Coastal views from Santander

The crossing was incredibly smooth and we slept well in the dark cabin waking just before 8am.  We used the microwave near the restaurant to heat our water for coffee then later treated ourselves to another full English breakfast so that we wouldn’t be desperate for lunch when the ferry docked.  

We entered Spain under brilliant blue skies though were redirected to the bike path when we tried to follow the cars out of the dock. Our apartment was only 2kms away and we had arranged early check in and were soon settled in our Lemon Suite apartment with a cup of tea.

Simon had already mapped our sightseeing route so we made our way back to the harbour and past the art gallery, Centro Botin, that sat above the dedicated bike path.  We cycled past the marina and the Playa de la Magdalena and entered Magdalena Park.  The flowers were in full bloom and as we crested the hill with could see the Isla Mouro Lighthouse, the only structure on the island, which sits close to the entrance of Santander harbour. Beyond the lighthouse we could see the coastline that we would follow tomorrow.

We continued on to the Palacio de la Magdalena, built in the early 1900s to provide a seasonal residence for the Spanish royal family, with the tourist train following close behind us.  We noted some random animal sculptures in the garden and continued on to the Museum of Man and Sea, a display of three Galleons and a raft, called La Balsa, which sailed across 13,700 kms from Ecuador to Queensland in 1970, the longest journey made in such a fragile craft.  A bronze mermaid was positioned in front of the galleon with her conch calling for calm to the seas.  

We passed a little zoo with seals basking in the sun, before heading down to Playa del Sardinero where we stopped for an ice cream.  As Simon waited in the queue, I was a little surprised to see so many people opting for what appeared to be double cones, until ours was served.  I realised then that a single serve was enormous, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the antics of the kite surfers. Reading the information in the apartment later, we discovered  that savouring a giant Regma icecream is one of the things you must do in Santander.  

Our final stop was the Cabo Mayor Lighthouse, which emits the longest beam of all lighthouses along the coast.  Nearby a granite cross commemorates those murdered during the Spanish civil war, including monks from the Abbey of Santa Maria de Viacell abbey who were thrown from the nearby cliffs.    

We relied on the apartment’s recommendations for dinner and selected Bodega Fuente De, a 15 minute walk away as the restaurant “offered traditional dishes of excellent quality at affordable prices”, which proved accurate.  We made the slight error of equating “raciones” with tapas and ordered accordingly, only to discover that raciones are larger and more substantial.  Needless to say we had plenty to eat so benefited from the walk home. 

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