After our two days of relaxing and going to the beach in San Sebastian, we set off for Santander in the Cantabria region. Our GPS took us through the back roads of the Basque country and it was beautiful. The roads curved and bended and wound every which way to sling us around the car. We stayed in a hostel outside of the city and caught a train into the city. The city has a wide bay that separates the city side from the not so developed side.
Our first order of business was lunch at a local place. The food was tasty and helped us to not feel so desperate for food. We walked up the Avenida Castilla and Paseo de la Reina. There were all kinds of boats docked in the marinas, a planetarium, and a Maritime Museum. The walk up the hill seemed a bit steep so we caught the bus around to the sports complex area.
Here they have a metallic whale that sits next to the football stadium. This place looks like it houses basketball games but anyone who's watched Spanish basketball games knows that the arena would be more exciting than the game. In front of the complex and the football stadium is the beach. What a great way to live. Play football, get paid lots of money, and go to the beach after practice.
Along the beach is a giant casino. the building isn't as elaborate as some we've seen but its nice. It had a collection of mafioso looking guys standing alone talking with brandy sifters on a balcony as we drove by. I wonder who they were planning to rip off. Further up the beach is the Magdalena Park, a splendid little place set aside on the peninsula that juts out into the Cantabrian Sea.
The park has a no car rule so its quite friendly to families and people just looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of traffic. Izzy's parents went straight for the model boats after passing by the sea lions that were shouting for attention. Next, we walked up to the Palace at the head of the peninsula. It was built by the local government to provide the Spanish royals with a summer retreat in Cantabria. There was a wedding taking place. God only knows what they spent to get that place for an event like that and in Spain, that bill would be paid by the bride and groom, not her parents. We walked down the other side where the beaches were and found a great playground park with tons of equipment for kids.
After our walk around the park, we waited an extraordinarily long amount of time for a bus back to the train station. During the bus ride, I got to enjoy watching Izzy's mom not beat some stupid teenage boys to death for playing a game called smack your friend. They seemed to think it was okay to use her as a shield at times.
The next morning, before heading to Asturias, we headed out to the lighthouse at Cabo Mayor. It's supposedly one of the most revered places in the city by the locals and once you are there, it's easy to see why. The view is amazing and the rock formations that rise up out of the sea are incredible. There is a path to walk all the way to the end but we decided against it. We almost lost the battle though to her dad who did want to walk down there. The promise of beautiful mountains and Asturias was the only thing that helped us.
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