El Camino del Norte : Escalante to Comillas

Kilometres this section : 95

Kilometres completed : 345

On the cliff path approaching Santander.

I climb out of Escalante on minor roads, with a pall of smoke hanging above me, from field burning it seems.  I still see very few hikers on the inland route, there must be some at times though, a little hermita I pass has a nice exhibition with many photos of pilgrims.  After lunch I rejoin the other route, it leads me onto a rather awesome cliff path.  This is a bit scary, I am at times only a metre from the edge, but there is a great view over the bay.  Then I walk a beach for a few km, this makes a nice change, and takes me to Somo, where I need to take a ferry to Santander.  Thirty minutes on the boat, and a short walk to my hostel to check in, then I walk across town to meet my parents!  They have driven eight hundred miles to join me here, a shame then that the various menus del día they were interested in are of course not available in the evening.  Never mind, we get enormous enormous amounts of food anyway, from an a la carte menu.  I still somehow have room for black pudding, provided by a bar on the way back to my hostel...

Many things in the maritime museum.

OK, sightseeing with my parents, it is perhaps slightly slower than my usual mad dash around, still we manage to see many things.  There is of course a cathedral, though most of it is shut so we only visit the crypt.  My dad enjoys an extremely thick hot chocolate, on our way to the rather excellent maritime museum, where there is an aquarium with many fish.  Our timing is good, it is fish feeding time, we watch as a diver mostly puts down food for the rays and other flatfish, while small sharks swim around and a moray eel hangs out in its purpose built home.  Out past the jellyfish nursery to the history section, which has many ship models and dioramas, from Roman times, to a recreated galleon gun deck, to more recent years.  Come the afternoon, my parents go for a lie down, so I head off to the Magdalena peninsula, location of a very impressive royal summer palace, and many other things.  I particularly like the collection of boats built by local sailing legend Vital Alzar, but there's also a little zoo with seals and even African  Penguins!  I then eat too much food again, so much cheese, an escalope, cheesecake that is just so good, then I stop off on my way back again, for beer, and also olives and fried egg sandwiches!

Dinner in Santander.

It's a long walk to get out of Santander, on a grey day, it drizzles as I plod on.  At least the way is pretty flat, mostly on roads, sticking close to a motorway.  There's a nice, if brief footpath section alongside the Rio Pas.  I'm still seeing few hikers, I guess this route is not as popular as the Camino Francés.  It is  Sunday again, most places are shut, but I manage to buy a bread and cheese lunch from a petrol station's mini Carrefour.  The afternoon walk isn't very exciting, the most notable thing being a massive industrial site, maybe a chemical plant?  I reach my original planned stop, Viveda, for 4pm, but looking at accommodation there a day or so ago I couldn't find much, so 6km off trail to a hotel in Suances it is.  Not a big place, but it has a bar, tonight I eschew burgers in favour of a bacon and cheese bocadillo, it is most tasty.

Santillana del Mar.

A sunny Monday morning, and a nice walk back to the trail, where I pop into a bar for a welcome coffee.  Today the route is through pleasant rolling hills, and I can see mountains ahead.  There are maybe a few more pilgrims today, perhaps drawn by the day's highlight, Santillana del Mar, a really well preserved medieval town.  I see many sights, mostly buildings but also museum with works by local sculptor Jesus Otero.  I see signs for the Altamira caves, arguably the location of the world's best examples of prehistoric art, it is two km off the route but surely worth it.  But of course I arrive to find the place shut, why of course, it's Monday.  Spain, never change.  I still have 20km to walk, and there's more up and down, and it even starts raining as I make my way back to the sea.  Destination today is Comillas, I find an albergue up a hill, it is very medieval here too.  Back down the hill to a bar / restaurant, wow there's pricey food here, I wander a bit further, enduring much rain, to find another place where I get many plates of nibbles and a ham sandwich.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.