Santander

This lovely seaside city has given us a chance to slow down a little bit. With seas on three sides of this North Spain peninsula, it’s difficult for us not to head toward the water as we are always drawn to it and the shoreline here is varied and beautiful.  The waters of the Bay of Santander are clear and blue; some of its beaches are golden, almost brown sand and others are rocky.  Either or any beach is a good place to be.  This time of year, the sun is warm, the sky is clear and the breeze has a bit of a chill in it.  In my mind, that’s perfect.  Regardless of the day in the week, beaches are still full of people but now that school is in session, we find only adults soaking in the late summer sun and enjoying the peace and quiet setting while it lasts.

When we get ready for them, there are quite of few museums that pique our interest, parks, and churches to see.  But with a month more to be here, there seems to be plenty of time for that.

We did our favorite thing today.  Expertly we caught the number 1 bus to the center of the city and started walking.  Following the wide waterside paseo, we found starting at the Centro Binto (a modern museum in a chrome bean-like building that we – no, I hope to visit later), we walked along the very pleasant shore for miles.  The bricked walkway is wide and flows easily along the coast.  We entered no museums today; we took no boat tours, we just walked, enjoyed the ocean, looked, and learned.  Santander occupies a tiny peninsula, called Magdalena, in the Bay of Santander which is a little jab inward on the much larger Bay of Biscay.  This very inviting city, the capital of Spain’s Cantabria region, is surrounded by water on three sides.  Beaches and astounding seasides are in every direction except to the west.  There is a lot of sea to love here.  That makes us happy. 

Everywhere there is something to see and absorb.  For instance, we love dogs.  They always catch our attention.  A gentleman and his golden retriever walked ahead of us along the pier just past the marina.  A wide ramp ran from street level down into the water – possibly a place where boats once were launched.  The man and his dog walked down the ramp.  Midway down the ramp, at full attention the dog watched the man toss a twig into the sea.  Cah-blooey!  That dog leaped into the sea.  He swam round and round.  When he found the twig, he caught it in his mouth but he swam and swam more not ready to leave the water until his master called him to the steps.  The dog climbed the steps, dropped the twig, shook his big furry coat, and then got into position at attention for the next toss and leap.  They repeated the process several times until the gentleman got tired.  The dog could have done the leap, swim, find-the-twig routine all afternoon.  When the game finally ended, the dog shook himself dry and marched regally alongside his man onward to home and a rest.  Watching that lovely man/dog exercise in love and devotion was our gift of the day.

As we continued roughly along the southern coastline of the finger of land making up the Magdalena Peninsula we ultimately reached the Palacio de la Magdalena.   This relatively new palace, today’s icon of Santander, occupies over 69 acres.  It has a commanding Victorian-style palace, stately trees, walks, and lawns that sit on Santander’s highest point overlooking the sea with a 270-degree panoramic view.  The palace was built around 1910 by the citizens of Santander and given to Spanish royalty as a vacation home.  It was a beautiful place, and the king and queen and their family used it regularly for twenty years until 1936 when King Alfonzo XIII went into hiding.  Since that time, the property, still owned by Spanish royalty, has been used for a variety of purposes: International University classes, student housing, and even a POW Camp.  In 1977 the Royal family sold the palace back to the city of Santander for 130 million Euros.  Today the palace is an emblem of Santander and it is a place for tourist visits, conferences, weddings, concerts, and more.  But the palace is far more than just a grand building.  Its grounds are astoundingly broad and beautiful with open grassy areas, and ancient knobby trees with the sea just to the side.  There is a well-designed aquatic zoo with connecting fresh sea water pools for animals like seals, sea lions, penguins, and ducks.   Also on the vast park-like grounds of the palace is an exhibit featuring models of vessels used by Spanish adventurer, Vital Alsar:  three Spanish caravels — ships similar to galleons but much smaller, and a model of one of his rafts.  All were used by Alsar who after several attempts famously succeeded in crossing the Pacific Ocean by raft (on a RAFT!!!) in 1973 setting the record for the longest known raft voyage in history.

I’m not sure we will ever tour the palace but it does hold a different appeal since it was built in the early 1900s.  I read that admission tickets are sold out for weeks ahead.

There will be much more to talk about in the next few days but right now we are enjoying our neighborhood, the weather, the city’s beauty, the delicious new foods, and the seas.