Now in Cantabria

As we continue driving along the coast, we keep seeing houses that are painted brilliantly vibrant colours.

And we are blown away by the lovely tempting morsels of food served at cafes and bars.

This particular little feast was at Santonia which is a centre for anchovy fishing and processing.  As you walk through the town, you can smell the anchovies which is great for us anchovy lovers but may not be for those that do not fancy these darling little fishes 😋.

Others sights in the town.

Our next stop was at Castro Urdiales, an attractive sea-front town with a pretty harbour and a dramatically Gothic church perched above it with the remains of the medieval fort which guarded the city once.

We were looking for accommodation just after we left town and we came across this albergue and we inquired if they had a room for the night.  It turned out to be a hostel for those walking the Camino. With numerous routes across the north of Spain we often came across Camino walkers along the drive.  But the albergue was a privately owned one - not a municipal one - with the owner having discretion and he let us stay.

We had one of our most enjoyable evenings, sharing food and accommodation with the walkers.  For one night we were almost pilgrims 😊.  There were a few nationalities and 19 of us altogether.  We were surprised how many of those were Spanish.

The sleeping accommodation consisted of bunks with about 14 to a room.  Good practice for the next two nights we have booked in the centre of the old quarter of San Sebastian - which will be four bunks to a room.  Prices in San Sebastian are pretty high and we opted for that option for the wonderful central location.




Andrew did however earn his keep by making one of the walkers comfortable.  A Danish woman, travelling with her daughter, had had dental surgery done and her stitches needed to come out but her daughter was too squeamish.  I volunteered Andrew who did a marvelous job and the woman was very happy and at ease.  Having said that, it was a real pleasure and a privilege to spend the evening and night with the Camino people and in the morning, we joined in wishing everyone a Buen Camino.