Our stay at the Parador was wonderful, great beds, huge room, excellent breakfast. The only downside was that we didn’t get started until nearly 9am and we had a full day ahead of us. As often is the case the first few km were uphill out of town.
We started seeing some familiar pilgrims straight away and as we walked on many passed us that had passed us the previous day. I am happy with our progress.
The walk was again through farmland on quiet country roads, through rolling Cantabrian hills. We also walked along the coast and at once stage on the beach.
We are closely following the route of the original pilgrims and we passed by some very old cathedrals and churches, all closed unfortunately.
We stopped for lunch in a local bar/restaurant/cafe frequented by locals. The meals were not small. It was the first place we came to which goes against the pilgrim rule of “never stop in the first bar you come to”. Lucky we did as there were no other bars in town. We saw others come back up the hill looking hot and bothered having found nothing in town.
After lunch we walked down the hill through the town and found nothing open. There was a huge cathedral, monastery, chapel, school, and cheese factory, all in one, but no other cafes open.
I worked out a more direct route to our destination, but it meant walking along a highway, less dangerous than it sounds. It saved us 2-3km.
It seems we have walked into another tourist town with palaces, cathedrals and University.
Our accommodation is next to the palace and is very nice.
Russ and Jan's Camino 