November 24 and 25. Exploring the north coast of Spain and the Cave Paintings of Altamira.

We say goodbye to Antonio as he flies home to Malaga. It really meant a lot to us for him to join us. I miss him already!

We had to leave for the airport at 640 in the morning – that’s the earliest we’ve been up on this entire trip! Still dark that early in the morning. We’re all trying to avoid Ken and his coughing fits, which is a little difficult. We hope he’s better by the time we get on the plane on Friday.

The orange juice is always fresh squeezed. They have big machines that they throw the whole orange into, skins and all.

ColaCao is Spain’s version of Nestle Quik (although it doesn’t dissolve in cold milk). It’s served in every bar and cafe with steamed milk. Great that they have anti-bullying messaging on their label.

Saw a few stork nests Ong the way. My mother used to say that it wS a sign of good luck if the storks built a nest on your chimney. Although I am not sure how that worked as her family would have heated the house with wood in those eay days in Slovakia.

I’m still feeling a bit of nostalgia for the Camino and so we took Scott on a short detour to Portomarín. Nancy will recognize these stairs that you had to climb to get into the town. The original Town was flooded when they built the reservoir and you can still see the foundations of houses when the water levels are low, as well as an old Roman bridge which now gets covered as well by water.

You had to come down this narrow little canyon. Ken helped a few women get down while I chickened out and snuck through a vineyard beside it, which I see is still there.

The look on Ken’s face indicates that he has once again said something bad about me. What a weasel!

In 2019 we had tortilla almost every day. It was in every bar and cafe and was standard lgrim fare. We only had it a couple times on this trip. Basically a shaped potato and onion omelette. Hearty walking food.

Back at the coast and seeing a lot of estuaries. I’m a little discombobulated as the countryside is incredibly scenic, verdant greens, with hills and mountains on the right and Rocky shoes and villages on the left. But instead of slow walking with time to absorb it all, we speeding through the countryside.

Apparently I (a) Whimpered (b) Whined or (c) whinged when I saw this house and wanted it for my own.

Very different architecture on the churches in this region.

The beach in Santander.

Bicycle locker. Theft proof and protects your bike from the elements and the salty air.

Dog parking area outside the grocery store. What a neat idea!

That’s an industrial size box of ColaCao! And KitKat cereal??? Me wants some.

Oh look. There’s a casino.

Where’s your mother, Scott?

Do we have to start a GoFundMe page to get home?

More padron pepper roulette but sadly (or maybe not so sadly) no spicy hot ones.

The smallest IKEA ever. It is only 9 cars wide. I know because I counted. We stopped here looking for their blue plastic bags with zippers. They are great for putting your backpacks in to protect your straps from mean old baggage handlers.

Same stuff, same lit arrows on the floor, just not much of it. No separate marketplace. Sad.

The look of a man settling in for an afternoon nap and who has stolen every pillow for himself.

What a gorgeous place.

Two very sad penguins in a not very nice enclosure.

Scott and I were convinced one of the seals wS dead as it was floating in the water on its side and was not movi g at all for several minutes. I mentioned it to the keeper and he said it was sleeping. I was obviously dubious as he came out with a small bucket of fish to prove it wS alive. I can’t say I was impressed with the seal enclosure… Or the poor penguins’ habitat.