This past weekend as a group we traveled to Santander which is approx. two and a half hrs from Valladolid. The scenery was beautiful. We moved from the fields and rolling hills in Castilla y Leon to the mountains and valleys covered in fog of Cantabria. Cows, bulls, horses and sheep roamed the countryside. Everything was very green… but also very wet!
The bus driver was nice enough to show us around the city before dropping us off and described the city a bit - the names of the various beaches, the old mansions, the historic buildings, the futbol stadium, the panteon for indoor sports and even a spot to get ice cream.
Since there were so many of us, we were divided among 4 different hostels and pensiones. Pensions are like apartments that were converted into hotels. Each room had two, three or four beds. Then one group stayed in a hostel. There were 6 in one room, four in another and one with another group. All had bunk beds and a bathroom for each sex with a couple stalls and a couple showers.
The best part of Santander was the view. Wow! As one of the students said "we reached the end of Spain" and the water extended as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as hot as we were hoping, so some did not swim. However almost everyone still went to the beach for a bit.
After spending time at the beach, many went to the Peninsula de la Magdelena. They had a small zoo and the area where the sea lions are fills with water at high tide.
On the peninsula, there was also a Royal Palace - built in early 1900's and the family vacationed here making Santander "the" place to go for the summer. While we were here there was a wedding going on so we couldn't go in but could still stroll the park that surrounds the palace.
Most of the students chose to take the bus home Saturday night. Then 11 students stayed for a second night. Unfortunately we got rained on Sat evening and it was chilly Sun but those who stayed ended up taking a boat across the sea to the other side of the peninsula. Overall, it was a very nice weekend trip.