Season 5. Episode 12. To the Camino.

Season 5. Episode 12.  To the Camino. 

September 3, 2025. San Sebastián, to Aretxabaleta, Spain. 61 miles. 3,194’ climbing. 

No matter how windy it was today (up to 20 mph) or hot (high of 85) or steep a climb (11% grade), we were thrilled to have a dry day without rain! While riding I found myself thinking of Henry Higgins teaching Eliza Doolittle that “the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain”, and I’m just happy if it doesn’t fall on my bike. 

Getting bikes in and out of our second floor lodging in San Sebastián was a tight bike maneuver in the small elevator. The hotel staff suggested we leave them locked overnight outside which I wasn’t chancing.

I didn’t expect this croissant to explode with Nutella, and Heather caught me with “chocolate on my chin” - which happens to be a long running Segal family catchphrase from when our daughter Jamie was chocolate-covered as a two year old.

Heather’s croissant was also filled to her surprise - with a jelly of sorts. She carried on and on about how flaky, yet juicy the croissant was and completely different than France, swearing it was the best of her life and who would’ve guessed that while in Spain. She also didn’t ask the bakery server about ingredients despite her food allergies (nuts and other), just assuming a croissant is a croissant. Good thing Heather’s didn’t have Nutella! I’m just saying.

Heather stopped to take this photo. And right as I passed through, I heard the bells going off and the barrier start to drop.

I turned back to see Heather on the tracks, between the 2 dropping barriers, racing to make it across, which she just did while ducking so the barrier didn’t hit her on the head.

For today and the next day, we were not on a designated bike route that is highly traveled by bike, so I expected to be on roads just like in the USA. 

So we were quite surprised that for the first 40 miles we enjoyed protected or separated bike lanes over 90% of the time.

To our kids: these really were #btoml. To rest of you: Segal family shorthand for best tomatoes of my life. We can’t believe how flavorful they were.

We continue to notice how much they adorn their homes with flowers.

The views have grown in beauty.

I remain overjoyed with long steep descents. Heather not at all.

It was a tight squeeze.

Looking up at some of these mountains can be intimidating thinking of riding them. So it was a relief in a few places to go through them, rather than over them.

It’s far more common to see clothes drying outside here. I read that whereas about 80-85% of homes in the USA or Canada have a clothes dryer, it’s only around 25-35% in France and Spain. There are variety of reasons - some practical like small apartments or homes, and cost; and some cultural reasons.

September 4, 2025. Aretxabaleta to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. 71 miles. 4.217’ climbing.

One difference we’ve noticed thus far from Spain to France is in fellow riders. In France, there were pannier-carrying cyclists like us everywhere. In Spain we’ve seen very few bike packers with panniers, but way more serious looking cyclists.  

And young ones. These two boys ages 10 and 14 were at our hotel and training for races. We’ve never seen that in the USA.

Cycling is in the DNA here as I’ve seen pedals for exercise installed in front of leisure benches.

As we rode out of town, a local stopped me who spoke no English so he communicated with Heather that he thought there was a better route with more distance but less steep climbing for us. He escorted us back 2 miles for the cutoff for that route. (Which meant 4 more round trip miles for him.) There’s an ethos in the rider community of looking out for one another. It was so kind of him to take the time.

In general whenever passing a rider who appears looking over their bike as if something is wrong, or they’re in the middle of changing a flat, riding etiquette is to ask if they’re ok or if they need help. Riders passing one another going in opposite directions, most of the time give a slight hand flick to one another or a nod of acknowledgement. 

Morning ride.

We then discovered Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of Basque Country. Some images:

Our guide back in San Sebastian advised us that fountains are good for clean water to drink everywhere in Spain except Barcelona. So we’ve been refilling from them.

This afternoon was likely my favorite ride of trip so far. We were in wide open space reminiscent of the Western USA and with other road cyclists, but no bike packers.

Many vineyards.

We arrived in Santo Domingo de la Calzada which got us onto the route of the Camino de Santiago, usually referenced simply as the Camino. The shell is its symbol.

There are actually several different Caminos - pilgrimage routes leading to Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia in northwestern Spain.

The reason for the pilgrimages is that allegedly the remains of St. James, a biblical apostle of Jesus, lie in the Cathedral in Santiago. Pilgrims have been making their way there since the 9th century. Hundreds of thousands do so each year (500,000 in 2024). While originally a religious pilgrimage, now many (most I’ve met) make the journey for non-religious reasons.

The traditional, most popular path, the French Way or Camino Frances starts in  St. Jean Pied de Port, France and takes about 5 weeks to walk 490 miles. That’s the path we’ve intersected with. 

I first became seriously interested in the Camino in 2010 through the movie “The Way” starring Martin Sheen. And we have had it in mind to travel the Camino ever since. We’ve considered walking it, as is the traditional mode, but cycling the Camino is increasing in popularity of late. We are excited for our Camino journey to begin. 

© Copyright Mark Segal 2025.