Author: Charles Crowley

Chinese food lunches: 1
China store purchases: 2
Cities we stayed in all day taking a break: 1, Santander
Beautiful markets visited: 1, see post
Cash machines used requiring a rant: 1, see post

We love Spanish food but when we are in bigger cities we like to see their take on other country’s cuisines. Yesterday it was Mexican and it was very good. Today we tried a traditional looking Chinese place. It was also very good, lighter than most Chinese food in the US. The owner (at least she seemed to be in charge, the place was called “Restaurante Mr Wang”) was friendly and laughed a lot. She has been in Spain for 41 years. We wanted to try things so ordered too much and only ate about half the food. No problem, we had just been to a China store and had some Tupperware-like containers that we got for other purposes (to replace our trusty bowls we use for breakfasts). She thought that was great and even washed them out for us. So Chinese food for dinner also. Everyone in the place seemed happy and smiled a lot. I imagine living in Spain is way, way better than living in China.

We have talked about China stores in previous blogs. They are an institution in Spain. Always run by actual Chinese people (it seems), they are kind of like old-time 5 and 10 cent stores with a little of everything. Lost your US to European plug converter? Go to a China store. Need a cheap bowl, go to a China store. Need warm slippers (which we did in A Coruña)? Go to a China store.

In Santander we saw, for the first time, China stores that also carried food like fruit and milk (which we need for our breakfasts). They don’t close during siesta so that’s handy for us and probably a number of locals as well.

This place was huge, like most China stores, and had many thousands of items, kind of like a hobby shop. I didn’t see any item that was out of stock. I was imagining the huge job it would to keep up with the stock and the ordering. I can’t imagine how they do it. As far as I know each store is independent so they don’t share stock and ordering software.

We decided to stay two nights in Santander to get laundry done and do some regrouping and reserving ahead. The population is 172,000 but like all these cities the old-town part is small and walkable.

We have noted before that the north coast of Spain is a big surf area and we saw lots of signs of that on today’s walk: surfers on the beaches, surf school buildings, surf classes.I know cute bathroom photos are overdone but I had not seen these before.

Miles walked: 7.0
Miles on pavement: 1
Miles along headlands with amazing views: 3
Miles along a seemingly endless beach: 3, it was low tide, very pleasant walking
Pilgrims who passed us: ~40
Pilgrims we passed: 0
Locals out for a sunny Sunday walk: >200
Bicycles who passed us: ~10
Times we said what an amazing walk it was: 4 or 5
Boat rides across the ria to Santander: 1

This was a great walking day. Sunny but breezy so it was not hot. We were walking along headlands with 60-70 foot drops down to rocky ocean shore or pristine beaches. We saw a few surfers on the beaches.

Then the trail dropped down to the start of a beach that was 5-6 miles long. We had walked along some of it in 2018 but then it was high tide. This time it was low tide and we walked for three miles along it. Lots of people on the beach enjoying the sunny weather but still there were long stretches with no people. It was breezy and several people were flying kites.

At the end we were across the ria from Santander. We stopped for a cup of coffee and then caught the ferry along with several other pilgrims and a number of locals.

We had lunch at our hotel yesterday, vegetal pizza and chicken enchiladas, both quite good. The couple that owned the place were arty and cool. Yesterday we posted some of the pictures on their walls. The place is full of interesting images and things. The menu has a few interesting details: Philip Seymour Hoffman pizza, Luca Bratzi pizza (it sleeps with the fishes), insomnia pizza ??

I’ve seen this exact graphic in several countries. The boy is older, maybe 12-13, is wearing shorts and seems to be carrying a briefcase. The girl is younger, maybe 9-10, has a pony tail with a very large scrunchie-like thing, seems to be wearing a very short skirt and has a purse. They are running because they are excited about getting to school, or maybe about finally getting out of school and going home. Of course, the real reason they are running is to warn drivers that they might just run right in front of your car. A big mix of assumptions and stereotypes. And despise all this deconstruction, a pretty effective warning sign.

Could this be true? Seems like a stretch. We used soap.

They seem to have a lot of ponies in Basque country. We saw several and remember seeing them in 2018.

I never really knew what a pony was exactly. I did some searching. They are different than horses but of the same species, like dog breeds apparently.

Charlie started this post but I (Wynette) will finish it. We were doing some road walking (albeit quite safe since very few cars came by on this tiny country road) and I thought, why not put on our high-viz gear? Can’t hurt to be a little more visible. I did not succeed in talking Charlie into donning his.

My mom helped me make these little hi-viz skirts before we left. She sewed the little edge for inserting elastic around the long edge. Thanks, Mom!

We didn’t bring these for sunny day road walking but for putting over our dark blue raincoats on dark rainy days should we have to walk along a busy road in those conditions. So far, we haven’t needed them for that.

We have heard that one can get fined in Spain if walking on highways without wearing something like a hi-viz vest. We’ve walked many miles on Spanish roads without one and no fines yet. But, we do have reflective tape on our backpacks and on my hiking poles.

Miles walked: 8.6 pretty much completely flat, a first, and welcome. Wynette didn’t use her hiking poles at all, also a first.
Foolhardy climbs attempted: 0, down from 1 in 2018.
Mexican food dishes eaten: 1 (chicken enchiladas, at the hotel/restaurant where we are staying)

As you can see, it wasn’t a very exciting day. But we enjoyed it.

Our hotel tonight has lots of interesting art and objects. This is one.