Camino del Norte Day 2, San Sebastián to Zarautz, 22 km

Today was a great day, after a very tiring day yesterday. The first few hours of the day, we explored San Sebastián, visiting the cathedral and the Old City. We left on the trail around 10am. There was a lot of walking through rural areas, with beautiful small farms and views of the ocean, along with traditional Basque architecture. There were some ups and downs, but nothing very intense. We are sore, but feeling stronger as we go. The sun came out to join us and it was fun to finally have some blue skies.

We had a picnic feast for lunch in Orio, a sweet little town along the water which was famous for whale hunting back in the 19th century. We continued along the shore and up and over a green hill for a beautiful descent into the town of Zarautz, known as the “Hawaii of Spain” for its great surfing. The long stretch of beach was ideal, and surfers of all levels were enjoying the water.

The albergue here is donation-based, and housed in a school during July and August (many albergues are only open in summer on the Norte route). It is very clean with very hot showers and a nice big yard for relaxing and hanging laundry. We walked along the sea promenade and visited the historic buildings and ate dinner downtown. Now we are ready to get a good night’s sleep. We are excited to see that his albergue has plenty of windows for ventilation. The albergue last night did not have windows and became very hot and stuffy with over 50 bodies in it!

Tomorrow we plan to walk 23 kilometers to Deba.