Day 61 Santillana del Mar to Comillas

Playing catch up, quick entry...

We slept so well under the arches of the church, this is how we woke. It looks dark still because it was. 

Our plan was to wake early as this is a huge tourist area in fact when we came in yesterday cameras were going off from large groups. The kids joke, "...and to your right you can see pilgrims in their natural habitat". To tour groups I guess it is exciting to see pilgrims wander through the streets exhausted and stinky.

We didn't wake early because of the tourist as planned, we woke early because that adorable long haired dachshund that I took a picture of yesterday literally came up to the church stared at Will ( and Lisa) who were asleep on the other side of the arches and barked for at least ten minutes in a desperate attempt to tell everyone we were there. So up and at 'em....

Back to visit our favorite pup....

This nice man gave the kids fruit from his yard.
..

...and offered us a pumpkin if we'd carry it...;)

A funny picture of Reichen's backpack with all of our condiments, we get specialty sandwiches:)

I'm not certain we can find the sauces in the states but we are getting pretty addicted to some of them. The mango curry is our favorite...

I love this picture, the colors and all...

Karsh found a gourd that he was willing to carry for dinner...Karsh could live off the wild, I love that in him...

A house offering peppers, we would enjoy these for days on our sandwiches...

Tonight's destination is Comillas, I remembered it for its huge angel at the cemetery and a Bohemian bar that was closed when we came through. We decided to stay at the auberge but it too was closed so we took the stairs down behind it and slept in it garden with the neighbors permission. It was a beautiful spot but the clouds rolled in and we literally were sleeping in the clouds complete with condensation. We survived and oddly slept well but the wetness in the morning was almost unbearable. Amazingly from where we slept you could see the angel off in the distance....

Angle from where we slept...

Kids decorated trees where they slept, and took them down to decorate packs in the morning...

Dog on the blog...and her paws!

Day 60 Santa Cruz de Bezana ( wonderful auberge) to Santillana del Mar

Typing quickly as I am so behind. Nieves spent a great amount of time today preparing us for the long walk to one of Spain's most picturesque towns. The best salad of my life was had here three years ago and I had long planned to treat us all to a very nice dinner.

First we had to cheat to save an hour by walking over a train track for about 200 meters, it is safe with a small walkway beside the train but I was happy no train came while we were over the bridge. One came within two minutes though...

We ran into Lisa and William again and decided to camp outside again, we love this!

This picture shows us in front of the beautiful church that a few hours later we would be sleeping under its arches. We met some young German pilgrims having a blast who managed us to join them at the campground. They seemed to think it was free that no one was manning the place off season. I didn't feel comfortable with that.  If I stayed there I'd of course some how paid even if I slipped money under a door...but the kids preferred cowboy camping.  I think they like the thrill of camping for free and we ended up sleeping very well. Super glad to reconnect with Lisa and Will.

I bought Halloween masks at the local grocery store for a euro each and the kids are busy customizing them so they all look different.

My restaurant didn't have my same salad on the menu :(   but a good meal was had!

Artisan work everywhere, some say this is the most beautiful town in Spain!

This is where we slept...

Have to share these guys images with a follow up tomorrow...

Dog on the blog...

Oh how we loved this pup who just wanted love,love,love....

Day 59 Guemes to Santa Cruz de Bezana ( two hours past Santander)

A super night was had, we were sent off with tons of love from Ernesto and his volunteers. Ernesto recommended a coastal route that I missed last time and was thrilled to have taken it this time. Lisa and William took off with us and we stayed together until we were about an hour away from our final ferry ride of this Camino (there are three). They would take a different route that went south and avoided the ferry.

Picture leaving Guemes, even the animals in this town love pilgrims...

This sign caught our attention as it mentions the distance to Santiago and the distance to St. Cirq la Popie, one of our favorite places we stayed, notbsure why it mentioned that town but it made us remember our time there.

A car pulled up beside us carrying Tristan's walking stick that he had left! How Awesome!

We walked by a surf shop and a surfer greeted us saying he saw us yesterday in Noja, a beautiful beach where he was surfing.

Tonight would be another memorable night. We arrived to Guemes last night thinking tonight's stop would be Santander, but Ernesto suggested we go past Santander two hours to another special auberge. A super recommendation! Nieves has built an auberge with tons of love and the greatest dinner.  One of the coolest gals I have ever met, she even let me hop on her Vespa! I would encourage all pilgrims to try to squeeze this awesome place into their pilgrimage. Ernesto called her in the morning suggesting we might come and then called her again at 8:00pm to see if we had arrived, we showed up while they were on the phone. The night was even more special because she had her cousin and niece visiting from England. The niece was a few years younger than my girls and had so much in common. I felt like I was hanging out with best friends for decades. A wonderful night!

The best Spanish tortilla ever...

Tristan and Bronwyn had spent the day carving pumpkins from figs:)

They worked on them with such attention and Nieves was so awesome welcoming them into her garden. The younger kids are really missing Halloween the girls for months had planned to dress up as sushi and I have had to assure them that they can be sushi next year. They have planned this since last  Halloween...

Then Nieves brought out Halloween decorations and offered them to the kids to decorate their backpacks. How sweet! They appreciated this so much!

GREAT night!!!!! Thank you Nieves!

Dogs on the blog in honor of Buiel, we kissed on many today...