Hitting the North Coast

My stay in Leon was brief, I had long distances to cover to get here and to move on and reach the area known as Cantabria. The Parador in Leon is the largest I have stayed in, yes; the building in the photograph is the hotel. One of the reasons I wanted to come here was because I would coincide with a craft fair. It was a good opportunity to meet several makers at once from different areas of the region. There is a real mixture of standards and traditional crafts sit uncomfortably next to contemporary ones, with very little fusion between the two. A large percent of makers are what I would describe as hippies of the 80s - I don't mean this in a derogative way. In a lot of cases, it is thanks to them that some of these crafts are surviving.

I left early the next day excited to head in to the mountains and, I was rewarded with some great views. On the way down to the coast I had to take some nail-biting bends ... and it began to rain very hard and then there was hail... all quite exciting.

The landscape has changed dramatically from hot and flat to green and lush. This is a Spain I do not know and I was looking forward to arriving at Santillana del Mar, where I was going to stay for two nights. The buildings are made of a soft yellow stone and there are wooden verandas. I arrived at another feria!! The village was full of children and they where being chased by these giants who would run after them beating them with brooms. They where also letting off a lot of firecrackers and everyone was having a great time. When that came to an end the music started and the BBQ was ready - free food and beer - all paid be the local council.


My mother says that maybe paying for Spaniards to have a good time keeps the national health costs down!

Santillana is very picturesque, but it relies heavily on tourism. I looked for local crafts but did not like anything I saw except some pottery, which ironically, when I asked the potter where he got the style from he told me that he had seen it in England! I bought a piece as my souvenir of this place.
I did make a trip to Comillas a town further down the coast. To spend a few hours on the beach and have some lunch. There where lots of people out enjoying the sunshine and there was a triathlon going on.


I sat in a bar overlooking the whole bay and ate baby cuttle fish and croquets and drank a pineapple juice, while I watched fit men running down the beach to do a long swim in the cold sea.

Oh, Comillas also has a building designed by Gaudi, it is called 'El Capricho' and you can enjoy eating there, it is now a posh restaurant. I preferred Comillas to Santillana, it was real, were as the village I was staying at felt like a theme park.


After resting and catching up with work, I was moving on to Gijon and then to Galicia.