Blog 13: The Northern Spanish Coast Part 1

Blog 13: The Northern Spanish Coast Part 1 – Bilbao to Santander

June 30, 2018

We spent the next few weeks making our way west along the northern coast of Spain. The weather was generally mixed – this is not the area of Spain that people go to for sunshine and beaches – but we did have some lovely days as well as grey ones and some of the scenery was superb.

We stopped at many little ports along the way and also the larger towns of Santander, Gijon and A Coruna.

We set sail from Bilbao on a grey afternoon. It was an uneventful trip with little wind and rather ‘loppy’ with the Atlantic swell, so we mostly motored with the mainsail up as a ‘steadying sail’. The sea always looks much calmer in photos!

Laredo and Santona

The sun did appear as we anchored in a wonderful bay between Laredo and Santona where we could see horses being exercised on the beach, and where I enjoyed an early morning swim – well, before breakfast anyway, not necessarily all that early!

A brightly-painted fishing boat heading out to sea.

However the sunshine didn’t last long, and I was a bit disappointed in Laredo. It’s a very popular summer resort, but massively developed with ugly apartment blocks which were almost all still empty at the end of June as the season hadn’t really started yet.

However, Laredo does have a spectacular beach and I’m sure looks much more inviting in brighter weather.

I cycled along to the town, but the Post Office had just closed and the Tourist Information Office was not yet open! Siesta time! Nothing for it but to find a bar and while away the time having ‘pintxos’ and a beer! Or maybe here it’s called ‘tapas’ as we’re now in Cantabria and no longer in the Basque country.

Laredo also has a very ancient ‘old quarter’ dating back to Roman times, with narrow, winding streets, full of atmosphere and plenty of night life too.

This ancient church on the hill top dominates the old quarter of Laredo, and all the roads leading from it have religious names, like Santa Maria Street and Spiritu Sanctu Road.

This is one of the squares in Santona, which is quite an attractive, bustling little town on the other side of the estuary from Laredo.

Santander

We had quite a ‘lumpy’ sea passage to Santander, with a sizeable Atlantic swell combined with the effect of ‘wind against tide’.

Santander’s city marinas are very busy so we had to settle for the marina next to the airport, which sounds horrible but was actually friendly and pleasant with views of hills in the distance. There’s an efficient and inexpensive 20-minute bus service to the city centre, and a 7.5 km walking and cycling track all round the runway which is a popular way to exercise.

The following day the weather perked up and was lovely and sunny for the rest of our stay.

This is the marina on a sunny day – you wouldn't know it was next to the airport!

This is the fake beach nearby …

… made of sloping slabs of blue-painted concrete!

Brief trip to Bilbao

I went to meet Caroline, who was flying into Bilbao, and we spent a gloriously sunny afternoon there, looking at the Guggenheim, the river and the old town before taking the bus back to Santander.

The main entrance of the Guggenheim with ‘Puppy’ by Jeff Koons taking pride of place! The interesting thing is that it is composed of living flowering plants.