Bilboa

 Bilboa 

It was a nice flat and easy start to the day from Larrabetzu through Lezama to Zamudio. It was warm but the clouds kept the sun away so it wasn't too hot or too bright. The roads and the railway go around Mount Avril to reach Bilboa but El Camino purposefully makes everything a challenge for the pilgrim. It has to go straight over the top.

The view of Mount Avril from Zamudio with the telcommunication masts on the top. It is only 365 metres to climb but after already a week of walking and carrying a pack, any incline is a challenge.

The road goes up to a junction on the motorway but El Camino takes a parallel path through woods giving shade. The path passes a farm with barking dogs and freeranging goats that ignored both me and the dogs. The path goes under the motorway to a junction with a path going either left or right. I searched for an arrow or a marker but I found none. I even walked back under the motorway in case there was a sign there advising which way to go but there was nothing. The dogs continued to bark, the goats continued to ignore me. 

The right hand path dipped down, levelled out for a while and then a gentle slope up. The left hand path was steep and rutted. Near the top, there were some crash barriers to stop vehicles driving off the track, down the cutting and onto the motorway. I felt sure that there would be an arrow there. I slooged up the deeply rutted track, and where it wasn't rutted, it was covered with coarse gravel so your feet slipped backwards with every step.

I reached the top and the start of the crash barriers but there were no yellow arrows. The track continued but it didn't look that used, so I had probably made an error. Not the first time and there would be more. Despite slogging up the steep slope, I returned to the junction under the motorway. As I came down, I saw a faded yellow arrow on the concrete of the bridge support. I had missed it on the way up as it was in shadow and it was open and bright just beyond. Earlier, as I stood at the junction searching for a sign, a sapling had obscured it. Just a bit further on was another yellow arrow, to confirm that I was back on track. 

I was looking for a left turn and passed one. I had made one mistake already that day. Once bitten, twice shy. I wasted some time checking for arrows or crosses but their were none. I walked up the track but there were on signs and it was overgrown further up so it didn't feel right. I continued down the original track.

I was rewarded with the sight of several yellow arrows painted on crash barriers.

As I walked further up the mountain, I had a view of Bilboa airport in the distance, some of the urban sprawl of the city and top left of the photo, the estuary, the sea and the port, clear to the naked eye but a blur in the distance in the photo.

A fire break in the forest, with dozens of clumps of pampas grass growing in the open space.

A concreteentrance and a padlocked door, hidden in the forect with no information board, but it did have a tall pole with an aerial and a solar panel on top so it was in use but no clue as to what it was. 

As I descended from the summit of Mount Avril, there was a new version of the El Camino marker signs, pointing the way to go.

                                      

The entrance to teh cathedral in Bilboa...

                                               

...and a view of the entrance and h tower, but being in the old city centre, space is precious and it was difficult to find a better perspective. 

                                       

A shopping mall, a beautiful art deco style building. 

The entrance to one of Bilboa's railway stations. The words above the door read C-F (for Ferro Carrill meaning railway) Santander to Bilboa. 

I was walking up the Nervion River and knew I was getting near to the Guggenheim Museum when I saw the Zubizuri Bridge. 

It is a curved pedestrain bridge. 

The next bridge is the high level Puente de la Salve which carries a najor road over the river and runs adjacent to the Guggenheim Museum. Pedstrains have access from river level to cross the river but with 12 flights of stairs to climb, you must be desparate to cross just here rather than a less eerting option  elsewhere. 

The Guggenheim...

 

...the main entrance, everyone knows it but I thought it was ugly but I still had to go and have a look. 

On my return from the Guggenheim to my hotel, I passed the Arriaga Theatre, a beautiful classical building. It was showing Mama Mia! and queues were forming for the matinee performance.