We had a great breakfast at the hotel, and walked back to Santillana del Mar to do some final sightseeing at the city center and the Roman cloisters.
The Santiago del Compostela Pilgrimage Route:
At the church, we saw the reliquary for Santa Juliana and learned a little about her story. During the 300s, she secretly became a nun even though her father was a well-known persecutor of Christians. Not knowing about her conversion, he arranged for her to be married to a wealthy man. She refused and explained to the wealthy man that she could not marry him because of her faith. When her father found out about her newfound Christianity, he stated, “I would rather her be dead than a Christian!” He brutally tortured her, and when she refused to renounce her faith, he killed her.
The cloisters:
After our final walk around Santillana del Mar and a sampling of cider, we drove to the nearby Altamira Caves. Discovered in 1879, these cave paintings are the work of a single artist over 14,500 years ago. The paintings are of bison, deer, bulls, and boars (strangely enough, these are not the creatures that they normally ate) and a few human handprints. The artwork is simply amazing. The artist utilized the surroundings to create his paintings—curves in the cave wall provided movement and shape to his animals, holes provided eyes, and all materials came from dirt and plants. There are extremely modern forms of painting present, including an early form of airbrushing, but the subjects for the art are strikingly simple. The artwork portrays the bare essentials: man and beast with no need to paint the surroundings. The balance of traditionally masculine and feminine animals creates artwork that scholars believe relates to fertility and the balance of power in the world. It is amazing how much power is expressed with the simplicity of these forms. Even though we could not enter the actual cave (body temperature and carbon dioxide cause the paintings to fade), they have created an excellent neocave that is accurate down to the millimeter. In viewing these works of art, Picasso’s words rang very true to me: “…everything [else] is decadence.” These words stayed fresh in my mind as we left the cave and escaped from the world of man’s decadence into the simple wonders of the Picos de Europa. Navigating the mountains was very difficult, since the roads were extremely curvy and sometimes covered with cattle, but the natural beauty was worth the daunting drive.
Here are some of the sights:
Check out the snow that is still present in the peaks:
Our campsite was the most rugged yet, but we found a delicious restaurant for dinner nearby. It was extremely cold in the Picos, and we had to wear as many clothes as possible to survive camping in the cold (I had on a tank top, a t-shirt, a sweater, a t-shirt, a sweater, and a rain coat!). As the temperature dipped and dew fell on the tent, we fell asleep to the serenity of our surroundings. 
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