The next person I asked was able to point more precisely, but she added that the shelter wasn't open until May. I asked one or two more people, and they all confirmed this.
I stopped in a bar and sat down with some apple juice. Great, I thought. Another ten or twelve kilometers to Bilbao, where the next pilgrim shelter was. That would probably take me three more hours to walk. I wondered if I would find some good place to sack out for the night, and whether I would take it if I did.
When I continued the walk, it seemed to go endlessly along a major street through semi-urban area. Then it went up a hill. My left knee was starting to send stabs of pain at every step. I was cursing to myself. I could see the cathedral I had walked past, hours ago it seemed, not that far behind me. I could see the airplanes coming in for landing at the airport outside of Bilbao. The city itself was still on the other side of the ridge. The hillside was actually not as overgrown as much of the country had been, so I was thinking of just spending the night lying in the grass. It was only late afternoon, but I was tired of walking and last night had taught me that the pilgrim shelters can't be expected to be open after sunset.
I finally reached crested the ridge and saw the city of Bilbao stretched out before me. There was a sort of park here, with picnic tables and water fountains and such. I held my knee under cold water for a while.
I asked some men about Bilbao's pilgrim shelter, but they didn't know. One said there was a pilgrim shelter just at the bottom of the hill, "only about a fifteen minute walk."
Almost one hour later I was in the city. The sun was setting. Everyone I had asked about a pilgrim shelter had told me it was on the other end of Bilbao. Two ladies told me there was a convent in the neighborhood, but when I asked there the nun told me that she had no idea about a pilgrim shelter.
I took the bus across town to the hostel which serves as Bilbao's pilgrim shelter. I felt like this was cheating a bit, but I was having some serious concerns about my knee by now, and I wasn't gonna walk all the way across the largest city I'd encounter on this pilgrimage only to stand in front of closed doors and be left to find another bench to lie down on.
I also figured that this morning's extra kilometers I had amassed by walking around in a circle would compensate for the bus across town.
These were my boots on the 8th day of walking.
