3rd of October – we are already a month behind with our blog, but our Way of Saint James is not ending in Santiago. There is not this mysterious black hole, where all the pilgrims are walking to the end of their pilgrimage and then they disappear. We promised not to take an airplane back from Santiago as most of the pilgrims probably do once they’ve arrived at this destination. We continued our trip to show you can travel ten countries within Europe on bikes without stepping on an aircraft. But being already ahead of the readers I can tell you that this project is more demanding than we could…

When we started with our packed bikes downhill the steep road of Calle Lope de Vega we saw the escalators going up on the right hand again and the Bay of Santander and the Centro Botin in the sunshine in front of us. We expected to reach the ferry easily  because we didn’t expect any traffic on a Sunday, but there was a marathon for which they had closed the bay side promenade. Somehow we had to explain to the policemen that we had to reach the ferry, and they let us pass through against the direction of the sportive marathon runners. When we reached the check in of the…

Already the Romans new the advantages of the huge bay protected by a long stretched peninsula with wild cliffs and beautiful sand beaches. They called their harbour city Portus Victoriae Iuliobrigensium, which became after Christianisation a place for  the relics of the martyr Saint Emeterius, and its name turned into Santander. The city completely lost its historic centre in a great fire in 1941 which destroyed, due to a strong southern wind, even the cathedral, and lasted for two days. Being rebuilt in the years after the second world war the urban concept was designed to be car friendly and the town was cut off from its harbour front by…

In the early morning dense fog moved between the buildings of Santillana del Mar and reminded us that in a few days the sun will be at the autumnal equinox. Before we left Santillana del Mar we still visited the Collegiata de Santa Juliana with its beautiful cloister. Slowly the sun burned through the fog and we continued with our bikes to the cave of Altamira. It’s one of the most incredible places. It was inhabited since 36.000 BC and discovered for the first time by the weaver Modesto Cubillas by coincidence in 1868, when he was searching his hunting dog. The original entrance had collapsed 11.000 BC. Years later…

After a crystal clear night in the mountains the chill of the peaks had collected morning fog in the valley, soon to be burnt away by the sun. We had everything packed and got us a T-shirt with a wildlife-bear of the Picos de Europa as a souvenir. Usually we never bought souvenirs because we don’t have any space left in our bike bags, but this time we happened to be a little bit nostalgic as we didn’t really feel like leaving this beautiful mountain place. The owner of the hotel Mirador de Cabrales explained us that the design of the T-shirt was his own creation. In our conversation he…

This morning we had to get up really early as Robert had the day before already organised tickets for the underground cable car bringing us through a tunnel up to the mountain village of Bulnes in the canyon of Rio Tejo. It was still chilly in the valley, but the sun was out in a blue sky. It was interesting to see how the tourists, once they left the station of the cable car, all turned immediately into the village to get the best places at the restaurants instead of starting a hike into the mountains in the fresh air of the morning. As soon as we had left the…

The harbour of Llanes presented itself under a crystal blue sky this morning and the sun was already warming up the colourful facades of the buildings. Time to get on our bikes and keep on moving into a completely new direction. But first Robert went to the post office to send a thick envelope with maps that we no longer needed back home. After that we had breakfast in town as the hotel breakfast was not very impressive. On our way out of town we passed ornate mansions from Spaniards who had made their fortunes in the former Spanish colonies in the Americas. Today we would leave the coast and…

Today the weather forecast had nothing but rain predicted, and I was trying to use the time to catch up on our diary and update our “Less-is-more-Tour”-Blog. We had a room with a view to the harbour, and while I was writing my texts I could observe the fisherman bringing in their fishing harvest. In the beginning the rain was not so heavy and we could still get some things organized like getting my back light repaired at the META sport bike shop. They had a cute collection of biking miniatures in their shop window. Robert got himself a haircut, went to a laundromat in town and found a detailed…

Waking up in my bunk bed I opened my eyes and saw a huge insect right above my pillow. It was a stick insect pretending to be a piece of wood, but not having any camouflaging background as it was sitting on a white wall. I was totally fascinated by this creature the size of my hand as I had never seen one in real life before. I put it out the window, where it stayed in its position on the sill for a long time still mimicking a stick. Outside the “Playa de La Isla” was flooded in golden light by the sunrise with clouds casting shades between the…

The early morning sun was rising over the beach of Playa de San Lorenzo and it was the perfect time for Gijóners to catch a wave. The surfers were already out and it was fun to watch them with our feet in the sand and waves rolling with their splash up our legs. What a beautiful way to start a day. The breakfast-room of our hotel was on the top floor overlooking the whole bay, and we were glad it was already the end of the season and calm. But even if, there were not many guests the internet connection of the hotel was very poor and it took me…