Santander to Cudón, Friday, April 27

Post by Wynette: Today we walked 8 miles, taxied 5 miles, and trained 2 miles.

We took a taxi to get past the city sprawl of Santander. Then, after a few miles of walking, we took a two mile train ride from Boo to Mogro. Hopping the train at that point is kind of a Camino-sanctioned way to get over a railroad bridge that is considered unsafe to cross by foot. (The only other way across the river is to walk about 10 extra miles. Many pilgrims evidently cross the railroad bridge by foot but some have been fined for doing so.) A train stops at Boo (pronounced boh-oh) every 30 to 60 minutes. We had to wait about 40 minutes. There were six of us pilgrims on the train. We were told we could pay on the train but no one showed up to collect our money.

While waiting for the train we met Fausto from Italy. He spoke minimal English and Spanish but he understood Spanish pretty well. He would speak Italian into his phone and show us the translation. (Photo above.) He told us that in WWII, his father rescued and hid an American soldier who had parachuted from a plane.

Walking today was nice. One of our coldest days. You might notice in photos Charlie wearing his coat for the first time. We were about half mile from the coast but got some nice glimpses of the ocean and sandy beaches.