Walking Day 1 - Irun to San Sebastián 26.5km

Day 1 is in the books and we must say it was tough for both of us.  This was a Difficulty 5 (most) stage with a total ascent of 710m by the guide and 1287m actual elevation gain by Strava.  It should also be pointed out that it is unlikely any pilgrim ever took this particular route.  The Camino has changed over the centuries as tenth century's roads gave way to freeways and Camino planners try to make the various routes more natural, closer to early experience and more athletic in keeping with increased interest in walking the Camino for sport. Having said all that the trail from Irun took us up a steep mountain ridge that is at the ocean's edge down to a sea inlet, ferry crossing then up again along the mountain ridge until coming down again into San Sebastián for a long walk along 2 beaches.

We cheated a little as we wanted to start the walk at the bridge that separates France from Spain.  This is where Hitler met Franco.

Our Albergue was about 2 km along the route from this bridge which would have meant adding extra 4 km to the walk.  So we went to the bridge on Sunday and started the Camino walking West at 7am after a breakfast at the Albergue which to our delight was full.  At least 40 pilgrims from lots of places.

Our 1st stop was at Santuario de Guadalupe, a small 17th church where we met walkers from England and Rome.  This was 1st chance to see the ocean.

We erred here following other pilgrims and took the lower variant instead of the upper which while steeper still would have afforded us more ocean views.  But still it was a nice walk in cool temperatures with cloud cover.  We did not miss the mud that plagued our 2013 Camino.  We then descended to a port inlet and took a ferry across the inlet to continue the walk up endless stairs to the lighthouse guarding the port entry.

 From here the trail became more manageable, now affording beautiful views of the rugged Coast.

 

We then desended into San Sebastián walking along it's clean beautiful beaches until we reached the Youth Hostel that would be our place to stay.   There were surfers trying to catch waves and wonderful artcutecture that caught JL's eye.