I slept well in the tent:). It rained, but no problem with that. The only problem was a rooster with an inaccurate clock. There were chickens wandering around when I arrived yesterday, not an unusual sight. I thought nothing of it, until 3:50 a.m.. The rooster sounded like he was inches from my head when he screamed. I had a hard time falling back asleep.
What a day! I hiked into, and through, Bilbao. I saw the Guggenheim Museum in the distance, and an awesome, large church/cathedral up close, but couldn’t go inside. When I saw enough of Bilbao for the day, I decided to push quite a bit further, late in the day, to the town of Portugalete. Unfortunately I did not bother to get a reservation to stay at an albergue, hostel, hotel, or anything for the night
I’m exhausted, and thrilled finally have a hotel room for the night.
Quick rundown. I got to a town one albergue closed, hotels all closed because it’s a huge national holiday, I couldn’t find the other albergue, and couldn’t get a room in a hotel, it was starting to get dark, and I was working on my plan.
I bought a Coca-cola and pondered. Decided I would start walking, and a couple about my age walked up. They walked with me up to the second albergue with a locked door and a phone number. I called the number, they were full and would take no more.
The albergue “manager” came up with an idea and gave me a number for a closed hotel. This other hotel was closed for the holiday, but if I was willing to pay 30 Euros they would send someone to open it for me. I would have paid much more.
I am safe in a great spot! With one odd exception. There’s a large statue outside my room that’s a little creepy.
My longest day yet, 25 miles. I really am glad I’m not hiking through the night!
The hotel room has a TV. I’m trying to watch How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days in Spanish. My success is not great. I’m glad I had success with finding a place to stay tonight. That’s much more important than a Woody Harrelson movie;)
Some more heavy talks with folks while hiking today. A lot of people are dealing with really hard stuff in life. Parts of today could best be described as a mobile, international, multilingual, group therapy session.
