Barnacles & Lamb Heads

Rest Day in Santander

Today was the second of 4 pre-planned rest days on our hike. Officially a “Zero Mile” day in Santander Spain, the capital city of the Cantabria region on the north coast with a population of 175,000. While technically a zero mile day, we certainly walked around the city for more miles than yesterday’s seven miles.

We sleep in a bit and are awakened by a torrential downpour outside our window. It lasts only a few minutes and becomes a light rain.We head downstairs to the Silken Hotel breakfast buffet. This one is underwhelming compared to our two previous Silken buffets.

After breakfast we venture out in our rain jackets to explore the city. The first stop is a visit to the Mercado de la Esperanza, a two level indoor market with one level of just seafood and the upper level of all other things. Some interesting items for sale!

Lamb Heads-no idea how one uses these…

The Mercado building

Can you guess what these strange looking items are?

Next we walk the promenade along the Bay of Santander and continue across the city to the Palacio de La Magdalena, built in the early 1900’s for the Spanish Royal Family, it is situated on the Magdalena Peninsula with splendid views of the ocean and the sound. The rain has stopped and the sun comes out along with a blustery wind off the ocean.

The Palace of the Royal Family, now used as a meeting and convention center.

Mouro Island

La Cerda Lighthouse

We hike past a cathedral or two as well as several other sites of interest. We eventually locate a small dive of a cafe where we share a large, delicious pizza, the first pizza of the trip….along with a grande beer of course.