27 km. Chilly (13C/55F) and rainy until about the last hour. Mostly in mountains and countryside, although we started seeing the ocean about an hour out of Laredo. The views were pulchritudinous, as usual. (Haha - thanks for coming through, Al!)
I walked pretty wet for much of the day. Thank goodness for waterproof boots, rain jackets, backpack covers, and quick-dry pants. Would have been cold except I burn like a furnace when I walk. If I had to choose, I would prefer this to walking in the sunny 28C (82F) day we had last week.
Set out from Rioseco after breakfast at around 9:45. There were two big hills, but I felt strong today. The first hill was not far out of Rioseco. It rained gently on the way up, then at the top I descended straight into a low cloud and got soaked for a while. When I finally reached Liendo at about noon, I was busting for a bio break and ready for a second breakfast (too early for lunch here), but I couldn’t find an open cafe anywhere! It took me 40 minutes of walking and I was almost out of town when I finally found an open cafe. Whew.
Turns out, I was not the only one who had ducked in for a second breakfast. The waiter asked me to sit with the one other pilgrim in the cafe in order to save tables, so that’s how I met Anna from Germany. Anna is doing one week of walking and had just started in Bilbao, so she was still getting used to the routine of the day. We walked together the rest of the day and hit it off. The second hill was a breeze with company. And Anna is tall and healthy so I climbed much faster than I would have alone.
We had a lot of fun together. I introduced her to the menu del día when we reached Laredo. She is pescatarian and many of the pintxos are meaty, plus she does not speak much Spanish, so she had been eating french fries and eggs for lunch each day. She was thrilled to have the menu we found of risotto, fish, and dessert. Unfortunately, she made the rookie mistake of eating the entire first plate of risotto (massive portion) and leaving no room for dessert. She assured me she has learned her lesson.
I made a couple route errors today. One not so bad. The other a bit worse. First, I took a wrong turn out of Rioseco and wandered the wrong countryside for a short stretch. Fortunately, I figured it out and it only cost me a couple extra km. Then in Laredo, Anna and I decided to walk on to Santoña. It’s about 4.5 km past the town center, along the beach, to a ferry across the estuary between the two towns. We took a small detour to stroll along the sand, taking our sweet time, and got to the ferry dock at about 5 pm. It was strangely quiet. There was a fisherman nearby who informed us that the last ferry is at 2:30 on weekdays. We asked what other options there were and he said swim (very funny…) or walk inland to the bridge and around - an extra 13 km!
I considered it, but Anna was not too keen (she saved me from myself), so we sat on a curb for a bit trying to figure out where our closest accommodation was, as we were now well out of Laredo. Just then, a cyclist came and confidently went to the pier, only to also discover he was out of luck. It turns out, he had a friend in Santoña with a car. So Jose (from Santander) called his friend Coral (from Mexico City, living in Spain) to come pick all three of us up! Angel of the day.
Jose dropped us in the center of town, and Anna and I walked to the albergue we had chosen, only to find it was closed. What a day. We were fine. We regrouped, she chose another albergue, and I checked into a ‘hostel’ that is more of an inn. We exchanged details and may catch up to walk tomorrow.
I am currently in a laundromat doing a thorough wash as I am concerned I am becoming a stinky pilgrim. There is a fruit and veg market next door, so for dinner I just ate two oranges, a banana, and a croissant that I had in my bag.
P.S. I can see that some of you are leaving comments, but I can’t figure out how to read them and respond from my phone. Sometimes I stumble onto them, but then cannot reply or even find them a few minutes later. Please know I am grateful for your messages and I can’t wait to see them when I have a computer again.
Some photos of the day:
So cool to read about all the great people you are meeting! So thankful for them!