Some mornings the sky for a brief period has colors that takes your breath away. Today was such a morning. We were up early as usual and out of our albergue by 6:30. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
   
This morning we had a choice to make:  to go along the highway or take the country roads and mountains and walk an additional 5k.  We chose the longer but more beautiful path. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Half way up our long climb the breeze became cooler and the sky looked ominous. Within seconds of trying to capture this scene the rain showers came.  

   
We had less than a minute to get our raincoats out and on. This was a real rain, not the Basque dumb rain. 

As we were climbing, I heard the bells and saw a herd of goats coming down the path. I immediately pulled to the side to allow them to pass. They saw me and stopped in their tracks. Eitherthey were real gentlemen or scared of my getup! They moved out of the way so we could pass. 

Heavy rain lasted for about 20 minutes.   

  
    
 
We enjoyed our way down “a gentle slope,” for the first time in many days.

    
   
At 17 km we finally found a cafe to sit and eat in the town of Liendo.  The woman in blue spoke a long time to us about how good the albergue in their town was.

   
    
 
On our last climb of the day we met our first Americans of this Camino,  Richard and Marjorie from Santa Clara, CA (on their 13th Camino). 

  
Finally after 24 km we are in the beautiful coastal city of Laredo.