It’s only about a 2 hour drive to Bilbao from Lafuente, so we took the time to take in a hike and check out some sights along the way.
This was our parking spot down the hill from our home. We were instructed to park here and not to attempt driving up the steep and windy incline to the cottage. Moving day, Neil backed it up the narrow steep curvy hill to make packing a bit easier.Final goodbye!First break was for a short hike.The trail was a farm track through the woods, which was cool and a bit humid.Surprisingly, there were no mosquitoes.There are excellent views of the mountains, with villages nestled on their slopes.And this crazy looking slug. 1.5 km, 40 min break.La Hermida was our next stop. We kept driving by this little village during our excursions from Lafuente. This time, we decided to stop and explore the Rio Deva. The banks are wide with lots of rocks.So lots of rock tossing into the bubbling clear water.And climbing on all the large ones.Found a few butterflies too.We found this neat little garden.That the kids had a blast running through.Looks like giant tentacles reaching for you.It turns out that we were in the gardens of the Hotel Balneario in La Hermida.Some walkers took this pic for us. Finally, a picture of the whole family!2.8 km, 1 hour and 45 mins.Back in the car to continue our journey. This is one of our favourite road signs 🙂Next stop was at the medieval town of Santillana del Mar, whose name tells three lies: 1 – there is no saint here. 2 – the countryside is not flat. 3 – it is not by the sea.The town grew around the Santa Juliana Church, a Romanesque church built in the 11th century. The church used to be an old monastery.We found this at the entrance to the torture museum.Gruesome. Unfortunately we didn’t think we had enough time to explore the museum.This tiny doorway and stone steps led to a restaurant. We just took a peek. The centre of town is pedestrian only, except for when there’s a wedding.Representations of the typical homes owned by rural nobility in the town.Goofs! 🙂A stream runs through the town,to an old water fountain.
We explored the whole town, about a 10 minute walk from end to end, and found a number of interesting and beautiful historic sights.
Great goodbye view to Santillana del Mar.For a 10 minute end-to-end of a town, we managed to zigzag ourselves to a 6km walk for an hour and 40 minutes!One of the gazillions of roundabouts on our trip. This one only had 5 exits.Next stop was a mere hour later in the town of Limpias. We found an ideal spot beside a river with an exercise playground.Even Neil took a turn.Every machine was trialed.Sometimes all at the same time. It’s amazing they got this to work to so many hands and feet involved.View heading inland …and the view heading out, eventually, to the Bay of Biscay.This was a short walk for 0.7 km
Next stop, Bilbao!
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1 comments on “Lafuente to La Hermida to Santillana del Mar to Limpias to Bilbao”
Isn’t it wonderful that you had such an adventure last year. Who knows when you will be able to venture out again?
Isn’t it wonderful that you had such an adventure last year. Who knows when you will be able to venture out again?