Barreda - to Santallina del Mar

We caught a train from Santander to Barreda.

(Trace) I wanted to avoid the hard roads of walking on highways, so we decided to rather catch a train to Barreda and walk from there.

Off the train and we stopped at a bar for café con leche.  The owners cocker spanial did not like me - kept on barking.


Beautiful walk through farmlands.  Incredible looking horses along the route.  Saw two foals.  An old gentleman, feeding his cattle asked us about out route, gave us directions and milage to our journey, just happy to talk to strangers.  The part I love about walking, is the lovely characters we meet.

As we climbed up into Camplengo, an old lady, walking slowly, wanted to talk and talk.  Talked about her legs, our camino and goodness knows what else.

We decensended into this beautiful village, Santillana del Mar.  A medival village.  It's a historic village that they have kept original from the xxx.  Cobbled streets.  Now after a beer at a lovely terrace outside,  oh do we consider staying??  I think so. 

We stayed at the HS Montanes.  Lovely little hotel. 

As we were in town early, we changed and went out on the town.  We visited the Diocesan Museam. Incredible religious artwork over centuries, paintings and statues. We just walked around, amazed at this old art. I loved the statues depicting Jesus; his crucifiction, his trail and sufferings.

   


Next we visited a "Torture" museam.  This had original and recreated exhibits of different torture devices used over centuries. Rod and I were both disturbed by the cruelty of people and how such devices were chosen to be used over the centuries. What was more disturbing was that many of these devices are still used today.  I was amazed at how many torture techniques involved entrance via the rectum, to induce slow pain, until death. 
The most interested information was the argument against the chastity belt was not used by the husband, but by women themselves, as protection against being raped. The argument agains the normal belief of the husband instituting it was that it could only be used for short times, as she might be pregnant, thus the baby could not grow. Also how if used for prolonged time, she could develop septic diseases from the belt, therefore could die. Maybe this is something that could be reconstructed to be used in South Africa!

 

After a lunch and a siesta, we visited the 12th Cen Collegiate Church. We could only see the ajoining square, with incredible carved pillars. There was a wedding in procession in the church itself.

We then wandered through the cobled-street town, looking for our new companions, our walking sticks. Rod found a beatiful tall pilgrim carved stick. I found a stick with only a bulb head.

We then found a bar, where we had a beer and olives, passing away time absorbed in our puzzles.

That night, as we had a bath in our room, I soaked away, squished in this tiny bath, enjoying the warmth. But I was coming down with a cold.