Santander - Spain!

We got into Santander in the early evening, checked into hotel, and got ready for dinner at 9pm. We thought this was late, and were getting really hungry, but it's early for the Spanish! We got there a bit late and still had to wait at the bar for a while (what a shame) before we could go into the restaurant because they weren't ready.

Dinner was at a restaurant by the ocean beach, waves rolling and crashing in just below us out the window. We started by handing around secret santa presents. One stashed away his hangover recovery kit for use in the morning, another set up his 'Pin the Melons on the Babe', was blindfolded and started playing! We had tapas (as the Spanish do) to begin with and for mains we had a long board covered with loads of meat. Desert was a delicious selection of cakes and sorbet - yum!

After dinner we headed off to the casino. This is the entrance, with some bikes on display:
We had to show our passports and sign a bit of paper with our details on it. I'm not sure exactly what it was for, but it took a while to get through everyone. Finally we were allowed in.

There were a few successful people, but one topped it all off. He was sitting at the pokie machine of all things, and after a few bets he almost won €40 and got rather excited. Two bets later he won €500.

After the casino, some feeling broke, we headed back to the restaurant which had a bar below it. It pretty much sucked, other than the free round of shots that we got given because we dined upstairs!

After a long sleep-in on Sat, we dragged ourselves into town by train. It was raining, and we'd missed breakfast so we headed straight for tapas at Mercado del Este, a indoor "market" with shops and a nice cafe. Since Spain pretty much shuts down between 2-6pm, all there is to do is eat and drink.

We took a long walk to the peninsula where we went for a "train" ride around the area and saw the Palace de Magdelena. It poured with rain while we were on the ride, which was lucky for us since it was covered.

Looking out to the peninsular (through the trees) and island off the peninsular:













The city waterfront:













Boys diving:

















We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant with some of the others.

On Sunday we got up in time for breakfast. We caught the train into city again and had another walk around. We checked out the cathedral but there was a service on. A security guard told us (in Spanish) that we couldn't go in but to come back at a certain time (well, that's what we THINK she said). Sure enough, we came back and she waved us towards the door. It was fascinating, with two levels to it.

We had Tapas for lunch again at the same place as yesterday. It was raining again so we spent a lot of time inside. When we finally went to the sweet shop, it was closed (we were after 2pm) so we made our way back to the shopping centre which was open. After a cuppa it was time to get to airport. We saw a taxi about to drive away so banged on the window and said Aeropuerto. She nodded so we piled in. We think she was due to be on another job, but thought she could squeeze a short one in beforehand, because she drove like a maniac! It was really wet too, so we were all hanging on really tight. Luckily it was a very short ride and we made it alive.

We had no problems at Stansted airport since we only had our carry-on luggage, then got the express train. Getting home fromt the train station took forever though because we had to wait ages for our bus. We will be trying an alternative route next time!