Portulagette to Castro Urdiales, 13.1 miles
Hotel Sercotel Las Rocas, new, big, clean, restaurante, but didn’t eat there, got a high room facing the ocean.
A fantastic day! Only thing missing was Rick because he would have loved this day. First, we decided to not walk the whole thing. The first 5 looked like what I did yesterday, kind of commercial, walking in the hills amongst houses. Instead, we took a taxi to the coastal town, Playa La Arena. We started right off on a beautiful walk, then a boardwalk, along the ocean and cove. And it just kept going!
Loved these signs together
Serious mining happening here before the 80’s when everything played out.
Just gorgeous, again.
Remember the weed whacking? We saw the sheep on the upper left and I thought, at least they don’t need to weed whack this hill. But then on the upper right – he’s weed whacking. Incredible.
Really? In general, the arrow just means it’s on the camino. In this case, guessing it meant WAY down the road. This kind of decay has been really rare.
Since we’ve come into the Cantabrian area, the gardens have been incredible.
Loved this, just your morning baguette delivery
Oh, so curious, we conjectured that the freighters at one point were unloaded here, maybe through a tunnel? And then, sure enough, there was the tunnel. On the left side, just a wee thing from this perspective. Crazy. Clearly, now it’s just a seeming bridge going to…
About 2 or 3 miles shy of the end, I really needed to find a bathroom and place to sit down just for a few minutes. Carol and Matthew were on the move so I sent them off (I knew they’d find lunch and let me know where to go – SO nice) and I sat down at a bar and had my usual CoalaCao. Next to the bar was a plaza, Plaza of the Martyrs, with these old trained beech trees created an arbor for a monument and to lead up to the town building. The monument was so sad, inspired by a painting by David Coma, was to the miners and said:
We try to represent men that are a part of our past, of us. He is the miner with a strong constitution and character, who with his work supports a family. Trapped in history, held in place until his strength abandons him, and the disease overcomes him. That intention that pushes us makes us try different (?) reaches its conclusion in this man from Miono. Trustworthy but defeated, terrified. A memory of ours, that we want to share with others.
In Bilbao mining fueled the growth of the area, but clearly the mining was as horrible for people here as it was in England, Wales, Appalachia. I’d just never heard about it here.
Then I started off, quickly off the map so retraced my steps, then found myself entering a long tunnel for bikers and pedestrians.
Halfway through, my MacsAdventures dinged me and said I was off the trail again. Well, I’d followed the Camino signs into the tunnel so I kept going. I came out of the tunnel and I was back on. Love the maps, but learning to give them some time, because I’m so fast moving. Hah!
Then I walked into magic, the town Castro-Urdiales. That’s how it felt! Absolutely gorgeous town with a blue bay, green park, clean, really pretty white balustraded promenade and 100’s of people out talking and walking. Really, by the end of the night, between all the happy chatty people, the ancient buildings, the harbor, castle, gigantic church at the very end – it felt like a Spanish Disney. And – our hotel was big, clean and I was able to get a room that was high and faced the ocean and bay. Just completely wonderful.
Hard to capture the bay and the full promenade going around it.
Matthew and Carol were waiting at the lunch place, another good meal and then I had the afternoon to clean up, organize, read a bit to get off my feet and then went back out. It was too beautiful to stay in, though it was really pretty just looking out the window.
I walked through the park, intensely green – and, oh, part of the magic was the sun – to make everything greener, bluer, brighter.
This statue was very cool.
The writing said: Monument to women in recognition of the rights that have been amputated from women through history and that are now recognized by the entire society and especially by the city of Castro-Urdiales.
Then Carol and Matthew came out and we walked the promenade around to the castle/fort and church. Just crazy crazy that these buildings were constructed 100’s of years ago. Really, people should have just been making do in caves or stone huts. But no. They were building things like these, seen from the promenade.
When I was in Bilbao, the audio tour for the cathedral noted that when they were building the cathedral, the request went out for help and in turn anyone who helped was tax free for the entire duration of the construction. Maybe that’s how they got this done?
Matthew peering over the bridge on the way to seeing the castle and church.
Then we saw a rowing crew go out, staggering under the weight of the boat until they got a grip on it. We later saw them flying through the bay, seriously fast, like the rowers on the river the night before in Portulagette.
The above is the back! This is the front.
Walked back through town, got some churros to share (fried dough, what’s not to love when it’s really fresh) and saw this building. Probably the first time Burger King’s ever actually been in a palace:
Finally, came back to the room and got to talk to Kaziah so ended the evening with another treat. Showed her the view with FaceTime so that she could see a bit. I would love to come back here with the family, mix of walking and exploring .
Reb's Walks! 