22nd May

22nd May
Boo to Santillana del Mar 17k

Our lovely Albergue soon filled up yesterday with people from France, Italy and Spain and two large Italians took up residence in what I had hoped would be our own space last night.  It turns out they were the captain and vice captain of the Italian snoring team.  I've never heard anything like it.  They were relentless and the room shook.  People in the other rooms didn't fare much better so there were a lot of tired pilgrims on the way today.  Except for two well slept Italian snoring champions of course.

We sat and had a dinner with a very nice French man and I had to brush off the high school French.  Fortunately his high school English was better and we managed to have a basic conversation.  It never ceases to amaze me how we can communicate on such a level with limited language.  It was a lovely and emotional conversation and we connected.  Of course there were tears...all round.

We arrived in Santillana a beautiful old medieval town made up of stone buildings, little shops and restaurants.  There is a 12th century church and a couple of museums. It's a very interesting and beautiful place. 

We found our pension with only a minor amount of hassle then we found a fabulous restaurant and ate an incredible 'menu del dia' which always consists of 3 courses.  I had the most amazing mushroom risotto I've ever eaten and it's special because the mushrooms are Spanish (so I'm told).  This was followed by steak then for dessert I had Flan which is like a creme caramel. We're full to the brim and we certainly  won't need much else to eat tonight.

We're going to sleep like babies.