photos: santander 2011...
Next installment of my holiday report! Previous parts can be found here and here. ;)
5. Santander
On the third day of our holiday, J and I were planning to do a trip to Santander, the capital of Cantabria. xurda87's father recommended the FEVE train (which leaves at that pretty station that I posted a pic of in my first post) because it was supposed to go through really pretty landscape and all, but the train would have taken over 3 hours, and considering that we still needed time to walk through Santander, we didn't want to waste any time being transported. Therefore, we decided to use the bus instead, which leaves at the Termibus terminal behind the San Mamés stadium. We went there, got our tickets... and then waited for ages at the wrong bus stop (we confused the bus number with the number of the bus stop), which eventually caused us to miss the bus. The next one was slightly more expensive, so we had to pay an additional fee when we changed the tickets, and also it left about 1.5 hours later. :/ So we went into the little Termibus café, had a coffee, wrote some postcards, read Mundo Deportivo, and waited for the next bus to arrive.
When we finally arrived in Santander after a nice 2-hour-drive, it was afternoon already, but thanks to my travel guide book we quickly found out where we were and started our walk through the city.
A workmate of my mum's who was married to a Basque and living in Bilbao for a couple of years kept saying to Mum (after having been told that I love the Basque Country) that I really need to visit Santander because it's beautiful, and it turned out she's right! ;) I still prefer Bilbao (obviously), and Donostia, but Santander is absolutely worth a visit, a gorgeous place with beautiful buildings and a fantastic bay, and also tons of pretty beaches. It didn't take me long to realise that the people who live there are absolutely spoiled, having so many nice beaches in a walking distance! Unfortunately we only had a couple of hours to spend in Santander because I wanted to be back in Bilbao for the Athletic vs Málaga match (though considering how that went, maybe it would have been better to stay in Santander for a few more hours *sigh*). But I'm definitely going to return there!
This is the Casa Consistorial, the city hall of Santander.
I love the crest!
Santander Cathedral.
Flowerbeds along the road in front of the cathedral.
The Edificio de Correos.
A pretty building along the Paseo de Pereda, the ancient pier overlooking the bay.
Monument.
The pretty building behind the monument has to be noted as well.
Close to the Paseo de Pereda, there's a little park with interestingly-cut trees. XD
Aww! XD
In the centre of the park, there's this monument dedicated to José María Pereda, a writer.
At first glance this impressive building might look like a governmental one but it's not. It's the headquarters of the Banco de Santander. ;)
The coat-of-arms of the city!
The Paseo de Pereda again! The little white building there is the Palacete del Embarcadero.
Nearby, there was this pretty shipship!
Obviously I couldn't pass on the opportunity of taking tons of pics from all kinds of angles. XD
The Palacete del Embarcadero again!
The bay, and the towns of Somo and Pedreña behind it.
While we were having a little lunch, Harrotxu was enjoying the sun. XD
Near the Palacete del Embarcadero, there was this pretty shipship called La Pepa, a galleon that reminds people of the 200th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, the first written constitution of Spain. The constitution is also called La Pepa because it was published on the 19th of March, which in Spain is the day of Saint Joseph (Pepe). The constitution of Cádiz was a role-model for later Spanish and foreign constitutions.
Have I mentioned the ship was very pretty? :D
Cannon!
Underneath the ship I spotted some fish that looked like dragons. XD
One could actually visit La Pepa, but we missed the opening hours. Just my luck! :(
No worries, I didn't jump in there. XD
The harbour in the distance.
Another pretty building along the Paseo de Pereda.
This is probably one of the most famous things about Santander: The Monumento a Los Raqueros, 4 bronze statues, situated near the marina, which represent typical figures of Santander, the raqueros, poor or homeless children who dived into the water to fish out the money that tourists had thrown there.
And because I'm 12, I had to take this picture. XDD
This sculpture, consisting of many layers, is supposed to be a face.
The marina.
In case anyone didn't realise, we are not in the Basque Country anymore, we're in Spain. ;)
The Paseo de Pereda is really quite long.
This dome belongs to the university.
Along the Reina Victoria Avenue, you could see tons of posh, castle-like buildings as well as monuments like this one.
These steps lead down to the Playa de la Magdalena.
The Playa de la Magdalena. I took some steps into the water there and was surprised by how warm it still was! (Mind you, it was late September when we were there, and this is the Atlantic!)
Boats!
This part of the beach is, if I'm not entirely mistaken, the beach of the bikinis, called that because it was mostly frequented by foreign students who came to study at the university during the summers of 1960 and 1970, and the new beachwear fashion bikini had not yet arrived in the then conservative Santander so it attracted particular attention. XD
I tried to find out what ship that is but I wasn't successful. :( We also didn't have time to visit it. But next time I'm going to go there!
Back to the beach!
Another pretty posh building! XD
Have I yet mentioned the people in Santander are spoiled?
This is the Playa del Sardinero, by the way.
The Gran Casino del Sardinero! We didn't go in though. XD
Also, I have to complain. Someone thought it was a good idea to plant tons of tall trees right in front of the casino, so the only way to take good photos of the entire building is from inside a helicopter. Grr!
Another gorgeous beach!
This is a church near the bus station.
And this is Xavi's religious bookshop, a local branch that belongs to Kaká's "Ave Maria" in Berlin. XDDD
At 6pm we took the bus back to Bilbao and arrived there just in time to offload our stuff in our hotel, get changed, and then walk over to the Peña Athletic del Casco Viejo, an Athletic bar/restaurant in the old town. Unfortunately we lost, and it was pretty painful to watch because of the ridiculous amount of bad passes and wasted chances, but we had nice pintxos there to make the defeat at least a little bearable! ;)
Obviously I have more photos of Bilbao (and other places), so stay tuned! ;)
5. Santander
On the third day of our holiday, J and I were planning to do a trip to Santander, the capital of Cantabria. xurda87's father recommended the FEVE train (which leaves at that pretty station that I posted a pic of in my first post) because it was supposed to go through really pretty landscape and all, but the train would have taken over 3 hours, and considering that we still needed time to walk through Santander, we didn't want to waste any time being transported. Therefore, we decided to use the bus instead, which leaves at the Termibus terminal behind the San Mamés stadium. We went there, got our tickets... and then waited for ages at the wrong bus stop (we confused the bus number with the number of the bus stop), which eventually caused us to miss the bus. The next one was slightly more expensive, so we had to pay an additional fee when we changed the tickets, and also it left about 1.5 hours later. :/ So we went into the little Termibus café, had a coffee, wrote some postcards, read Mundo Deportivo, and waited for the next bus to arrive.
When we finally arrived in Santander after a nice 2-hour-drive, it was afternoon already, but thanks to my travel guide book we quickly found out where we were and started our walk through the city.
A workmate of my mum's who was married to a Basque and living in Bilbao for a couple of years kept saying to Mum (after having been told that I love the Basque Country) that I really need to visit Santander because it's beautiful, and it turned out she's right! ;) I still prefer Bilbao (obviously), and Donostia, but Santander is absolutely worth a visit, a gorgeous place with beautiful buildings and a fantastic bay, and also tons of pretty beaches. It didn't take me long to realise that the people who live there are absolutely spoiled, having so many nice beaches in a walking distance! Unfortunately we only had a couple of hours to spend in Santander because I wanted to be back in Bilbao for the Athletic vs Málaga match (though considering how that went, maybe it would have been better to stay in Santander for a few more hours *sigh*). But I'm definitely going to return there!
This is the Casa Consistorial, the city hall of Santander.
I love the crest!
Santander Cathedral.
Flowerbeds along the road in front of the cathedral.
The Edificio de Correos.
A pretty building along the Paseo de Pereda, the ancient pier overlooking the bay.
Monument.
The pretty building behind the monument has to be noted as well.
Close to the Paseo de Pereda, there's a little park with interestingly-cut trees. XD
Aww! XD
In the centre of the park, there's this monument dedicated to José María Pereda, a writer.
At first glance this impressive building might look like a governmental one but it's not. It's the headquarters of the Banco de Santander. ;)
The coat-of-arms of the city!
The Paseo de Pereda again! The little white building there is the Palacete del Embarcadero.
Nearby, there was this pretty shipship!
Obviously I couldn't pass on the opportunity of taking tons of pics from all kinds of angles. XD
The Palacete del Embarcadero again!
The bay, and the towns of Somo and Pedreña behind it.
While we were having a little lunch, Harrotxu was enjoying the sun. XD
Near the Palacete del Embarcadero, there was this pretty shipship called La Pepa, a galleon that reminds people of the 200th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812, the first written constitution of Spain. The constitution is also called La Pepa because it was published on the 19th of March, which in Spain is the day of Saint Joseph (Pepe). The constitution of Cádiz was a role-model for later Spanish and foreign constitutions.
Have I mentioned the ship was very pretty? :D
Cannon!
Underneath the ship I spotted some fish that looked like dragons. XD
One could actually visit La Pepa, but we missed the opening hours. Just my luck! :(
No worries, I didn't jump in there. XD
The harbour in the distance.
Another pretty building along the Paseo de Pereda.
This is probably one of the most famous things about Santander: The Monumento a Los Raqueros, 4 bronze statues, situated near the marina, which represent typical figures of Santander, the raqueros, poor or homeless children who dived into the water to fish out the money that tourists had thrown there.
And because I'm 12, I had to take this picture. XDD
This sculpture, consisting of many layers, is supposed to be a face.
The marina.
In case anyone didn't realise, we are not in the Basque Country anymore, we're in Spain. ;)
The Paseo de Pereda is really quite long.
This dome belongs to the university.
Along the Reina Victoria Avenue, you could see tons of posh, castle-like buildings as well as monuments like this one.
These steps lead down to the Playa de la Magdalena.
The Playa de la Magdalena. I took some steps into the water there and was surprised by how warm it still was! (Mind you, it was late September when we were there, and this is the Atlantic!)
Boats!
This part of the beach is, if I'm not entirely mistaken, the beach of the bikinis, called that because it was mostly frequented by foreign students who came to study at the university during the summers of 1960 and 1970, and the new beachwear fashion bikini had not yet arrived in the then conservative Santander so it attracted particular attention. XD
I tried to find out what ship that is but I wasn't successful. :( We also didn't have time to visit it. But next time I'm going to go there!
Back to the beach!
Another pretty posh building! XD
Have I yet mentioned the people in Santander are spoiled?
This is the Playa del Sardinero, by the way.
The Gran Casino del Sardinero! We didn't go in though. XD
Also, I have to complain. Someone thought it was a good idea to plant tons of tall trees right in front of the casino, so the only way to take good photos of the entire building is from inside a helicopter. Grr!
Another gorgeous beach!
This is a church near the bus station.
And this is Xavi's religious bookshop, a local branch that belongs to Kaká's "Ave Maria" in Berlin. XDDD
At 6pm we took the bus back to Bilbao and arrived there just in time to offload our stuff in our hotel, get changed, and then walk over to the Peña Athletic del Casco Viejo, an Athletic bar/restaurant in the old town. Unfortunately we lost, and it was pretty painful to watch because of the ridiculous amount of bad passes and wasted chances, but we had nice pintxos there to make the defeat at least a little bearable! ;)
Obviously I have more photos of Bilbao (and other places), so stay tuned! ;)