Blogs from Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain, Europe

So we start with a 7am pick up for Kris, VERY disturbing to let her go. She has been so great to have along, so supportive and so willing to at least try all the new stuff being thrown at her. She is an educator, fills in every blanks, every day, as to what gonna happen. Not here, every day presents a challenge How the F___ do you get from A to B. Pack up your shit EVERY day have it ready by 8:30 sharp when the delivery service picks up you luggage. What are you going to wear? What is the weather? Where is the bus, train or taxi location? How do I get there? Whats it going to be like when I get there? My GF walked 135K to arrive here in Santillana Del ... read more

It has been 20 days since we set out for our trek on the Camino Norte. Today we arrived in Vilabas early enough to locate access to a computer terminal...the first we have found since our last post 15 days ago. The Camino continues to be an exciting challenge as we move across the northern coast of Spain walking through countryside that has taken us through lots of small towns, villages and country neighborhoods. For the first 2 1/2 weeks our route followed the coastline on most days, with a few small mountain ranges thrown in just to help improve our endurance. Thankfully the blisters have healed and our colds have resolved, and we continue to feel less fatigued at the end of the day. Often we had the sea on our right and beautiful mountain ... read more

Without a car, it takes dedication to get to Santillana del Mar and then up to the Altamira Caves. Even Rick Steves, my travel guru, doesn't recommend it. But, I made it happen. It involved taking a crack of dawn bus from Bilbao to Santander, the regional hub of Cantabria. Then another bus a bit inland to Santillana del Mar, until finally hiking up into the hills for maybe 40 minutes. And I'm honestly proud of myself. I was at the caves by 12. Pretty good, if you ask me. And why come all this way, against most travel writers better judgments? The answer is that Altamira contains cave paintings from 14,000 years ago, by the earliest of humans. They were discovered in the 1870s, and actually the masses of people got to be too much ... read more

In the Western part of Cantabria is the small medieval city of Santillana del Mar. They say the city is of three lies, since it is not holy (santi), flat (llana) or on the sea! (del mar). Some good-looking liar! The city is quite a beautiful little jewel, perfectly preserved with its bright cobbled streets and tan stone and brick buildings surrounding centuries of history that lies within this city. Cut off my automotive traffic, the city can only be explored by foot. So thats what we did. On a grey-skyed saturday three girls of all different nationalities piled into a very small car by any North American's standard and set off from Santander in Northern Cantabria Spain and drove through the Cantabrian countryside. Eventually finding there final destination of Santillana del Mar. This medieval jewel ... read more