Today was the first day of actual walking on this stage. As usual, a certain amount of reorganization takes place to try and make what I actually carry as light as possible. And, as usual, I am unsuccessful and end up carrying around 20 lbs in spite of having a suitcase transported. Walking out of big cities is never that great and today was pretty much solid pavement walking all day. First hour or so was just getting out of Santander, and glad I had an app to guide me as there was not much waymarking. Once out more in the countryside, still not great as often busy roads with no sidewalk etc. Did end up at nice roadside restaurant for lunch about half hour short of final destination, menu del Dia for 13 euros including wine! After lunch it turned out that the direct route to the hotel involved a substantial hill climb but fortunately of limited duration. Lovely old Palace type place, Palacio de Arce hotel, seems like a family enterprise with pleasant but sparse rooms and what appears to be a very active white table cloth restaurant. It’s now 4:30pm and people are still finishing lunch. Dinner is not served until 8:30pm at the earliest. As usual on the first day, a certain amount of soreness sets in, nothing can really train you for 4-5 hours of walking per day with heavy pack other than just doing it. Since this is something like my 10th trip like this, I am used to the idea that I will be sore for the first 3-4 days and then you get the second wind. 23,000 steps.