del Norte - Day 9 (11-May-2016): Castro Urdailes to Liendo (20.4km)

Day 9 - We left the Basque country yesterday and are now walking in Cantabria, a Spanish "autonomous community" with capital city of Santander.  It is bordered on the east by the Basque autonomous community, the south by Castille & Leon, the west by the Principality of Asturias and the north by the bay of Biscay.  These regions are typically divided into provinces so all is still a bit confusing!  It's amazing that by the end of this trip we will have spent 1/2 year in Spain (three trips of two months each) and are still pretty ignorant to how things work here.

Anyway, we left Castro Urdailes and walked along country lanes with nice views of the ocean.  After 10km or so we left the ocean views and walked along highway N634 for the rest of the day.  It's a not too-busy two lane highway that more-or-less parallels a major freeway.  We arrived Liendo in late afternoon and settled in to Hospedaje Restaurante Valle de Liendo.  The room has bath with a real big bathtub!  We took turns luxuriating in a nice soak.   

First part of morning along hillsid with nice views.

It's always nice to see a proper camino marker!

Nice views

ditto

Sheep grazing and they probably don't appreciate the views!  

Lunch was Basque cider, two small sandwiches and a nice bowl of assorted olives and gherkins - all for around $8.  Life is good!

Just so you know a typical day may include some less than scenic walking.  Today was fairly bad as we spend almost half the time along the highway..  We could have followed a more scenic route that would have involved "hills" and was 5km longer.  We chose to grind it out along the "N634".