Santander to Arce day 13 20K

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Santander is a large city on the water with a lot of cool stuff to see. It is by no means Bilbao, but it was nice to stay in a hotel with great amenities. The walk starts out of the City with clear marking's for the Camino. This 20K trek is to take 3 hrs 30 min, meaning the path is mostly on a road. True to form the Camino follows the city out to a roundabout where it abruptly starts up out of the town of Santander. The trek is very nice along the coast line with great vistas, the weather is perfect for walking 62-70 degrees with partly sunny skies. Kris is the meet me in Arce around lunch time which should around 1pm. The walk is typical of the area, with remote villages, rural farm land, rolling hills with sea views a plenty. It's a n uneventful walk in terms of problems with the trail of any physical issues with my old body. As I come over the last hill Arce comes into view. It's a beach town with literally miles of sandy beach at its feet. I am walking and looking for the tourist information center, which is always the first order of business to get a stamp from the town you visited, As usual its closed. The Spanish hours are open 10pm closed 12pm, open 2 pm closed 6pm. In addition the tourist information person has varied from Atilla the hun to mother Teresa. They can be incredibly surly or very accommodating. It also depends on their gender and who is doing the asking. If it's a female I do the talking if it's a male Kris does the talking. Seems to yield the best results. I am amazed at the difference on the amount and accuracy of the information provided from county to county. In the Bask region we were provided with detailed satellite imagery of the Camino. Now in Cantabaria you get a map showing the ENTIRE Camino with 0 information on the next segment. Its like you want a map from Portland to Beaverton and they hand you a map from Portland to Medford! Good luck!

Anyway I was looking for the tourist info. spot and I see a cute Blonde girl waving at me, not surprised happens all the time, except this time it's my GF, sweet. She greets me with" I have seen everything here and it sucks the tourist info. lady is a bitch lets eat". OK , can't argue with that. And O bye the way where she flagged me down is the best place to eat in town. Turns out as with many spots we have been in, the season has not began. 80% of the hotels, bars, restaurants are closed. I can see this place would be ugly during tourist season, but now its great. We wait 20 min. for the restaurant to begin serving by drinking beer, only thing cold. We have a nice lunch and head up to the info. center to obtain my stamp. Done. Then our lodging is off the Camino as almost everything in Arce is closed. I astutely figure out how to call our B & B, and he answers immediately 10 min. he says, " Meet me at the church" easy enough there is only 1. !0 min. later he arrives. He drives up 15 min. away from Arce to Mienigo. Our lodging is a sweet B & B with great beds, heat, nice bathroom and very pleasant surroundings. We had lunch so no dinner just snacks are the order of the day. Nice! Good end to a nice day

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