El Camino del Norte : Irún to San Sebastián

Kilometres this section : 28

Kilometres completed : 28

Starting from the French border.

Is it time for another walk?  Yes, I think so.  Well, I really enjoyed the Camino de Santiago last year, and of course there are many different routes, so why not do another one?  This time the plan is to do the Camino del Norte, starting from the French border, near San Sebastián.  No attempt to ride French trains this year, San Sebastián has an airport, although no direct flights from the UK so I spend a few hours in Barcelona - not exactly a bad thing.  Indeed I have enough time to walk out of the airport and buy a cheap lunch from Lidl...

San Sebastián airport is to the east of the city, so close to the border and my start point, most convenient.  A good view from the plane as I approach too, we fly along the French coast, which I recall cycling along, wow, eight years ago.  Easy to leave the airport after a domestic flight, and a short walk to my hotel in Irún, a nice place I must say.  It does prove a bit tricky to find some dinner, plenty of bars but most just have dubious tapas, and while one is also a restaurant the service is so bad that I walk out.  Fortunately there is perfectly adequate bocadillo not far away.

Glorious mud!

Time to walk then, although first I want to get a pilgrim passport, apparently a local church does them, so I go there, but they are not going to open until 10:30, OK, might as well walk some of the route then.  I wanted to start from the French border anyway, reaching it I am not surprised to find the bridge I crossed back on that long cycle.  There are familiar blue and yellow signs, the route leads me back to the church which is still shut, OK, I will go and buy some food for lunch, this takes a while as it is labour day, so most places are shut.  But finally the church opens, I get my credencial, and walk out of Irún, retracing my route from the airport for a while before heading out of town.

Not long out of Irún, I hit a footpath, and wow, this is not the flat, well built type of path I spent so much time on last time.  No, this is a steep slope of mud and rocks, with a stream running down it, because it is raining.  I could be in the UK!  Well, this is fun for me, I climb up and walk a high ridge, there are views down to the sea, all good.  It rains much of the day, but I can cope, and it is pretty cool to descend to an inlet where I need to take a short ferry journey to continue.  My hostel today is a fair way from the route, so plenty of walking through the cheaper bits of San Sebastián, seems nice enough, as is the hostel, for all that it is located on the ground floor of an apartment building.

Ferry crossing at Pasaia.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.