Writing from Viana

Approaching Ciraqui Old woman in Ciraqui Landscape Jed at the Guggenheim in Bilbao Bilbao This blog thing is turning out to be much harder than I expected! There are very few internet cafes along the way, and then there´s the Spanish tradition of closing everything for siesta between about 2:00 and 6:00 (give or take), so we arrive in a town that has internet- fiinally!....and it´s closed. Right now we are at an albuerge with internet access, but it´s a really slow computer and loading photos is a joke. I fear I may have to add those from home after the fact. Too bed, cuz I have so many I want to share. Bilbao worked out great. We arrived at the Guggenheim about 2 hours before closing, which was just about perfect. It was well worth the trip, a truly impressive building inside and out. The city of Bilbao is quite delightful. It´s an old industrial city that has in the last 20 or so years undergone a transformation. The juxtaposition of the historical buildings with some great new architecture, and the riverfront and public spaces make for a very attractive city. We found a reasonably priced pension in the old town and treated ourselves to a liesurely dinner (starting at 9 pm- Spanish style...and hard for us to get used to!) Took the bus back to Pamplona the following day (Sunday) to resume our walk. Today we put in 20 miles- our longest day yet. Both Jed and I are nursing blisters and tired feet, but other than that no problems. The weather has been awesome- warm spring days but not too hot. The scenery has been wonderful- small villages, olive groves, vineyards- but the thing that is hard to describe is the comraderie among so many nationalities as they experience this journey. You can now add Icelandic, South African, Dane, Mexican, Bolivian and Lithuanian to our list of fellow travelers. Still no US, although there have been rumors of a couple Floridians floating around here somewhere. Momentarily I will have to suddenly end this blog as the computer will shut off- just a warning. So...a couple random notes. There are many single travelers, and I would say that the majority are women. That has been a bit of a surprise to us. But I think the Camino is a relatively safe place, so maybe that´s part of the attraction. Typical scenery on the walk Well, I just got the warning sign that shutoff is imminent, so I will sign off until we are able to find another internet opportunity.