Cestou necestou: Portugalete - Castro Urdiales (en)

Today is the last day of April. And my seventh day on the Camino. And I am leaving the Bask country and entering Cantabria...

It all started well, like the Camino wanted to show me that my decision to keep going was the right one - when I was buying something for breakfast in a bakery I met there a very nice seller, she called me "cariňo" and smiled at me brightly and it definitelly made my day :)

I was again walking back towards the coast. According to the map I was supposed to see the Playa de la Arena. But as I was coming close to the place, the signs started to be a little messed up - there was something like temporary marking leading me away of the coast, not to the beach...Stubbornly I went to the sea ignoring the signs and soon I met a man telling me that I have to turn back, that recently it is not possible to pass for the beach because the bridge which is part of the was is under reconstruction. But, he added, you can try to pass it. People are doing it. But be careful so that they do not see you...He wished me good luck and I went for my adventure :) I had to break a little through the construction constraints but I was succesful and saved myself from walking 3 more kilometres on the road! And had a brief rush of adrenalin from doing something banned :)

Then the Camino continued on an old historical coastal path - this area was very important for the local industry as a place where they used to extract and process iron ore.

Many kilometres today I walked totally alone, through the forests of Eukalyptus trees and through rural area. Unlike back in the Bask country here there weren't that many pastures and that many cows or sheep. It was more deserted, more quiet.

Castro Urdiales, my next destination. Very nice town with beautiful gothic church, picturesque little port and summery atmosphere. The albergue was small, but nice and full of interesting people starting from "the hospitalero" (a person responsible for the hostels/albergues) - a man from Ghana currently working and living here, in Castro. I don't remember how many languages he spoke but it was many :)

Here I met for the first time a guy from Budapest - Andras. And for the first time I talket to "the professor", a very nice older man from Germany. Both of them I met during the Camino more times.

In Castro I recharged my batteries. To the mobile phone, to the camera as well as my batteries. After the hard day yesterday it all looked bright and sunny, the people in the town were extremely nice. And I saw rainbow! Like three times. Castro is a rainbow town for me :)

On the coastal path after crossing the "forbidden bridge" :)
Na cestě po pobřeží poté, co jsem přešla "zakázaný most" :)
En un sendero costero después de un "puente prohibido" :)