A two-ferry day 

Despite the promise of another beautiful day, we awoke to a thick fog. Our planned mini walking route was a little misty as we approached the gothic Santander Cathedral.  We took a quick look inside and the recorded choral music created a spiritual atmosphere. 

We walked through the Pereda Gardens and admired the carousel before reaching the Centro Botin, the cultural centre designed by Renzo Piano. It began to brighten a little as we made our way through the Mercado del Este which was very quiet with only a florist and single café open. Our final stop was the Town Hall before returning to the apartment to pack the bikes for our first ferry ride to Somo.

We could see little more than a lone fisherman through the fog as we waited for the ferry, but as we boarded the boat, the fog began to lift. It was only a 20 minute journey and we had our first Spanish coffee before taking the steep road out of town and into the countryside.  

We were getting hungry by the time we reached Güemes and found a bar/restaurant open with a group of three Camino walkers who were enjoying a large ham, cheese and tomato sandwich in a crusty baguette so we opted for the same. We continued onto the bay at Santona where we loaded our fully laden bikes onto a little ferry that took us 10 minutes across to the outskirts of Laredo.  We then had to precariously guide the bikes down the sloping gangplank and onto the sand.  It was a long haul to the road but a quick ride along the beach front into the old town.

The gothic Church of Santa Maria towered over our apartment and we detoured past it on our way to the Feurte del Rastrillar, built by the French in the 16th century to defend the bay from enemy attacks and remained in operation until the early 20th century.

The mist was rolling in, spoiling our views, though we could see down to the port and the beach beyond. As we walked round the fort, we could see the platform at the end of the Laredo tunnel, our next stop.  The 220 metre tunnel leads under La Atalaya hill to the seafront point we had spotted from above.  It was originally designed to reach a now destroyed pier, but work was never completed due to storms during construction. It later found use as a refuge from air raids during the Spanish civil war. Sections of its interior were painted with sea animals by a local artist. 

After a brief detour via the port and the supermarket we returned to the apartment with enough time for a beer before heading out to dinner.   Google maps turned out to be extremely inaccurate with our shortlist of nearby restaurants all closed. We had walked by Bar El Tunel earlier and made a wise choice to eat there. We enjoyed local anchovies and calamari and shared mains of sea bass and local steak.  It was amazingly good. 

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