33. Santoña to Santander

 So here I am in Santander! I hadn’t thought I’d be walking that far today, in fact I ‘slept in’ thinking it would be a shorter stage (and because there were only four of us in the room at the hostel so it was a lot less frenetic!). Once I got going, however, Santander called.

I grabbed a quick coffee in Santoña not far from the hostel and then got going. (NB. I took this shot to show a typical bar/cafe in Spain. There’s only one other person in this shot but five minutes later the place was crawling.)

The path from Santoña was unusually straight and flat so I fired up the afterburners and really got going.

Gradually, the country became more undulating. I was never that far from the coast but I didn’t actually see any water until I reached Somo, thirty something kilometres further on.

Drawing near to Somo, it was clear I was in beach territory. By this time the sun had also come out and the day had warmed considerably.

A kilometre further on I arrived at the little harbour in Somo. There was a ferry about to leave for Santander on the other side of the estuary/ harbour so I jumped aboard and took a seat.

As Elizabeth noted in yesterday’s comments, ‘there’s nothing like a ferry ride to help you catch your breath’. So true. After walking all day it was bliss to take off the pack, take a seat and glide through the calm, blue-green water of Port Santander.

The city in in the distance.

And the view from the other side of the ferry - looking inland (south) towards Cantabrian mountains.

Fifteen minutes later we were approaching the shore, the stately buildings of Santander basking in sunshine.

I jumped off and went in search of somewhere to stay. 

I found a room using the Camino app which I’ve actually booked for two nights. Having walked almost 200,000 steps in the past four days these littl’ old legs are feeling a ‘tad’ weary!! To add to the picture, I woke with a slight sore throat this morning, rain is forecast for tomorrow, Santander looks like a great little city to spend some time in, and the next stage is about thirty six kilometres. Everything, seemed to be suggesting it would be a good time to pause, and thankfully, I can. A chance to explore a little but mostly to spend some time sitting, watching the world go by sounds blissful right now. 😊 😊 😊

Clannad! One of my favourite Irish bands. I’d love to know the story of why this place has this name??

I bumped into another pilgrim earlier today, David from London, who has also arrived here in Santander. We are going to catch up for a beer a little later, and that will be nice too. 

Here’s a couple more shots from around town. Hopefully , there’ll be more to share tomorrow. 

🙏 🙏 🙏