So last night I left straight from work for the Airport made it in good time but alas the flight was delayed from Aberdeen to Heathrow only a few minutes at first but as time crept on the delay was getting bigger. This presented issues for me as my bus transfer to stansted was only 20 minutes after the original arrival time. This was already going to not get me to the hotel much before 11. And indeed the plane took off 20 minutes late and arrived 30 mins after the original arrive time.
The next bus was at 11 so didn’t get into the hotel to meet dad until half 1.
After we had to change rooms we didn’t get settled in until 2 ish and with the alarm set for 5 it was a bumpy tired start.
Everything however went well all of our suspect bike tools items cleared security and by 10 we had touched down to a scorcher of a day was 28c at that time in the morning. Next we headed into Bilbao for our transfer which wasn’t until 1 so went for a look around town and shops where I also introduced dad to Aquarius lemon the official drink of last years Camino. Dad will learn to love it I’m sure.
We arrived in Pamplona at 3 ish with many nervous jokes about the bikes being shit, too big or two small but on arriving at the hotel they advised us the bikes were waiting we dumped out stuff in the room and went down to survey our steeds of the next 2 weeks and in all honesty they really are not to shabby. Granted basic for me at least but very good for the task and pennies.
We soon came across out first issue with a lack of Allen keys within our tool kit that come with the bike meaning we couldn’t tighten up our handlebars so after borrowing some from some other cyclists in our hotel we ventured out and found tools and a couple more spare tubes.
At this point it’s easily 30c and we are very tired but thought it would be a shame to waste not going for a pedal round the city and double checking my rusty bearings on locating the camino ready for the morning. After a pedal around and look in the cathedral we eventually found the cafe I had coffee in on the camino last August and now know the rough plan tomorrow. After a cervesa and pintos we made out sweaty escape and plan to get an early night with hope of getting back some sleep. 7 am start in the morning. Here are a few pics from today will have more pics going toward but frankly I have been half asleep all day, tomorrow it’s the real start!
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