Back on the Norte!

 I boarded my first airplane on Monday morning at 10:45 AM, and got off the plane in San Sebastián 22 hours later. I got about an hour of sleep, but I find that the older I get the more my back just screams when I sit for hours.   I walked for two or 3 km from the airport into the city of Irun.  It's not one of Spain's most beautiful places, and I was trying to decide whether to walk across the bridge to France, when I passed a perfectly fine looking hotel on the way out of the city. Since prices in Spain are much cheaper, I figured this three star hotel was a bargain compared to what I'd get across the bridge. So I got a room,  showered, wash some clothes, and had some fruit. By then it was nearly time for the phone store to open, so I decided to head towards the phone store. As I was walking a woman with a backpack said – are you Laurie? Sure enough it was Nuala,  One of the five of us who are meeting up in Bayonne tomorrow! So we had a really nice several h...

It's that time of year again.  Last minute rushing to finish grading my exams, get up to Chicago to see one half of the family, go to graduation, then finally get on the plane!  I'm leaving on Monday, May 15, for camino number 17 (yes, this is embarrassing, but not all of them were "full" caminos). This year I will be returning to the Camino del Norte, which I walked with my dear pal Dana (known to pilgrims as Danagrina).  It was 10 years ago, hard to believe. That's Dana on the beach, me in the fog. I don't exactly know why I decided to go back to the Norte, and in fact I have been having some doubts, wondering if I should have gone to the remote Ruta de la Lana from Alicante.  That is more my style these days -- walking alone, no mobs of pilgrims, few facilities, but lots of time for just being there.  Last year, though, I had a lot of fun ending my Camino del Ebro/Castellano-Aragonés on the Primitivo with a very wonderful "gang of 15."...