A few mistakes today made things harder than perhaps they had to be. Firstly, not enough food and water, particularly proteins, at Casa Istekei had us behind the curve all day. It was a very nice place in a nice setting but the self serve breakfast was mostly carbs – no eggs and little ham. Secondly, we started too late (9:40 am) and consequently didn’t stop enough. As a consequence, we pulled into Gernika pretty well out on our feet!
That said we had a nice walk for most of the day along creeks, in pine (and sometimes blue gum) forests. Just after starting we passed through Bolibar, ancestral home of Simòn Bolivar, one of the great colonizers of South America.
As usual, a biggish climb in the morning up to Monasterio de Zenarruza, then even higher again until we descended in Munitbar for an early lunch, beer and wine. The descent was made extremely easy by a wonderful set of stairs that must have been recently added by friends of the Camino.
It seemed like all uphill after Munitibar – another great church/monastery at Elexalde, more uphill and then a fairly easy descent into Gernika. A deceptively long and tedious final walk into Gernika – this is where we should have had a break – before finally arriving at our hotel (Hotel Gernika). 20.6km today for a total of 117km!
Ejected a few superfluous items from the backpack but probably not enough!
The city is the scene of saturation bombing by the German Condor Legion at Franco’s request and the inspiration (?) for Picasso’s La Guernica which we hope to see later in Madrid.
Beautiful dinner in the relatively modern city centre.
steelewalking 