43:25.732N 03:48.460W Santander Part 3

Ariel of Hamble
Jim and Valerie SHURVELL
Sat 27 Jun 2009 08:28


43:25.732N 03:48.460W     Santander Part 3

 

26th June, 2009.

 

We were up early today as we had arranged to hire a car and needed to get into town by 10 to collect it.  We started our day’s sight seeing by driving along the coast road out of town to the Palacio de la Magdalena which we had passed on our way up the river to the marina.  We were not disappointed as there is a small zoo in the grounds open to the public, 3 large old ships and 1 raft which had crossed the oceans to go to Australia and back, the large mansion which overlooks the Isla de Mouro and the approaches to the river, several beautiful beaches, tennis courts and play areas for the children.  There is also a small train which will take you around the park to save your legs.  This is a wonderful place to come for a long weekend with cheap flights now available.

We headed out of town to Santillana Del Mar which consists of 15th to 18th century stone houses which have survived largely intact. The town grew up around a monastery and it became an important pilgrimage centre.  The large church houses the tomb of the martyr St. Julian and contains 17th century pictures.  The two main streets are cobbled and the houses were built by noblemen.  These have fine wooden galleries or iron balconies and most have coats of arms inlaid into their stone facades.  In the early days farmers used the open ground floors to stable their cattle.  The museum houses carvings of religious figures. At present the town is celebrating 900 years of existence but we unfortunately, missed the celebrations in the morning.

After lunch we headed out to the mountains in the Valle of Cabuerniga.  The car climbed and climbed up the mountain road and we stopped at the top to photograph the cattle.  To our surprise they were all wearing bells and they could be heard all over the valley.  A few hundred yards along the road were horses also wearing bells.  The farmers move them up to the mountains for the summer months.  In the mountains the temperature dropped from 26 degrees to 15.  The animals all had very thick coats and would only be up on the high points for approximately three months of the year. We were 1260 metres above sea level.

On the way down we spotted a stork on a nest at the top of a telephone pole.

The road system here is very modern, well sign posted and we passed through several tunnels on the motorway returning to town going through the mountains and one to our surprise was 2.6 km long.

We ended our journey visiting a retail area which turned out to be a very nice shopping mall most ladies would enjoy.

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