Day 5: Monasterrio de Zenarruza to Gerekiz

What a spectacular day on the Camino!  We stayed last night at the Monasterio de Zenarruza, built in the 14^th century and an important stop on the Camino de Santiago during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  Many of our Camino friends stayed there that evening, which made it great fun.  We joined the monks in Evening Vespers, then had a simple Pilgrim’s dinner in the guest dining room, all done as a service by the monks.  There was great conversation and lots of camaraderie.  This is the essence of the Camino experience!

The Chapel at the Monasterrio

We rose early this morning because we were concerned about a rainy forecast and had lots of ground (and elevation!) to cover.  Lo and behold, it turned out to be a glorious warm and sunny day.  Daybreak over the mountains was priceless!

Daybreak outside the Monasterrio

 

We walked through the mountains toward the quintessential Basque town of Munitibar, which couldn’t have been cuter.  We passed lots of pastures with all types of cattle, and walked through special “gates”, really a small space set at a 90 degree angle through which a person can pass, but not an animal.  Here’s Paco demonstrating how this works.

Paco at the Cattle Gate

 

We also passed more forest land that had been-clear cut and totally bare.  This was ancient forestland.  It’s not obvious what the farmers intend to do with the newly-cleared fields.  We saw some fields with newly-planted eucalyptus groves. Those trees were popular in the Spanish province of Galicia as well, and there are lots of similarities between Galicia and the Basque territory when it comes to climate: cool and damp weather, abundant rain, mountainous terrain, lots of coastline.  But with global warming, Galicia learned the hard way that eucalyptus trees, while fast-growing, are highly flammable, which contributed the rapid spread of one of their worst wildfires in 2015.  Hopefully, the same won’t happen in the Basque region.

Logging...and Windmills!

 

And we found an open café and enjoyed our café con leche before 9:00 am!  It was a lovely café on the corner of the cute village of Olabe.  The café was situated on the road all the pilgrims pass.  We were able to connect with one of our fellow travelers from the Monastery, who planned a farther journey today that we did.

Happy Paco with Coffee

 

Our hike through the mountains was awe-inspiring.  We could see the fog dissipating in the distance, and passed cool views like a grove of kiwi trees (in Basque country? Who knew!)…and 2 baby horses no more than a few hours old!

Landscape with Fog

 

 

Kiwi Grove

 

Newborn Horses

Around noon time, we reached Guernica, the site of the Nazi bombing of innocent civilians.  There’s a monument in the center of town with a copy of Picasso’s famous painting that now hangs in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.  A few steps away is the Iglesia de Santa Maria, with the Peace Museum and exhibit of photos of the aftermath of the bombing in the plaza. And on the way in to town, we passed an original (and ancient) “Cruz de Camino”, the Camino Cross.  All in all, it was a stunning visit.

The Guernica Wall Mural

 

Iglesia de Santa Maria and the Plaza

La Cruz de Camino

Five more miles of hiking uphill to our destination, an area called Alto de Morga.  “Alto” means “height” in Spanish, and they sure got that right!  Here’s the view from the end of the day.

View from Gerekiz

Our albergue is a mile further from the closest one from town.  As the municipal hostel in Guernica is temporarily closed, most pilgrims headed for the nearest option.  It was quite crowded as we passed by.  Our albergue, in the meantime, had only 2 occupants, us and a father-son duo.  We had the entire property to ourselves!  The proprietors provided a lovely pilgrim’s meal, so all is well with the world. 

Tuesday, July 4, we plan another long and elevation-filled day culminating in our arrival in Bilbao.  We love that town and can’t wait to be back.  Wake-up time 5:30 am.  Good night!

Day 4 Ibiri to the Monastery at Ziotza

We spent last night in a great albergue. Part of what makes the experience is the other pilgrims,  and yesterday we ran into people we'd first met the previous few days.

Another thing that made it great was that the albergue had a bar, and it served gluten free beer.  Yes!

Our wristwatch alarms went off at 5:30 this morning,  but we didn't want to disturb everyone,  so we waited until close to 6 to dress, eat the breakfast we bought from the albergue,  and hit the road by 6:30.

It wasn't raining (yet), so we headed up the mountain hoping to make good time before the clouds remembered the latest forecast.  There was supposed to be light rain all day with heavy rain at 2 pm.

The first nothing town we reached had a bar which the guidebook said was never open.  They were right.  Tina said take a picture anyway. "That's the mountain we have to go over."  She was right. 

Once we got up there, closer to the clouds, you started to feel the precipitation.   On went the cheap blue ponchos.  Off went the ponchos.  On again.  All the while,  nowhere to take a break or have a snack.

After descending at least 1,600 feet, we arrived in the cute small city of Markina.   It was 12:30 pm already. 

The first thing we encountered was a tiny church, a hermitage.  Dedicated to Saint Michael, the hexagonal building was built around three enormous boulders.  This photo does no justice.

This is the view in the front door.  These rocks are twice as tall as a man. Maybe more.

We got to the center of town,  where I finally achieved oral gratification. 

Yes, that's a Spanish Omelet.  

To this point we'd only been passed by three young  French pilgrims.   As we sat in that cafe, lots of others arrived, hungry and damp.

This Camino was pissing me off as we kept realizing that if you wanted a bed, you had to make reservations in advance. That's not how the Camino is supposed to work!  This is supposed to be an exercise in faith, not tourism.

(Editors note: the Tour de France started yesterday in Bilbao and it's messing everything up.  On top of that this is a tourist destination and it's summertime.  The other Caminos go through depressed rural areas.  They're much happier to cater to pilgrims.)

We made a decision to play things  both ways.  Today, we arrived after another 2+ hours in heavy rain at a Cistercian Monastery.   They took us in.  When they run out of beds, they let you sleep outside on the porch. (We were ready to do that.)

In a half hour, we're going to vespers (mass).  After that, they're feeding us dinner.  I bought some wine and their homemade beer in their gift shop. (The beer's not making it to dinner.  We'll see how the wine works out.)

The monastery does this all for free.  You pay what you want.  They've been doing this for hundreds of years.  (We'll drop something nice in the collection box.)

I said we were playing this both ways. Tomorrow,  we've booked two beds and dinner at an albergue in a small town.  We just have to get there in the rain!

The day after that, I made reservations in Bilbao.

Tina will fill you in on how things turn out tomorrow.