Day 19 - Santillana del Mar to Comillas

Date: Wednesday July 3

Start: Santillana del Mar, Cantabria

End: Comillas, Cantabria

Daily Mileage: 14.1mi (22.7km)

Total Mileage: ~215mi (~346km)

The thing about very historic buildings (read: old), as mentioned yesterday, is that they can be quite creaky. Never is this more noticeable than when your upstairs neighbor seems to be practicing their loudest, clompiest, stompiest footsteps in the very late/early hours of the night/morning. How many times can you really walk across a hotel room at 1:30am? Many many times. 

Anyway, after pulling ourselves out of bed, packing up, and breakfasting at the hotel, we were on the road. 

And the road today was not that exciting. 

I took a lot of flower pictures today.

Climbing out of Santillana del Mar, the route undulated through the hillsides all day, doing what it does best: descending into a town and then climbing back again. We made our way like this, rolling with the terrain in and out of the many small towns between Santillana del Mar and Comillas. 

After only a few rolling hills, we made a very early stop in the town of Oreña, just over two miles into the walk for the day. I was already in need of a bathroom, which was as good a justification as any to stop for another coffee (or in my case, fizzy water). We stopped into a nice little cafe with a pleasant outdoor patio. The staff was kind, though likely bored. We were the only ones there, and – having just eaten breakfast less than an hour ago – didn’t even want any food. Maybe it was out of this boredom, or wondering if they were going to get any morning customers to eat the food they’d prepped for the morning, they brought us each a snack-sized slice of Spanish tortilla on a crostini, on the house. Trail magic! We were not hungry, but they were kind enough to give us food, so we ate it.

Continuing on, the day’s scenery and happenings were as follows: We saw a lot of farm animals – cows, sheep, goats, chickens. We were barked at by many dogs. There were plenty of hay fields, round bales set in groups about the fields, covered in plastic to protect against the rain. And, we saw at least three small robo lawn mowers about their task. I have yet to see these in the U.S., but I suspect they are about. For those that haven’t seen them, they are basically the equivalent of a Roomba, but for mowing the lawn. On one particular stretch of road, we saw a very nice home where a robo lawn mower was deployed, faithfully trimming the grass. At the very next property, five sheep were doing the very same thing. 

Can you spot the robo mower?

Or would you prefer the sheep?

We have found that there is quite a penchant here (northern Spain, at least) for the beefy commercial weed whacker. It seems everywhere we go someone is running one of these things... in their yards, on hillsides, parks, etc. Non stop weed whacking. These machines are being put to some serious use over here. For serious plots of land too... it seems there would be a more efficient tool for the job in some of the cases, but I guess not. And, as mentioned in a previous blog, from sound alone I suspect the same motors are going into some of the low end motorbikes. We’ve heard at least two zipping around Comillas today already.

We also found quite a few benches along the route today, many of them splendidly placed in the middle of nowhere. There would just suddenly be a nice bench on the side of the road in the middle of the countryside. Not set at an overlook or near a park or church or other site where people may be strolling or want a rest. Just kind of nowhere in particular. There was one set at a simple intersection of country roads. Fields in all directions. I thought that was quite nice. {Side note, just heard a weed whacker drive by as I was typing this.}

Ermita San Roque

The day was also filled with a number of churches along the route. This is pretty typical for the Camino, but it seemed even more prevalent today. There were regal stone iglesias, a robin egg blue abbey in Cóbreces, and – maybe my favorite, the diminutive Ermita San Roque, not too far outside of Comillas. 

The day was also punctuated by a bit of human interaction. Some fun. Some less so. 

First, the ‘less so’: 

At one of the earlier iglesias the route went by, we had walked up upon a couple other pilgrims. They were taking pictures of the church and we also stopped to take a couple pictures of its rustic stone facade and then continued on. 

Iglesia de Cigüenza

You can always tell when people are kind of hurrying up quickly behind you. This was that case. These women were moving. Important owl shit to do. To avoid the pursuit, Shawn and I stepped aside on the road to take a few more photos and let them pass. They looked at Shawn’s new photo angle of the church and also stopped to take more photos. Okay... we’ll keep going then. 

We start hiking again. In a moment, they are on the chase again. Ugh. Soon after this, we began up a steep hill, which put some distance in between our groups, but when the terrain calmed down after a bit, the chase pursued. They were coming. 

Obviously we are all following the same routes (generally), so it’s not like they are actually chasing or ‘following us’. It was more the stressed manner of their walking. Like they were training for Olympic speed walking. You also get the sense that some people just don’t like to be passed. Or that they want to catch you.

As we entered the town of Cóbreces, Shawn and I took a short alternative that skirted around the central part of town, hoping they would stick to the main route so we could escape further pursuit. Luckily for us, they did. And we didn’t see them again the rest of the day. For a short while today there was a choice between a coastal route and an inland route. Since we took the coastal route, I’m going to assume they went inland. Fine for us. 

We actually quite enjoy meeting and talking to people on the trail... but the race pace walkers stress me out. 

🙌 Finding toilets along the route = less stressful.

The other interactions were quite fun. 

At some point during the last four miles or so of the hike, we were walking uphill along a road. A family of seven had just gotten out of their car and was standing along the side of the road to cross. They saw us coming with our packs and obviously knew what we were up to, because the mother, father, and all five children started cheering us on with “buen camino!” I felt like I was in a parade... a little bashful, but we smiled and thanked them as we went by. The parents told the children that we were walking across Spain and, as we continued up the hill, I heard the mother say to them, “Estan fuerte”, they are strong. That put a little smile on my face. I’m not that strong. But I can walk a long way.

There is a woman filing her nails in the house down there (I didn’t know this yet).

The other interaction was not too long after this. Shawn had gotten ahead a bit and I was just off in LaLa land, walking down the road. Ahead, a woman sat at an open window of the second floor of her home. The window was so large and her presence in it so full, that it was impossible not to see her as she sat, filing her nails. She also looked out at me hiking by. Having noticed each other, I said “Hola,” as I passed by and she warmly returned the greeting. Then she asked (in Spanish) if I was hiking the Camino. “Si,” I said. Yes. And then she pointed out that I needed to turn the other way. I had been so fixated on the interaction that I’d basically turned right off the road I’d been on, curving around on a smaller road in front of her home. I thanked her and turned around, continuing in the right direction. 

Despite having taken a coastal route for a bit today, the views along the coast were fairly fleeting. Midway through the hike, we descended briefly toward a beach, which the route promptly skirted us around. Heading uphill above the opposite side of the beach there were some good views back toward the beach and coastline. And then we were away from the coastal views again until just before entering Comillas. 

Here, the Camino routed along a stretch of gravel road that eventually popped out to some coastal views before dumping us alongside the highway on the east end of Comillas. This road also ran along the coast, though we were only on it briefly before taking the fork in the road that went toward the central historic district and our hotel. 

Entering Comillas

Comillas is well known as an architectural delight of Cantabria, including many Modernist style buildings. From the mid-1800s, the Spanish royal family, nobility, and other wealthy businessmen and merchants began summering in Comillas. As a result, the city grew with impressive palaces, churches, mansions, etc. – all designed by some of the most renowned architects of Spain, including Antoni Gaudí. 

Plaza de la Constitucion with the Church of Saint Christopher of Comillas and the old town hall.

Before beginning the Camino, Shawn and I spent a week in Barcelona, which included touring several of Gaudí’s architectural works around the city – including a private mansion, an apartment complex, a park, and – the most famous site in all of Barcelona – Sagrada Familia, the ‘largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world’. Construction of Sagrada Familia was begun in 1882 and continued after Gaudí’s death in 1926 under a number of architects through the years, all committed to seeing Gaudí’s vision through. The current estimate for completion is sometime in the 2030s.

While the exterior of Sagrada Familia is very ornate, the interior is far more simple and peaceful. The sun filtering through the stained glass windows combined with the tree-trunk-like pillars along the nave give the appearance and feel of being inside of a forest, bathed in sunlight filtering through the trees.

All of this to say that, by the time we arrived in Comillas, we were quite familiar with and taken by Gaudí’s work, and I was excited to see that there was a Gaudí home here that you could visit. And so, after a pizza lunch, hotel check-in, and showers, we made the short walk to El Capricho de Gaudí, the home Gaudì designed for wealthy lawyer/writer/musician Máximo Díaz de Quijano, who was – at the time – perhaps the richest man in Spain.

Like all of Gaudí’s creations, much of the exterior design was ‘out there’, even by today’s standards, let alone the 1800s. Drawing from nature and a flair for the exotic, the the facade was bursting with color and ceramic tiles of sunflowers – a theme that would run through the home. A bright green Persian-style tower soared above the main entrance.

El Capricho de Gaudí

Designed very much with the Comillas weather and sun in mind, there was a greenhouse to help warm the home and various features to complement the sun (or lack there of) from each side of the home. The bedroom faced east, with a terrace toward the sunrise. The dining room and entertaining space to toward the setting sun in the west, the greenhouse along the sunny south side. And, of course, there were a number of other design features and elements big and small that made the house special both architecturally and personally for the owner. Too much to share. You’ll have to read more yourself. Or visit Comillas!

Sobrellano Palace

After the visit, Shawn returned to the hotel to watch the Tour, while I continued strolling around town a bit, walking the grounds of some of the other architectural highlights of the city. The Sobrellano Palace and adjacent church, the Capilla Panteón de Sobrellano are set on a prominence, overlooking the city, though set away from the coast. Though they were near closing time, I walked around the exterior and did a quick peek into the entranceway of the palace. 

Palace entranceway

From the palace grounds, there was also a good view of the Universidad de Cantabria, another building on the list of impressive architecture in Comillas. Set atop a hill, the Neogothic-Mudejar style building was constructed as a seminary in 1890. While it has not served as the seminary headquarters since the 1960s, the site retains some academic functions, though after a long period of disuse the building has been undergoing various phases of reconstruction since 2007. 

After walking back through the historic quarters, I made my way to a nice viewpoint over the city’s coast and port. The beach below was still filled with people even in the late evening hours, Comillas a popular beach/vacation destination in the summer now as it was in the past.

Comillas is definitely a place that you could give more time if you wanted to explore more of the city and the architectural highlights. Or go to the beach. As it is, we are heading on tomorrow so we didn’t have too much time, but it was nice to visit another Gaudí site and walk around a bit of the city. It’s definitely a nice little spot on the coast.