I’m now sitting on the terrace in La Herradura, back in the south – safe from the physical challenges of the trail and from the lure of more strenuous tourism.  Safe in my lounge chair watching the sun set over the Mediterranean and behind the Cerro Gordo, comfortably acknowledging that the twins have settled quietly for the night.  Phewf.

After five, six days on the trail – I’m not even sure how many since it was a blur – Bilbao presented itself as a refuge for recovery after the immediate but short-lived respite San Sebastian had offered us.  We are extremely grateful to our new friend, Amaya, who offered us her flat in the very heart of the city.  While we weren’t able to get out and about as much as we would have liked, the apartment became home and a safe place for Willow and Theo to explore and recuperate.

Unfortunately, the twins both came down with colds; Willow first sported the fever but Theo quickly followed.  Their little heads held more snot than we imagined possible.  One morning, I ran across the house to the sound of sixteen miniature sneezes, which came in quick succession one after the other.  Willow had practically blown herself backwards the length of the rather long hallway. Of course, she found it funny.

Despite the colds we were able to get out and see a little of the city.  For the first time in their lives, our little people were authentic tourists as much as we were.  They enjoyed the unexpected pleasure and excitement of stumbling across a hidden gem – a children’s park – in the downtown of an old European city.  Willow and Theo held onto our fingers and staggered drunkenly – or so it seemed — from attraction to attraction.  We tried to make sure that they didn’t get run over by the swarm of children.  Next, a long walk along the water after which we settled into an evening aperativo outside the Guggenheim where another few hundred tourists and a jazz trio accompanied us.   Willow and Theo, however, had their best adventures in the apartment – from their fifth storey window they watched the residents and their pets go by down on the street and they each bravely took their first steps.

After a week, we left Bilbao anxious to get home – back to the coast on the south.  (Of course we did make time for a quick visit to the new Decathlon outside San Sebastian, a store much like MEC which offered us the opportunity to shop and the twins a chance to challenge themselves on a bouldering wall and a textured shoe-testing ramp.) We were, however, so psyched to get back and to get our kids back to their own environment that we did the fifteen hours of driving in one stretch.  And, now, here I sit after the exhausting push of travelling with twins, finally ready to contemplate what was an exciting adventure in the north.   Next time I shall write about the camino itself where I finally was able to walk again with my father.