Hi Maya,
You'll love the Norte! In answer to your questions:
- weather in April is always a hit or a miss, and could change from day to day. Your guess about what's going to happen is as good as anybody's. The weather on the Portugues can also be unpredictable (who knows what storms could come in off the Atlantic?) Best check the
weather report - I've set it to the starting point, Irun. It can rain a LOT along the north coast, at any time of year. But it seems like it's going to be ok next week.
- Go to
Gronze and check the "albergue de peregrinos" for each stage. If you click on the albergue's name, it will give you more information about "Disponibilidad" (availability/opening times). Lots of them open from March/April onwards, best to make sure yourself. In places where the albergue is closed, you can get a cheap bed or room in a hostal/hostel/hotel/pension.
- There's usually wifi in the cafes, but not in the albergues. Check into a hotel if you need to get a lot of work done in one go.
- Start in Irun, the "traditional" starting point. The walk through the Basque country is spectacular. Relatively easy to get there from airports in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Biarritz, Bordeaux.
- You can get your pilgrim passport in Irun. The tourist information offices in the Basque Country issue a nice little guidebook. Otherwise, just use the Gronze site I mentioned above. It's in Spanish but you can make out lots of the information even if you don't speak the language (or just use Google translate). You really can't get lost - you basically just follow the arrows along the coast. p.s. sometimes the "official" trail takes you inland along the roads, if you do a search on this forum for "coastal alternatives on the Norte", you'll see there a lot of beautiful paths you can take to keep you next to the sea.