Norte – Day 5 – Deba to Markina-Xemein

Here come the hills! – In Deba we stayed at a quaint Pension that was accross the street from the light rail tracks… Fortunatly the trains stopped running at 10 PM. Otherwise one would not be able sleep with the train racket. At the Pension there were a few other pilgrims staying there, and we found ourselves passing each other on the Camino throughout the day, and as it turns out many of them were staying at the same hotel as us in Markina.

The trail today was pretty much up hill a good portion of the day on foresty roads some of which were paved. There was some real trails mixed in as we traversed the ridgeline with more mud. Only problem, we were socked in with coastal fog/mist. Not much to see or take pictures of unless you like misty pics…. However this was the making for great conversations as with nothing to look at; fellow pilgrims opened up and started conversations. We met a couple from Scotland, (did not get their names..) Michael and Biget from Germany and Steven from Malta. We spent the better part of the afternoon with Michael, Biget and Steven as we passed the time chatting (and the fog) on the way to Markina. We bid farewall to Michael and Biget who were staying in Bolibar (the next town) upon arrival to Markina and continued on with Steven (via taxi) to our hotel as it was about 2 KM off the route.

Upon arrival at the hotel we fell into company with two wonderful women from Holland. Yvonne and Lizbeth. The five of us had a great evening sharing a meal and great conversation learning about each others families and careers. A wonderful evening indeed, that left no time to blog.

We stayed at Hotel Antsotegi, which is a converted Basque iron works building. The Hotel is faboulos mix of stone works and wood craftsmanship. Not to mention the great staff and resturant. The chef at the Hotel prepared a Monk fish that we shared. I am not much of a fish person, but Lori, Yvonne, Lizbeth and Steven raved about it.

We ended our day with our fill of new freindships and conversation. Good news we get to do it again tomorrow!