As the other days we got up a bit later than planned, but I did not felt like being in a rush.
I had to look at the view now when there was light, and it was amazing:
For breakfast Ana gave me the Sobao. It was like a sweet pastry, with a very nice moist texture. I ate it with mango jam, so it got really sweet. I think it was too sweet, so I could not eat all of the piece I had.
We got out around noon, and took a bus which brought us to town in 5 minutes. It was a wonderful and sunny day, which was very lucky, because it is raining a lot there normally like in Cph or Bergen. We got of in front of the city hall, at a pretty square, and it felt like a nice and cosy town in general. Also it looked quite new, which apparently was due to a fire which burned a lot of the city down in beginning of the 1940's.
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| On the way to the city center with bus |
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| City hall of Santander |
We moved on to the Cathedral of Santander. From outside it looked beautiful and so did the square in front of it.
There was a guided tour standing in front of the church, and it seemed closed, so we stood outside, listened a bit to the guide and Ana tried to translate. Outside there was a garden which was the last part of a bigger area of the Cathedral which was burned down as well. There was a picturing of the old city, which was vey cool to see, specially because it wasn't that old. But comparably the present city was a lot newer, almost except for the church.
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| The garden outside - last part which didn't burned |
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| Miniature of the old Santander |
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| An important ancient man |
After been standing there for a while she decided after a to give it a try, so we walked through the older crowd, pulled the door handle, and it was open. The church looked nice and old. I did not wanted to take pictures in there, so you will have to go there and experience it yourself. Ana translated some of the writings, and explained suprisingly much about the church and the history around it, really fascinating. We went to see a smaller chamber where some of the old and destroyed part of the Cathedral laid under some glass.
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| Catedral de Santander |
We went along the seaside, and there was a new architectural thing being builded. Ana didn't really like it, perhaps most because of the construction. Which there wasn't much of in general compared to Copenhagen. It was a very clear day, but with very few people in the streets, which surprised Ana a lot.
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| Plan for Centro Botin |
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| How it is gonna look |
The bank of Santander was also impressively big and had its own "arch" formation in the middle.
There was a little p
ark with a statue of José Maria de Pereda - an important author of Santander.
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| José Maria de Pereda - he brought important stories about the traditions etc. |
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| The statue from the other side |
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| The park |
Some awesome things about the city is that sea/beach is surrounded by the city center, it is one of the best places (and near to Santander) for surfing, it never gets too cold or warm in Santander and it is surrounded by beautiful mountains. These things made it kind of a dream city.
We passed by the backside of a place called
Palacio de Festivales a place for different kind of shows (if I remember correct), where Ana performed with flamenco once.
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| Palacio de Festivales from behind |
There was a newer part of the waterfront which was pretty cool, a bit empty this day though.
For lunch there was normally a lady to cook, but she hadn't cooked all of it, so Ana and I did. We had some delicious lamb steaks and pasta with tomato/cream sauce and the rest of some chorizo/cheese (heaven) and mango with cream.
We (or Ana and her parents) had a discussion about where to go after lunch. The time was quite short, but we could borrow their old Mitsubishi so we could drive outside of town.
It was an awesome place, which reminded me of the beautiful sides of Denmark a bit (without the mountains around though). On the one side the sandbanks at our westcoast and at the right side it reminded me of my parents summerhouse area at Røsnæs.
The waves were crazy out there. Normally it was a perfect place to surf, but now the waves were to "mashed" to deal with. We went along the cliff side, and got a bit wet on the way there and back because of the strong wind and the waves.
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| We went along the cliffside - and there was crazy waves and the clouds gave a nice view |
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| The wind was crazy like f*** |
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| Mini-Trolltunga - haha |
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| The Sunset was nice despite of the clouds |
We wanted to se the sunset from there, but unfortunately there was a lot of clouds. However, we waited and we actually saw a nice looking sunset spreading out a red/orange ligth at the sky.
Ana should guess how high our highest point in DK was, and laughed when she heard it was only 180 metres. I defended by saying we were doing "better" than Holland. The highest mountain in Cantabria is 2600m and is far from the highest (Teide, Tenerife 3718m).
On our way back to the car lightening started to appear. Not a lot but enough reason to get off from there.
So we drove to Peña Cabarga in the old and worn "Mitsu". When we started to go uphill the car didn't respond to good and we were a bit nervous wether it would make it uphill. The mountain is usually in the Vuelta de España, and it is apparently one of the steeper ones! Which made it extra exciting.
We made it finally to the top after a while, and there wasn't anybody, so we could park anywhere. It was pretty cold, but we had a really nice view over the city from there.
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| Santander from Peña Cabarga |
We drove down, and moved on to a café. There was some problems getting back and we were suddenly in the direction of Bilbao!? But we made it back.
We also drove through a tunnel which was very smart, because you could chose to drive or walk, and it led from Anas place to the city center, and was a great shortcut. But not a nice place to walk in the evening perhaps.
In the café I had an espresso and Ana a beer.I finished the espresso quite fast (it was tasty) and had a beer as well though. I was asked which place in Spain I liked the most, from this trip. It was a hard question because they were really different. But if I should choose between Santander and Madrid, I think I would choose Santander. Madrid is a nice city, but it is somehow too big. And too hot in the summer of what I have heard.
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| A cross outside of the café |
We drove home and I had my last supper before leaving "alucinante" España. We had the fantastic tortilla de patata (spanish omelet), and it was amazing, such a tasty dish.
Ana wrote our route in Madrid at the map over the city, after I asked for fun wether she wanted to write it in. Really nice.
I bought the busticket from Santander to Madrid the night before, so everything was planned.
I said goodbye to their sweet dog Lucky and we went to bed. I wrote a card for Ana, to say thanks, and gave her some souvenirs from DK. It has been a fantastic trip and I already wanna go back.
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| Lucky the sweet Vesti |
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| Ana drawing in our route |
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In the morning Ana and her Mom had made me three delicious sandwiches for the long trip home - so awesome of them. I had a bus back in the morning, which took around 6 hours and there was a break in a bigger city called Burgos. It was a beautiful trip actually, in the surroundings of mountains. When we stopped in Burgos I bought a bottle of water and got in the bus again. On the way into the bus I was handed a evaluation scheme, and when I saw it was in spanish I was like "no way..". There was a lot and my spanish didn't reach to it. Fortunately there was a girl who got in the bus from Burgos who sat next to me, so I asked her for help. Her english wasn't that good either, so it was a spanish/english conversation, but we made it in the end. She was from Bilbao but worked in Burgos now. She was guiding me to the bus in the airport as well, really nice.
Some pictures from the ride to the airport
I was really sad to leave already, also because of the amazing weather, but everything comes to an end. In the flight back I talked with a mexican girl, Mavi, who had been studying in Segovia, and was visiting Copenhagen only for one day (!) with a Brazilian guy. I said that I could be their guide for some time if they wanted to, but we didn't managed to get in contact. So the flight home was nice, even though I was met by snow when we landed. But I was going to see my little new niece which was something to look forward to!!
