Santillana del Mar and Santander: really old caves and really cold water

Buenas tardes!! 

Felicitaciones--congratulations--to Luis Leon Sanchez, Basque countryman and winner of today's Tour de France stage winner!  Viva Sanchez! 

ANYWAY, today was another perfect day here in Spain!  We had another field trip today!  (They kinda front-loaded our field trips--I'm here for another two weeks and we only have three left, and I'm staring at two of them outside of my window.)

Today we headed to the Altamira Caves, Medieval town Santillana del Mar, and beach town Santander. We got to leave a bit later today--at around 9:45, as opposed to 4:50 on Wednesday--and it was really a really pretty drive along the coast.  It's even prettier when you get your own row on the bus to yourself, as I did.  You know me and my ADD legs; it's better for me and everyone in my cohort!

We got to Altamira, and here's the thing about the caves...you're not actually allowed in them.  There is a museum, and then there is the "neocave."  The museum was kinda cool--you know I'm so much of a geology nerd--and the neocave was ok.  BUT, as they say, it is what it is, and I'm glad to have been able to go--I probably would have regretted it if I hadn't gone, being this close.  By the way, random fact for you: did you know that life was longer in the prehistoric eras than it was during the Roman Empire and the Low Middle Ages?  Mind-blowing! (stupid Romans...)

After that, we went into Santillana del Mar, a little Medieval town.  It reminded me a lot of Toledo, Spain, but it was still really neat.  We went to lunch at this really nice restaurant, and I had VEGETABLES.  Again, probably sounds like torture to some, but it was a plate of grilled vegetables, and it was fabulous.  At the dorm dining hall, we eat a lot of animals--our two resident vegetarians have nights in which their meals are yogurt and bread--so it was soooo nice to get some fresh veggies!  

After tooling around in the Inquisition Capital of Spain (probably not really, but it felt like it, and the folks in Santillana certainly own it), we headed to Santander, this LOVELY little beach town along the Bay of Biscay.  We went walking around for a bit, and found the loveliest views.  We also got free posters, but that's just a bonus. ;)  Being the Atlantic, it was REALLY COLD WATER.  Certainly not the Gulf's warm waters to which I'm accustomed!  Fortunately, no one brought swimsuits to go swimming anyway!

All the same, great day, ready to start up another great week!  Hard to believe I've been here for two weeks, halfway through! Good night to all!

You're not actually allowed to take photos anywhere inside the museum or cave, so this will have to suffice. :(

Welcome to Santillana del Mar!  You know my affinity for taking pictures with ugly things  and then mocking them.  ;) 

Santander!! Pictures don't do this place justice, either.

How lovely will this be hanging in my classroom??
(by the way, it does NOT say "bathrooms of hello," it says, figuratively, "bathed by waves." Not really an excellent translation in English, but it definitely works in Spanish.)