatas fritas

chef at work

once the sun had gone in it was COLD

BTW, interesting way that the trees were grafted together: local tree surgery very interesting

Back on the road after breakfast...

Carried on along the Camino, little to no traffic on the N120, and also going on the Camino proper (dirt road, quite rough on fully laden bikes, lots of Pilgrims)

Once again, no room at the Inn due to too many walkers...

storks (?) on steeple

Finally managed to camp in the garden at the Albergue La Laguna in El Burgo Ranero, which
 had surrealistic fountains, a toilet  in a shed, and the use of a kitchen.

I met my first British Pilgrims here, some folk from Manchester/Liverpool area...getting a bit schizophrenic mixture of languages going on (fr,es,eng) and ended up drinking with them ( regretfully mixing beer & wine...when will I learn?)

Next day very slow start, took me a long time to wake up fully, and pack up all my stuff... Back on road to Leon...

Benoit fighting with powdered tobacco!

 We finally reached Leon, which was where our paths would diverge, with Alain & Benoit carrying on to Santiago de la Compostella and finally Finisterre, and me going north into the mountains towards Oviedo, which I discovered is the Camino del Salvador.

 Had a look round the centre, and met up with a Parisian cyclist called Nico, who joined us for a farewell picnic on the banks of the river

Sad to leave the Belgians & Frenchman, but time & Ryanair wait for no man....

next stage: Leon to Oviedo Camino del Salvador

Cantabria to Vizcaya

Tent held up very well on a stormy clifftop overnight stay,  worth every centimo of the €29 (from Decathlon, everyone I met had camping/cycling gear from this French sports superstore...!)

 Left the clifftop sewage plant in the rain, to reach Castro-Urdiales which looked rather rainswept to say the least

Not to worry about the rain, leaving Cantabria to enterVizkaya ( Basque country)

Typically hilly Cantabrian coastline

not overly encouraging graffiti...

Finally reaching the Basque border...

And finally reaching Portugalete and the UNESCO Puente de Vizcaya
a portacabin suspended by cables going back and forth, saving several kilometres avoiding going into the centre of Bilbao

How exciting, a hanging bridge! And only 0.60 euros!

Across Nervion river to Getxo, which I'm sure looks much better when it's not raining...

Portugalete from Getxo

bridge from other side

Carried on along the coastline, destination Guernica... ominous weather all the way...

But nice views of Portugalete and the Port of Bilbao from the clifftops :

A break in the rain and came across the somewhat Disneyesque castle at Butron

Onwards to Mungia, where I had difficulty finding the non AutoVia route out of town to Guernika: a very nice local man offered to show me the way through the one way system, leading in his car! Very friendly & helpful people all over Vizcaya (and Cantabria come to think of it).

This is a popular cycle route, with signs reminding motorists of cyclist priority at weekends...

Inclement weather obviously factored into the architectural plans of local churches:

Most welcome shelter during frequent showers...

Finally reached Guernica, unfortunately in the rain, but at least I took photos of a rainbow that appeared as a result of the downpour.

a ceramic tile version of Picasso's masterpiece

Guernica

commemorates Hitler's bombing of the town during the Civil war (see above link)

 Went north from Gernika, into the Parque Natural de Urdaibai
which despite the rain was really beautiful, but extremely hilly on a bicycle...

Due to too many hills stopped at campsite in Mundaka, before reaching Bermeo. Very nice campsite btw, must be great in a dry summer!

Bermeo small fishing town, with some interesting boats/ships in the harbour

very steep climb on the way out of Bermeo, but great views

Up, up, uphill, not so much fun on a fully laden bicycle, but the views of the hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe
certainly made it worth the effort

Hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

san juan de gaztelugatxe

Back downhill to the mainland 12th century hermitage of San Pelayo

By this time I had completed the small loop taking me back to the approach to Bilbao, where I found the campsite (with metro connection to the city!)

 Campsite more or less deserted when I arrived so managed to get an oceanview pitch... note the sunshine, this was only on arrival

 going...

 going....

Gone! The sun would not be seen for a couple of days after this....

Next morning (actually was a bit of blue sky, i forgot) went into Getxo, then into Bilbao to find out info about getting to Burgos...

Portugalete waterfront seen from Getxo side

perhaps Lidl in a warehouse should have alerted me to the imminent rain...

Greenpeace parked up in downtown Bilbao, with the new Athletic Bilbao stadium being built in the background... note the looming stormclouds...


Absolutely bucketed it down in Bilbao... decided to buy a bus ticket to Burgos, hoping there'd be less rain there...
Soaked on way back to campsite, although sunset was visible later on...

a break in the clouds

All night, all next day, constant rain, gale force wind, rain, more rain, less rain, bit more rain, a lot more rain, has it stopped... no, more light rain.... bored with sitting in tent

think wind, rain...

don't know how bike remained upright in high wind...

Only solution: bus to Burgos

i didn't take this photo: it's not raining

this is more like it

Next episode: Burgos to Leon....