Distance (Gill)

So I guess it's my turn to post something. I'm not much of a writer as I feel much happier doing math but I figure I can give you all some numbers that may be helpful for tracking our progress. The first day of our walk, as Alissa mentioned, we walked from Portugalete to Pobeña the path is only about 11km to the albergue but we walked in circles around the city trying to find our way from the hostel in Bilbao to the metro (we had to take it since we were starting on a Sunday and needed to go to the pilgrim office in Portugalete since Bilbao was closed). After wandering around the cities for about four kilometers we found the path and decided to cut our losses and try and get our pilgrim credentials at the albergue in Pobeña since we couldn't find an open office anywhere. NOTE TO OTHER PILGRIMS!! DO NOT TRY AND START YOUR WALK ON A SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. You cannot change money or get your credentials or find lots of food. Upon arriving in Pobeña it was about 4pm and time to call it quits since the next albergue was very far way. From Pobeña we walked to Castro Urdiales. A short cut was describe in our book but it was mostly highway walking and not official. While it was ten kilometers longer (6miles) we decided to take it thinking it was 17km total since that was the total at the top of the page in the book. Turns out the author gave the total distance of his recommended route for the day which happened to be the shortcut. That means we walked 27 excruciating kilometers. It wouldn't have been that bad had we not arrived tired and sore in Castro Urdiales thinking we were finally done, only to have to walk the 4.2km through city streets to get to the albergue. I was very proud of us though because we still arrived by 4pm and walked about 27km. The next day we planned a short day of only about 13km since we were dead tired from the previous 27. We arrived in the very small town after walking in the freezing rain at around 1pm only to find that the only bar (bars are restaurants too) was closed and that to get food we would need to walk 3km to the nearest bar and then 3km back. Since you can all add you can see why that 6km would be almost just as much as walking 7km to Liendo where the next albergue was. So again we moved along that day going from Castro Urdiales to Liendo (20km). Liendo was only 5km outside Laredo so when Alissa had her eye issue it was a short buss ride to the hospital. We're were planning on resting there for a day then walking to Noja (20km) and then to Guemes (17km) and then finally to Santander (another 17km) but she has to be at the doctor again in two days and can't open her eyes to walk. We are a little sad to miss this part of the walk but we do what we must. There's a short recap of where we have been for the last few days! -Gillian