Camino del Norte 2024

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 decided to stay in Santander for two nights. It’s the last big city we’ll come to on this trip (the first two being San Sebastian and Bilbao). It’s nice to have a day puttering around the city and catching up on few things like doing the laundry. Our hotel is very central so lots of great restaurants and bars and markets and people socializing in the streets.

The big central market of Santander is a block or so from our hotel. They are open 8 to 2 every day except Sunday. It is a huge market selling fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, etc. Also an outdoor area selling cheap clothes and such. (I walked through that part briefly but quickly got claustrophobic.) The food part of the market was among the best we’ve seen in Spain. Unfortunately it was hard to just enjoy it. I kept wanting to hold on to it, take it home with me. Why don’t we have these great places in the States? Incredible fresh food for incredible prices. We have farmer’s markets but those can be expensive and only one day a week and only in season and much smaller.

We bought three things: some bread, some spanish seedless raisins (the seller said those are the best), and some fresh peas.

As mentioned in other posts today, we took the ferry (barca) into Santander. There was a boat driver who we never saw and a young woman who did everything else: guided the boat driver as he “parked” the boat next to the landing area, helped people disembark and embark, took tickets, even swept the boat during the ride over. She was so pretty and cheerful.

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 ??

Today we walked from the tiny town of San Miguel de Meruelo to another not quite as tiny but still small town of Galizano. Walking on roads the whole way. More up and down than yesterday but not bad. We walked a total of 8.5 miles but that includes walk to restaurant and back after leaving our packs at the hotel. Elevation gain and loss was 600 feet up and 594 down.

The roads mostly didn’t have shoulders but very little traffic. Photos below show typical road and that it was a bright sunny day.

I still couldn’t talk Charlie into wearing his hi-viz wear. I decided to make mine look like a vest in front.

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.

Google said Bar Luis would be right on our path. They’d open at 10:00, not long before we’d get there. Google didn’t show any other bars open. But Bar Luis sounded perfect. We got there and found a sign that said “Closed until May 3.”

But, we didn’t have to eat raisins and walnuts and caffeine pills for breakfast because Google was also wrong about there being another bar — very near this one, and it was open. It was a modern, fancy place. They didn’t hesitate a second when we asked if they’d make us eggs and toast and coffee.

We didn’t specifically ask for butter and jam with our toast and they served the toast with olive oil and tomato sauce. Very common here. That’s how we ate it. Tasty.

Twice so far on this trip we’ve been asked if we wanted large coffees. We said yes this time. They were HUGE. Largest we’d ever seen. Charlie likes the large ones. Next time I’ll stay with “regular”.