4/16, Thursday. Arrived at Santander bus station on time, ~8:30pm.
Staying at an Airbnb today. This lady rents out her second room.
Nice decor. She even partitioned the balcony, so the guest can have half.
Just 10 minute walk. On the way, saw the market (closed at this hour).
4/17, Friday.
Walking east through the city.
Saw this outdoor escalator on the street.
I like this sculpture by the water.
My destination this moring is Palacio de la Magdalena (built early 1900s for king Alfonso XIII), now a city park.
I quite like it. Beach, cliffs, big trees, mist. Quite some flowers. At this early morning, there was very few people.
I saw a choochoo train. Maybe I wouldn't like it when it's running.
I still had time when I returned. So visited Museum of Modern Art. It's not big, but I really like it.
There's a special exhibition of works by Jose Ramon Sanchez. All 3 panel setups. Stylised, yet realistic.
The paintings by Jose Luis Serzo is also interesting.
On my way to the bus stations, saw this flower market right in the middle of the street.
12:00pm bus to Puente Viesgo, walked uphill in the sun to the museum for the caves, Cueva de El Castillo + las Monedas.
I had bought the tours at 3:40 and 4:40pmm (€15 each) before I left Seattle.
However, not many bus options, so I arrived too early.
Had time looking through the museum. Not big, but well done.
It talks about the few large caves with prehistorical paintings in Cantabria region.
Discovery of the caves, and 3 dating methods: carbon isotope (on organic matter), uranium-thorium (on calcium carbonate), potassium-argon (on rocks).
There're video clips showing how fishes were caught, how some tools were made.
There's WiFi in the museum, but only connects to the government tourism website.
The rest of my time was resting, eating and editing my photos. It's very quiet here, not many visitors.
You can drive up closer to El Castillo cave, or take a walking path more uphill for ~15 min.
It has a large entrance canopy, a seating area with a vending machine in a separate canopy, also bathroom and locker for luggage (needs a €1 coin).
No photos allowed inside the cave. No light even allowed.
The guide has the only light, plus some fixed bulbs in the cave, which she turns on at a time.
We have 5 tourists today. The other 4 are Spanish.
The guide only spoke in Spanish, didn't make any effort to speak in English. The only English I got were orders so I know when to follow or stop or not to bump my head on the rock. It's a pity that my Spanish is so bad.
The previous tour (hourly) had just an English speaking couple, so the guide had to speak English.
My guide talked about the environment and geology around the cave at the time, pointing to the drawings on the walls. She also simulate the effect of flicking light of fire by (un)covering her torch light.
This cave has many red hand prints, string of dots, some crude forms of animals. ~41000 year old.
It takes ~10 minutes to walk to Las Monedas cave. Flat. On the way, saw a few more caves with their entrances barred.
We waited at the gate, where a WiFi sign was posted. No WiFi at all.
Again 5 people, all except me are Spanish. Again, no photos allowed.
This guide, however, is very patient, tried to make sure I understood what he said.
He's behind schedule.
We were given a torch light. No fixed lights inside this cave.
We are now 200m above river, but at the time, the cave was 150m under the river.
This cave is later in the timeline, ~12,000 years ago. Reindeer, horse that uses the rock shape has its belly.
There's also some nice cave formation with different colors.
Various instruments were setup in the cave to measure humidity and air.
If the numbers do not return to normal, they may close the cave for a day for it to recover.
The guide said that Covid was good for the caves: very few visiters and everyone wore a mask.
I'm surprised that the museum didn't require or facilitate tourists to wear a face mask, to minimize our impact.
After the tour (2 guests had to run to their tour of Castillo cave, but they were already too late), walked 3.5km to Vargas for bus 19:35 to Torrelavega. I was early, bought some food at the corner store, and ate at the bus stop. Later, 2 others arrived. I confirmed that I was waiting at the correct stop. The bus was 13 min late.
Arrived at Torrelavega ~8pm.
The town is small, so the bus terminal is right next to the town center.
Stayed at hotel Puerta del Sol. Nice looking lobby, surrounded by various rooms. I didn't see a single person while in this hotel.
4/18 Saturday.
Walked around the town. It's know for puffy pastry (hojaldre), so bought one to try. Pretty good.
Checked out Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, the church at the background of my pastry.
Unfortunately, it wasn't open.
Another interesting, but modern, church is Iglesia de la Virgen Grande.
Spacious inside.
I had wanted to visit the small town of Santillana del Mar. But the bus schedule is not convenient, and my Blablacar ride request wasn't answered. So taking an easy day today. It's very touristy, so maybe not too much of a miss. Got on the 12:05 bus from Torrelavega to Oviedo, the starting point of my camino.
