Un paseo largo

Hello all!  I haven't posted on here in a while because things have been sort of the same.  I have been going to class and enjoying Bilbao, but I hadn't gone to any new and exciting places until today.  This morning, a friend and I took the bus to Bakio so that we could make the hike to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (a mouthful, I know!).  Although we disagreed on how long the walk actually was, I believe that it was roughly 8 kilometers.  It was mostly uphill, too, so I really got a workout!

We took this long, winding dirt road up through the mountains.  We were walking along cliffs that dropped off into the Bay of Biscay, and unlike a lot of the other tourist-type sites that we have visited, it was peaceful and quiet - there weren't many people hiking.  The only sound that I heard frequently was the ringing of the church bells at San Juan.  We walked past fields with farm animals, through forests, and up rocky terrain.  The water was so clear, I could see every rock at the bottom of the bay where the water was shallow, even from the mountaintop.  I counted my blessings that at least I am young and in shape.  I cannot imagine going out there if that wasn't the case.

When we reached the top of the mountain, there was an extremely expensive restaurant, which was surprising, since it had been mostly secluded on the way up - although, there are roads for the cars to drive up the mountain.  There was also a playground and some other civilization, which was a bit strange to see after a long hike through the wilderness.  Finally, after our long uphill hike, we had to descend back down toward the bay, where the islet San Juan is connected to the mainland by a long bridge.  The trek down was even worse than up because there were barely any footholds, but we made it!  I felt like I was on some sort of religious pilgrimage.  Once we reached the bridge, there were many stairs and stations of the cross were positioned all the way up.  After we climbed the stairs onto the islet, we were able to see the church.

Yes, we climbed all that!

The church from the mountain

Apparently, the church on San Juan is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and the site on the islet was originally a hermitage that was built many centuries ago - wiki says 9th century :) I definitely felt as though I had stepped back in time.  We went into the church and were also able to ring the bell.  The view from there was gorgeous.  I think it even topped Biarritz!

Eventually, after admiring the scenery for a while, we headed back down to Bakio and caught the bus back. We could have gone to the beach there, but we were so hot from hiking and the tides weren't good for swimming, so we skipped it.  After doing that hike, I feel inspired to someday do some sort of backpacking trip, but that will have to wait for the future.  It was a perfect prelude to tomorrow's trip to Barcelona!