Strange thing happened last night. Sometimes at home I will have a nightmare and then I’ll wake up, realise I’m safely tucked up in bed and feel really nice and secure. Last night, twice, I had dreams of being all nicely tucked up in bed at home and then woke up and realised, to my horror, that I was in an overcrowded Albergue with 25 other people and two sinks and toilets. 😵
The plan today was to have a nice fairly easy day, not too far, and then casually settle in our pre-booked accomodation at Rioseco early afternoon. Around lunchtime we decided to check out the exact position of our pension only to find that there are two Rioseco’s in Northern Spain and our night was booked in the wrong one. Everywhere in our Rioseco, 15mls, was full. We walked on to Liendo, 18 mls, everywhere was full. We spoke to other pilgrims who were all having the same problem, some who were ready to pack in and go home because, like us, they had had this problem nearly every day. Luckily I found something in Laredo on Hotels.com but it meant we had yet another day of over 20 mls walking.
This really is no good as the stress and long days are taking all the enjoyment out of the walk. It’s becoming obvious that the Del Norte just can’t cope with the numbers of pilgrims attempting the walk
As luck would have it there is a Pilgrims office in Laredo and we are going to spend the morning there tomorrow to see if they can book accommodation for the next week en-route. I think the problem is that tour companies are booking up all the pensions and just leaving the under sized Albergues for the people trying to walk it in a more authentic way and they can’t cope with the numbers.
Anyway, today’s walk ranged from the stunningly beautiful sections off road to the positively dangerous on road sections. Here’s some photos of the good bits
PS an interesting option on the menu tonight offered “soggy rice and lobster”, as much as I was tempted…………
Castro Urdiales
800 metre tunnel just for walkers and cyclists
On the road to Liendo
Camino Del Norte 
You certainly don’t need to have accommodation difficulties. Adding additional miles to next place to find everything full is really a problem. Hope you can sort it out
Irene
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I told you to take a tent.Hope you can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep walking
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What a shame about the accommodation – hope you managed to get something sorted in Liendo for the coming week. As you said, it is starting to take some of the enjoyment out if this amazing walk. You’re not expecting luxury but 2 basins and 2 toilets between 25 people?! 😱 Anyway, enough said about the accommodation; yet again, some lovely photos (love the one of the statue of the diver – although looks like they are diving onto the rocks!). Soggy rice and lobster – Mmmmm ! 😂 At least they are being honest!
Hope today (Saturday) has been a good one for you! 😊 xx
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Another attempt to login, this time via Opera, hopefully it doesn’t also think I’m Derek Truby. Who is that man, he is everywhere?
Regarding accommodation issues, maybe if you can’t beat them, you will just have to join in and sign up with one of the local accommodation & luggage transfer agents. Must be taking away so much of the enjoyment from the walk.
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