We have retraced our steps a little bit to visit Laredo. Last night we realized we had another month of free traveling and didn’t need to rush south. The coastal region we are in has several small towns that caught Ton’s eye so we decided to visit one.
We first considered visiting a small town called Santillana del Mar. We were intrigued because it is called the city of three lies, Santa in Spanish can be interpreted as holy, the city is not holy, Llana in Spanish means flat and the town is extremely hilly, del Mer means by the sea, and the town is not next to the sea. While it is pretty we decided to just drive through it rather than stop.
We turned up at a nice river side campground near Laredo. After setting up we took a little break before deciding to head into town. We have become big users of public transport in Europe and usually it is very convenient and inexpensive. But Laredo as we learned the hard way is the exception.
The nearest bus stop was 700 meters away and the bus ran once an hour. I put Laredo into google maps expecting it to give me the city center and it said it was 2000 meters. Two kilometers is usually the maximum length of our planned walks so I convinced Ton to walk instead of taking the bus.
After about 35 minutes we arrived to what google said was Laredo and we were on a nondescript street surrounded by apartments. This was not the picturesque old town we were expecting. I found a restaurant that was in the old town and it turned out it was another 2 kilometers away. Ton gave me a bit of side eye and I deserved it, but we were now committed. We had never seen the one bus that is the municipal bus service for Laredo, google maps denied it existed and none of our ride share apps offered service. So we continued on foot. I told Ton we would find the bus when we got to the commercial district.
We finally arrived at the old town. It was nice, but it is really important in Spanish cities to catch them in the middle of the day or the evening. From 3 to 6 pm they are kind of dead. We found a nice cafe that was open in the dead time and ordered the two local specialties Anchovies and Calamari. They were both excellent.
After the restaurant we headed to the bus station where I hoped I would find the bus that was rumored to run to near the campground, or a taxi. The bus station was not for local traffic but for long distance buses; if there was a city bus I couldn’t find it nor could I find a human being to ask about local buses. Nor were there any taxi’s. At this point I told Ton our only option was a 4 kilometer walk back to the campground. She wasn’t happy with me, but she was a good trooper and set off. Just to rub salt in my wounds about 10 minutes from the end of our hour hike back to the campground the only taxi (I presume) in Laredo passed us on a dirt road we were trudging down.
So Laredo didn’t make as good as impression on us as it would have if we could have cracked the code on transportation. But after we returned to François our Irish/Australian neighbors saved the day. We overheard them telling our British neighbors that the sunset was glorious on the beach next to the campground. So we headed over there at sunset and they asked us to sit down with them and share a glass of wine. It turns out they were celebrating there 40th anniversary and we were privileged to join them in the celebration. We had a wonderful hour long conversation about kids, traveling, and life that turned what had been a pretty mediocre day into a very good one.