Norte – Day 14 – Santander – Mogro
Our final day of walking was slated for 33 KM + train and distance to sleeping accomidations. We realized this was not going to be possible given the length of the journey and our departure time from the hotel. In Spain to some extent you are at the mercy of the meal time schedules. On the weekends, breakfast begins at 8:30 AM; we useually like to be walking by that time. So we improvised, and decided to walk part of the coastal trail out of Santander and return to take a train.
The weather was nice in the moring; warm – a bit humid, but bright and sunny. Perfect weather for a walk. The views were stuning, and being Sunday morning, many other locals were out enjoying the route as well.
The coastal trail to the lighthouse took us along a path with many beaches (playa). It appears, Sunday morning is game time for the local old-timers soccer teams. They used the fresh flat sand for a game of soccer. Its so great to see how active many people are here… helps an old-timer like me feel young. 🙂
We returned and walked to the other side of town to catch a train to Boo/Mogro. Along the way we stopped at the Santander Santa Maria Cathedral. Sometimes you find the churches open, other times not. We were lucky to find this open and were greeted with the pipe organ playing. We enjoyed a few moments of reflection for our 300 KM journey before heading to the nearby train station(s). We arrived at the station and found a kiosk to purchase tickets and purchased two tickets for Boo. Boo is a town next to Mogro, and we made the assumption that the stations were one and the same. After getting on the train we departed. Five short stops later we found ourselves dropped off at the Boo station. Only thing, this was not the Boo we were looking for. It turns out there are more than one “Boo” villages near Santander and we choose the wrong train company to the wrong “Boo”. We found ourselves in the heart of the industrial section of the city next to a steel plant. Not quite the village near the coast we expected. Fortunatly this was not the last train of the day…. but it being Sunday, we had to wait 2 hours for the next train to take us back to Santander.
Once back in Santander, having our fill of unexpected train challenges, we determined to find a taxi to drive us to the hotel. We promptly found a taxi at the train station.
With the taxi driver not speaking a word of english, we showed him the hotel name, and he smiled and said “si”. And off we went. A short time later our taxi driver attempted to drop us off in Boo… this time the right Boo, but wrong hotel. I managed to show him the hotel name, and location on Google maps, and he fired off something in spanish and dug his phone out… he quickly got frustrated and started driving again… and got on the freeway back towards Santander. We managed to convince him that was the wrong direction, and he got off at the next exit an phoned a friend. They had some long conversation that I am sure included some discussion about why two american pilgrims wanted to got to Mogro. His friend helped him with directions and they were laughing (likely at us, not sure…) and we got back on course. Soon we arrived at the correct hotel. Our taxi driver turned off the meter at the first hotel, and would not accept any more money even though I insisted; he graciously would not accept it.
And so, this ends our “Boo/Mogro” adventure. We are still in the middle of no where… With two free day’s ahead of us, we have decided to return to Santander to explore the city a bit more before heading back to Bilbao for our flight to Paris.
While our Camino adventures appear to be finished for now. We may still have some aventures left before returning home.
Buen Camino!
