Santander to San Sebastian, Spain

Greetings from Biarritz, France. This ride here from the Ferry in Santander took four days, building back my touring fitness over some hilly but beautiful country. This mountainous region has long been home to the Basque people. Nestled between France and Spain, with a language nothing at all like either of them, these proud mountain folk put on a damn fine feed and are blessed much like us Kiwis with both mountains and sea. The ride is all a few days behind me now and I won't say too much about it. This post is basically pictorial.

EDIT: Update down below regarding the Camino Way... Which I forgot about.

Coming into Santander on the ferry.

Cantabrian Countryside (Cantabria is a region in northern Spain).

Old house, maybe...

Best gate ever.

Missed the last ferry of the day in Santona...

And was forced to camp rough. Somehow, that's all one tree.

Back at the ferry with David and Karen, an American/Danish couple.
We met on the road and became travelling companions for two days.

Very dicey getting loaded touring bikes down that ramp onto the beach.
Didn't drop any, but the bikes became clogged with sand and needed a hose-down before riding on.

Overlooking the occupied side of Laredo.

A quick note here: Upon crossing into Laredo on the ferry we went through a few kilometres of hotels, shops and restaurants that were all closed up and seemingly abandoned. It's still pre-tourist season here and it was like a ghost town, riding through so many empty streets. We wondered if we'd missed a war or a plague, but everything just closes over the winter. Finally, on the east end of town people appeared again, going about their lives normally. Thousands may flock there after Easter and June/July it may be too busy to ride a bicycle down the street, but for us it was an eerily quiet passage.

After Laredo was particularly nasty hill country, but breathtaking in both ways.
Worth the sweat.

My passage took me through mountain passes then back to the coast.

The Atlantic looks even bigger from the hill tops.
It reminded me of driving around SH35 back home, north east of Opotiki.

Pretty sweet house, I thought.

The island I swam to on my last trip to San Sebastian.
I was wise enough not to bother this time.

More of San Sebastian.

A building I love.

And a wee bit more of San Sebastian, just so you get the idea.
It's a coastal city.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the Camino Way... The route I travelled from Santander to San Sebastian is all part of the northern route of the famous Camino Way, the pilgrims route to Santiago de Compostela. It's not the main route, which runs through the mountains to the south, but a popular and valid route, signposted along the way with special hostels for pilgrims, although none were open yet.

Of course, as I like to do things a little differently, it would make sense that as I ended up on one of the most popular walking trails in the world, I was riding a bicycle and going the wrong way. Every time I stopped to check my map, or an email, or the time, people would approach me, pulling their cars over if need be and point emphatically the other way, saying something fast and Spanish to the effect of, "The Camino is that way! That way! You're going the wrong way!" Lacking the Spanish to explain my situation, I would try and wave them off with a friendly thank you before continuing on my way and they'd yell after me, things to the effect of, "No you stupid English! You're don't understand! It's this way! This way!"

Such helpful people.