Northern coast and GOT location (Day 7)

One of the highlights of the trips we have been looking forward to ever since we booked our flight tickets for a northern Spain trip was  photographing beautiful seascapes along the northern Spanish coastline.

That day we finally woke up much before sunrise and started driving to the vista point of Uro del Manzano because we wanted to photograph the dragon fins during sunrise at low tide.

The pre-dawn drive started with a  gloomy outlook and a slight drizzle but when we got there using Google maps, the road ended in a point in the middle of nowhere. From there we could see the sea but there did not seem to be any trail to get there. Having spent about 30 - 40 minutes meandering around to find the “correct” location, we decided to park at one area,  get out of our car and start walking via meadows towards the coast. We kind of knew what “scene” we were looking for from the months of looking at various landscape photographer’s photos and YouTube videos and Google maps.

Finally we found what we wanted to photograph after walking about 20 mins. R quickly set up his tripod and started shooting the visible “fins” in the absolutely breathtaking moody weather and the reddish glow from a recent sunrise. We had planned for the dates to coincide with low tide but could not plan for the weather.

Within a few mins it started to drizzle again and so we had to pack up our gear and make our way  back towards the car. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to take pictures of the two standing rocks on the other side of the coastline. It was difficult to gauge the best modus operandi because there were patches of black clouds and we were not sure whether standing there or going back to the hotel was the best idea. Eventually, “going away” is what we did because it started raining quite heavily by the time we got back towards the car. We decided to wait for a little while, but in the end just drove back to our hotel wishing that we could stay there a lot longer, maybe an extra day.

After some time it finally stopped raining and the clouds cleared up revealing a bright and beautiful day. We went for a walk to the Collegiate Church with its ivy covered cloister, which is considered a masterpiece. The columns in the cloister are intricately carved with different biblical scenes as well as with mythical creatures and beats. We then ventured out to see the village of Santillana del Mar where we shopped for some ceramics and hand made clothes. Feeling hungry we landed at a pincho place where we devoured some morcilla pinchos and cider, where one of us showed off his cider pouring skills.

There is little to do in this village apart from walking around and admiring, so after sometime we started driving towards Gaztelugatxe, an islet on the coast of Biscay belonging to the municipality of Bermeo, Basque Country. It’s connected to the mainland by a man-made bridge and on top of the island stands a hermitage (named Gaztelugatxe Doniene in Basque; San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Spanish) dedicated to John the Baptist.

It's also where Dragonstone (of Game of Thrones fame) was created and one of us wanted to recreate the photograph where Daenerys of House Targaryen stood thinking how it felt to have been born in Dragonstone Castle but never to have seen it ; using his wife to stand in for Lady D. All the planning that goes on in one photographer’s head is a topic for another day.

But on our way, we stopped at the city of Santander which is the capital city of the Cantabria region, where we wanted to do a pincho bar crawl. It started with a coffee and vermouth at Illy (yes! The renowned italian coffee roaster) where we spent some time mapping out the pincho bars that we wanted to visit. As we were going towards one such bar, we found a Beher store (famous for its jamón ibérico de bellota) and so we had to go in. 

We chatted with the lady who helped us buy some packaged jamon to eat over the next few days and enjoyed some jamon croissant pincho style. Eventually we got to the Vermutería Solórzano where we had plenty of local vermouth and a certain white wine aged in solera style. We also got to meet two local gentlemen with whom we had two hour long conversations in our broken 10% spanish and their 20% english. Such conversations are so much fun, especially because of things which do get lost in translations when you are doing a bar crawl.

Finally we embarked on our two hour drive towards Gaztelugatxe to reach Gaztelu Begi. It is a small AirBnB with 8 rooms on top of a bar right on the end of the main island connected to the hermitage island. When we got there, we decided to scout the area so that we could come back the next day. 

There are two trails, one leading to a  view point and another which leads to the pathway that goes over the bridge and then takes the stairs to get to the church. This can be accessed by a narrow path, crossing the solid stone bridge, and going up about 230 steps . According to legend, after the slightly strenuous climb to the top, one should ring the bell three times and make a wish.

At first we went to the viewpoint but then took the other trail only to find a gate at the bottom of the hill notifying that it was closed for the day. So, we hiked back up and watched the sunset from the viewpoint. Since it was very cloudy there was not much of a sunset, but it felt good to be out there . After that we got back to our room where we dined on some chorizo and cheese that we had picked up in the days before and called it a most wonderful day !