Camino de Santiago del Norte
Day 4 (plus a rest day!)
This is a camino of gratitude for me. Each day, I choose something I am grateful for in my life and think and journal about it throughout the day. I will share an excerpt from my journal entries at the end of each day’s post.
Day 4: Liendo to Santoña ~ 6.9 miles
21 September 20172
This was a lovely and interesting day’s walk, shorter than the last two days. In the early morning I walked up and over a cliff to a lovely view of the seaside town of Laredo. Entering the city through the old gate was magical. At the end of the promenade I walked out onto the beach to catch the ferry to Santoña.
Rest & Work Day in Santoña
23 September 20172
Occasionally I have to stop for a day to rest my bones and to catch up on the work I do while traveling: designing book interiors for clients back home. Right now, I am working on a hiking book. How appropriate! I feel so grateful that I can do this work from just about anywhere in the world!
I fell in love with this town across the bay from Laredo. I was lucky. This was a fiesta weekend in Laredo and I walked through the town on Friday early afternoon before the festivities started and thus avoided all the weekend crowds. Instead, I had a room on the second floor of the pilgrim’s albergue with a tiny balcony overlooking the plaza of Santoña.
The families gather here in the evenings, especially on the weekends, and the chatter that I hear below late into the night reminds me that I am definitely not at home. The chatter provides a comfortable backdrop to my sleep for some reason.
The food here was stupendous—really amazing! For 11 Euros, a friend and I got the menu del dia at the restaurant next door (2 courses, a pitcher of wine, and dessert). My grilled red tuna was absolutely devine, and it was followed by a dessert that was like just the custard part of cheesecake. We both had to take a siesta after that.
Both evenings in Santoña , Marieanne (from Germany) and I visited an excellent tapas bar. The food was a work of art. It was so hard to decide what to try and they had different things each night.
How, you ask, was I able to eat anything after that full lunch?
I managed…
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Camino: Days 34—35
Arriving in Melide yesterday meant that I was now finished with the Camino Primitivo route and had joined the Camino Frances—the busiest and most well-known of all the Caminos. I had seen the last of the days when I would be walking alone almost all day with plenty to contemplate.
Camino: Day 17
The village was special enough just in itself…narrow cobbled streets, stone houses…exactly what you would think of for a traditional village in Spain. But imagine my surprise when I came upon these trompe l’oeil paintings!
Camino: Day 33
My walk from Castrelo to A Sexias turned out to be a walk from Castrelo to Melide–all for the sake of food! It was probably my second most frustrating day on the Camino!
1 thought on “Camino:: Day 4”
I bet with all this walking your calorie intact doesn’t matter at all. Lovely post.