SANTANDER; THE FABULOUS EXPERIENCE OF CANTABRIC SEA

When I was in school I read a travelogue written by the painting maestro of Nepal, Lain Singh Bangdel, Spain ko Samjhana (memoirs of Spain) Bangdel has brilliantly crafted in words how in the fifties he traveled to this beautiful country, those days he was studying in Paris. The first city from where he starts his Spanish journey was SANTANDER, a northwestern beautiful city which lies on the coast of Cantabric Sea, Santander is the land of the anicent caves of Alta Mira where the prehistoric paintings are painted in the caves, When I arrived in Spain I wanted to visit the same place which Bangdel has visited sixty years back. So I choose one weekend to travel Santander. Working as a tour guide in Nepal I had worked with so many people of different parts of Spain, I had an address of a client in Santander, I just had a phone number and email, I had forgotten the face of the client, it normally happens, the clients came from different part of the world and they leave their address, all these years I have worked with so many clients and It was tough for me to remember all. I decided to call him, I called him and said I am here in Valencia, again it was a dream for my clients. Nobody from the first world ever think that the guide whom we meet across the half of the world some day will come to knock our door, though they say if you ever come you can come to us but in reality nobody even thinks of hosting their guide, when somebody comes like this they are happy, they even call their neighbors to show how their guide look like, it happened to me in the beautiful city of Lainsingh Bangdel Santander.

The center and south of Spain is dry but the north is beautiful. The landscapes are amazing. We drove from Santander to Asturias. Asturias is another northern province of Spain and is famous for its milk. The sheep grazing on the landscapes, the little huts on the vast fields and snowy mountains are the attraction of Asturias. Little far from Asturias there is a famous church of Santiago. There is a pilgrim route from France to Santiago the route crosses almost the whole north of Spain. In Spanish they say “Camino de Santiago” which means the path of Santiago. The journey starts from France and ends in Santiago. Now days it is not only limited to religious purpose, it has converted into a tourist route. Like in Nepal we do trekking this route is the same in Spain. The whole route takes a month but many people walk on this path from different points. There are nice hostels on the way for the walkers; they are taken very good care. If one completes 100 kilometers of the way then he/she is given a certificate that he/she has done Camino de Santiago. After walking so many days when the people see the church of Santiago de Compostela sometimes tears welled in their eyes by the emotion. The church of Santiago is one of the beautiful in Europe and Spain. Now a day in this route we can see many Japanese and Korean tourists.