Coastal Capers 1: West to Cantabria, East to Gipuzkoa

Before we came out to Spain, we had an idea that we’d like to take the little narrow-gauge train line that wends its way very slowly along the beautiful and often wild north coast of Spain from the French border to Santiago de Compostella in Galicia. It would have taken at least a couple of weeks to get there and back, staying in various places along the way. It never happened. However, we have caught some beautiful glimpses of the coast in Cantabria and the Basque Country, and on up into the French Basque Country – and these are the subject of my next few posts.

At the beginning of May, we spent a weekend in Cantabria, the coastal region to the East of the Basque Country – one of only three forays we have made outside the Basque Country. We stayed with some ex-colleagues of Pietro who now live in Santander, and who were happy to drive us around and show us some of the highlights. We were also lucky in that it was a spectacularly hot and sunny weekend (a rare event in this year’s washout spring!)

We didn’t spend much time in Santander itself, but it is a handsome port city, with acres of beautiful beach, and lovely views from the hill above the city:

The most stunning view is of the snow-covered Picos de Europa mountains in the distance. It was a rather hazy day, so the view was not as clear as it might be, but where else in Europe can you get sand, sea, palm trees and snow-covered mountains in the same view?

One of the most important of Spanish ports in medieval days, the old town of Santander was unfortunately burnt down in a fire in 1941, but the rebuilt version is very pleasant, and much of the old cathedral survived the fire:

The highlight of the weekend was a day out along the Cantabria coast, stopping at the beautiful medieval town of Santillana del Mar, the nearby caves of Altamira (home of some of the most important stone age cave paintings), the strange assemblage of art nouveau architecture in the town of Comillas, and the stunning beach and dunes at Liencres.

Santillana has a reputation as one of the prettiest towns in Spain. It’s certainly very picturesque indeed, and it’s certainly geared up for tourists too (though the day we went was thankfully fairly quiet). We enjoyed wandering the streets…

… but the main event, especially if, like me, you are a fan of the Romanesque, is the church, one of the finest Romanesque churches in the north of Spain:

The carvings in the cloister are particularly exquisite:

Near Santillana are the famous caves of Altamira, with their stone age paintings, which I’ll write about in a separate post. A few miles further along the coast is the town of Comillas, well-known for a collection of buildings in the ‘modernisme’ style (Spanish art nouveau), including this folly by Gaudi:

Finally, we drove through the lovely port of San Vicente de la Barquera (which I didn't manage to get a good picture of), and then back to Santander, stopping for a stroll on the beautiful beach at Liencres:

The coach back to Bilbao took us along the coast back from Santander, a journey on which we got tantalising glimpses of the coastal resorts of Laredo and Castro Urdiales, where many Bilbainos go at weekends to get away from the city.

Immediately after our trip to Santander, we headed east along the coast of the Basque Country, another very beautiful stretch. First there is the coast of Bizkaia.

The area immediately north-east of Bilbao is rocky and cliffy, and not good for one who suffers from vertigo, but has lots of good coves and beaches, for instance in Sopelana and Plentzia. Last weekend, we went further along the coast to the town of Bakio, now a very pleasant beach resort:

... and up in to the hills above Bakio to visit the remote little Romanesque ‘ermita’ of San Pelaio:

... and the beautiful island of San Juan de Gastalugatxe nearby. San Juan has an extraordinary set of steps that goes terrifyingly up to the church at the top of the island. Needless to say, I satisfied myself with the view from the mainland:

After San Juan de Gastelugatxe,  you reach the wonderful Urdaibai estuary where you find the port of Bermeo (which in medieval times was the most important port on the Bay of Biscay), and the beautiful fishing villages of Mundaka and Elantxobe, all of which I’ve written about in previous posts:

All these places are quite down-to-earth working towns which perhaps don’t have the cute picture-postcard qualities of some Cornwall and Devon equivalents, but whose grittiness makes them interesting and picturesque in different ways: unlike Devon and Cornwall, the natives can still afford to live there.

Heading east, you move into the province of Gipuzkoa, passing a number of similar fishing towns, many with great beaches - Lekeitio, Ondarroa, Deba, Zumaia, Getaria and Zarautuz – and many villages. And then you get to San Sebastian, which I’ve also written about previously.

After San Sebastian you get to Hondarribia, our destination on this particular trip, on our way to the Pays Basque in France. Hondarribia is the coastal border town on the Spanish side of the border between Spain and France. We took the train from Bilbao via San Sebastian to the French border town of Hendaye. From there we took a little ferry across the bay...

and back across the border into Spain, to Hondarribia, a ride which gave us great views of the town:

In the middle of the picture you’ll see a monumental castle-esque building. This rather grand place was where we were staying – and it was indeed once a medieval castle, now a parador.

(Paradors are historic buildings turned into hotels through a Spanish government scheme dating back to the 1930s. They are often quite expensive to stay in, but we got a good bargain and decided – for the sake of the experience of staying in such a historic place – to treat ourselves to something a little more luxurious than the cheap pensions we normally go for.)

The castle dates from the 9th century, and the ruins of that original building were immediately outside our bedroom window:

The standing part of the castle was built in the 15th century:

The town itself has a typically astmospheric ‘casco viejo’…

… and some great border-town fortifications:

You may notice that the vernacular style of the houses in Hondarribia is a little different from that of the rest of the Spanish Basque Country: indeed, it is a little more like the French Pays Basque, which it neighbours, and which will be the subject of the next post….