De las Montañas de Fuente Dé a la Playa de Santander

Here begins the account of our final excursion: a weekend in Cantabria.

VIERNES 17 de abril:

-We met bright and early (6:30am!!) at Plaza Gabriel y Galan as always and reluctantly boarded our disgusting bus “Tres Pilares,” this time without our faithful driver, Lucio. By the end of the excursion, we came to really resent our stand-in, Monolo, for not living up to Lucio’s esteemed reputation. “Tres P” didn’t end up LEAVING Plaza G.G. until nearly 7:15, however, on account of waiting for several stragglers who had decided it would be wise to go out the night before.
Sometimes I feel like a grandmother to these hooligans.

-Only stopping once at 9 for coffee and pastries, we arrived at las cuevas de Puente Viesgo (The Caves of the Viesgo Bridge) at 11:30am. The incredible views of rolling green hills and sheep from outside the caves nearly convinced me that I was in Scotland instead of Spain. Inside the caves, we saw a variety of primitive paintings dating back to 30-some thousand years before Christ! This place really put Luray Caverns to shame. As it neared lunchtime, however, all I could think of was how some stalactites looked like fettuccini and boulders like melted frosties.

-Soon enough, we sat outside and enjoyed a huge picnic with a fabulous view in nearly every direction. I felt like a fourth-grader again as we all compared lunches, oo-ing and ahh-ing…sometimes even cringing. “So what did YOUR madre pack you?” or “Oh my gosh, I wish MY madre put mostaza on my bocadillos!” or “I’ll trade you my Spanish tortilla for your elephant ear.” I’m fairly confident that we’re the only group of people over twenty-years-olds that still have their laundry done, beds made, and meals cooked for them on a daily basis. Wonderful at times, but mostly just shameful.

-We arrived at our hotel around 3:30, which to our pleasant surprise, turned out to be a Parrador. This meant that it used to an old castle and was later transformed into a place for public lodging. Guay, no? Karen, my roommate for the night, and I were also pleased to discover two very large walking staffs behind our front door. Being situated amidst a breathtaking array of mountains, several of us set out on a hike…obviously bringing our walking sticks along with us. The often-steep slopes only reminded Alexandra and I (among others) how VERY out of shape we are. We stopped often, thankful for the picturesque scenery as an easy copout (see: facebook photos). The walking sticks were also essential props. I half expected to part The Red Sea each time it met the ground.

-Around 7, we returned to the hotel for showers and such before dinner. Another selling point of the hotel for me was CNN in English. Shamefully, I tried to catch up on what may have been my first real update on American news in the past 3+ months. I should probably have my passport revoked or something for such an offense. I really do love America though, I promise.

-Dinner was in the hotel at 8:45. Showing up to these dinners, I’m always impressed at how well everyone cleans up. Boys in suits, girls in dresses…I think we all looked extra snazzy that night, given our excitement of an extra amazing hotel. The meal began with an egg, bean, and ham dish with tomato sauce. Undoubtedly one of the stranger dishes I’ve ever tried, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it. Next was steak and potatoes. Then baked apple with cream. Then café con leche, followed by vomit and triple bypass surgery.

-Being that our hotel was located in the middle of absolutely nowhere, we all spent a leisurely evening in the hotel; but then again, no one was all that anxious to leave our castle anyways. The free WiFi enabled a YouTube videos marathon, because we’re all so Internet-deprived that none of us have any idea how to use it anymore.

SABADO, 18 de abril

-We started the day of with breakfast in the hotel at 9am. Besides inspecting the personal bathrooms, the luxury of the buffet breakfast is my other measure of business. To me, if the bathroom is clean and spacious and the breakfast fresh, vast, and delicious, all other details matter little. I would forfeit sleeping on the floor for comfortable bathing/pampering and good food. If this doesn’t begin to demonstrate how very spoiled we’ve become staying in these 4-star hotels, I’m not sure what will. We enjoyed parfaits, chocolate milk from glass bottles, café con leche, fried eggs and sausage, and fresh fruit before setting out on our day’s adventures.

-Our first adventure was a mere 3-minute drive from the hotel to the Teleférico (Cable car) at 10am. If you’re at all afraid of heights, this would not have been the activity for you. The very slow car pulled us up past steep cliffs and crevices all the way to the top of the snow-capped mountains surrounding our hotel. Everywhere I looked, I felt like I was trapped inside of a postcard. I didn’t even have to enhance my Facebook pictures this time…they already looked incredible. Our visit ended with a vicious snowball fight, initiated by an army of rando Spanish adults.

-With heavy hearts and wet shoes, we arrived at a small picturesque town called Santillana del Mar to have lunch around 2:30pm. Starving, as always, Alex, Tori, and I rushed into the very first café we saw that offered our beloved Menu del Dia. And what a diamond in the rough this place turned out to be. We ordered and five minutes later, our very cranky waitress had placed an entire bottle of wine in front of each of us.

-Feeling slightly looser, we regrouped at “Tres P” to visit a replica of the prehistoric cave Altamira at 4pm. Yes, I said replica…as in not the real thing. Fake walls, fake stalactites, fake drawings, the whole shebang. How am I supposed to be impressed by this when I saw a REAL cave just yesterday?? Chungo and disappointing made me thankful for the wine in my stomach.

-After the pseudo-cave, we returned to Santillana del Mar to visit the Inquisition Museum. The gloomy rain really set the mood too. I didn’t expect that the museum would have had such an effect on me, but reading all the gruesome descriptions of the torture devices made me tear up. I made it through the entire exhibit without leaving, but when it was through, I was silenced for a while afterwards. And if you know me at all, this is a pretty clear indicator that something is wrong.

-Before boarding the bus once again, we spent the remainder of our free time walking around the beautiful town. We tried our share of Quesada, (a sweet cheese dessert native to Santillana del Mar) and bought their famous assortment of chocolates. They better be famous anyways as each bar was 3-and-a-half euros. Sheesh. Also noteworthy is the Museo del Queso (Cheese Museum) that Colleen and I discovered. No doubt she is the proud wife of Museo del Jamon in Madrid.

-We left Santillana del Mar and headed for Santander.

-Another incredible hotel, I shared a HUGE triple room with Sarah Pineres and Susie McCarthy. Our window overlooked the bright blue Cantabrian Sea.

-After showering and changing, we regrouped once again for dinner downstairs. Another fantastic meal. The first dish was a crab pasta, the second fried duck and potatoes, and then a pineapple tart toped with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Oh and café con leche of course. Had I been wearing anything other than a dress I would have certainly had to go “UB.”

-Later that night, several of us set out to investigate the night life of Santander. After walking around for a bit, we finally settled on one. Alex, Colleen, Leah, Danny, Will, and I sucked on coronitas and complimentary lolli pops amidst a crowd of old people. Where were all the kids our age anyway? I was certain that each of these sphinsters had a babysitter at home. At around 2:15, realizing this would not be an ideal night to meet people, we headed back to sleep in a Spanish luxury hotel for the last time…at least for a while.

DOMINGO 19 de abril

-Breakfast in the hotel at 9:30. I think it’s safe to say that this was by far the best buffet we’ve had yet. Fresh squeezed orange juice machine, bottled chocolate milk, Pascuals (amazing Spanish juice boxes), pastries, eggs, ham bacon, the most sophisticated espresso machine I’ve ever seen, you name it. If we didn’t have a compulsory meeting at the bus at 10:30, I’m fairly confident I never would have left.

-From the hotel we left to see the Palacio de Magdalena…well, the outside of it. Apparently, the inside isn’t opened to the public. These circumstances, however, were nothing to fuss about. From every direction I enjoyed breathtakingly blue water, flowering plants, lighthouses, clear sky, and plenty more cliché pretty things. It was an overwhelming photo shoot to say the least. It was here that Jesus gave his last mini-lesson to which we responded with resounding applause. He’s really gone above and beyond for our group. I’m going to miss our Papa Duck.

-We didn’t have to walk far before coming across a mini zoo of penguins, seals, swans, and ducks. I can’t tell you how many “This is my life” moments I had that day, but this place seriously looked fake. Actually, Santander reminded me a lot of San Sebestian (not too surprising since they are both on the northeastern coast of Spain).

-Next, several of us set out to scope out the surrounding lunch options. Finally, we settled on a Mexican place called Ay! Jelisco. I almost feel obligated to send out a public warning saying that this place absolutely blows. It was Spanish service to the EXTREME. We were the only table in the entire restaurant and it still took them forever to bring our food. It came in waves of two at a time, followed by a 20 minute break, then one of us approaching them say they forgot yet another dish we had ordered. Ok whatever, no big deal, right? But when all the food finally came, the portions were miniscule. I’m sorry, had I accidentally stepped into a French restaurant instead?? Perhaps they just don’t understand how we’ve been trained to eat here in the last 3-and-a-half months.

-We left cranky, but our spirits were soon lifted by galevanting along the white sandy beaches. Once again, I felt like I could have been in a travel agency commercial.

-Leaving only as a result of time constraints, we made a quick, yet necessary stop for ice cream (clearly still hungry from lunch). I ordered crema tostada (literally translates as toasted cream) and tasted something like roasted marshmallows. YUM!

-Although re-boarding Los Tres Pilares has never been exciting per se, knowing we were leaving our last excursion in Spain made that step significantly harder.
We left at 3:15 and only stopping once, we arrived back in the “Manc aroud 8.