Camino del Norte part 5

This week we continue with part 5 of my series on the Camino del Norte. However, before we get to that I present the usual weekly logic puzzle.

Logic Puzzle

In the figure above, move three circles to create a new triangle of ten circles pointing down.

Camino del Norte part 5

Day 5 of my adventure, March 22, 2026, began in San Miguel de Maruelo. From this small inland town, the Camino del Norte was pleasantly on trails or seldom-traveled roads most of the time. I dislike sharing the Camino with cars, especially fast ones.

I stopped for lunch in a small town named Güemes. I've noticed in Spain some place names have an umlaut, which I have never once seen on a map of Mexico. Is this a German influence? I don't know.

 

Later that afternoon, I reconnected with the coast, the first time since Noja the previous day. From there it was a lovely long walk along the coast to the town of Somo. This stretch of beach went for about five miles and was very wide with few other people. Maybe I've said this before but the beaches in northern Spain are gorgeous. I find much nicer than in southern Spain.

 

Eventually, I made my way to Somo, where I intended to stay the night. Ahead of me, by ferry, was the very large city of Santander, where I feared it would be difficult to find cheap lodging. However, the one hotel in Somo was still closed for the season.

So, I pressed on to the Somo ferry, which makes hourly trips to Santander. I barely missed the ferry so had to sit around an hour for the next one. This ferry was much larger than the previous one the day before and the ride was much longer as it crossed the Bay of Santander.

 

The ferry dropped off its passengers right in the heart of Santander. I had done zero planning on a place to stay there. I tried a hostel, but it was full. I then made my way to a hotel, as evidenced on Apple Maps, but it evidently didn't exist any longer. It seemed more likely to me a hotel would be close to the coast as opposed to inland, so I made my way back to the ferry terminal and noticed a tall building with a sign at the top saying "Hotel Bahia." It looked nice, better than anything I had stayed at this trip to Spain thus far, including Madrid and Bilbao.

 

It was indeed rather fancy inside. I felt badly marring the place as a stinky backpack-laden pilgrim. However, the staff was very friendly and sold me a room for only about 80 Euros. The room was much more luxurious than any place I've stayed in months, perhaps years. It even had a bidet.

One thing I learned this trip is larger cities in Spain and Portugal tend to have buildings that have a host of restaurants and food shops. Kind of like what you see at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. My hotel was near one and I enjoyed a wonderful and decadent dinner by myself.

 

In closing, Day 5 scored very high in terms of scenery and comfort. However, it was another day of not seeing a single other pilgrim and having no meaningful interactions with other people. Distance covered was not much at 21.9 kilometers. I didn't make good distance due to walking in sand, waiting for the ferry and searching for a place to stay.

Logic Puzzle Answer

Let's color the three coins in the corners for purposes of illustration.

Move each coin directly across its opposite side. Note the seven coins in the middle never move. You rotate the corner coins 180 degrees around those middle seven.