Day 19 - Friday 12th May

This morning we were able to sleep in and it was after 8:30am before we went downstairs to the dining area for breakfast.We both decided to have the hot breakfast rather than the continental breakfast. At the next table was a couple from Surrey in the UK who had been driving around Spain for several weeks.

After breakfast, we set out to explore the town. Mind you, we'd already seen most of the town yesterday when we were driving around trying to find our hotel. The streets were quieter than yesterday afternoon. There were not many tour groups.

The forecast was for rain from 10am onward. As it turned out, we did get any rain during the day.

We visited the church which is located at the end of our street. It was a worthwhile visit. When you first enter the building, there is a courtyard surrounded by colonnades. The church itself is ornate and beautiful.

Next we visited the Museo de la Tortura which is an exhibit about the Spanish inquisition. It's amazing how many torture and execution devices they used in that period. It is really gruesome.

Having had a good look around the town, we decided to go for a drive to see nearby points of interest. Suzy programmed the TomTom to go to Santander via Playa de Santa Justa.

Something went wrong with the programming of the TomTom because we ended up in an inland farming area rather than a coastal beach. When we pulled over to revise our planning, there were two donkeys, perhaps appropriately, staring at us from the other side of the fence.

We then decided to go straight to Santander. There we planned to buy a Spanish SIM for our WiFi device and to visit the beach area. Once again, most of the trip was on high quality motorways.

This is a very busy city and we managed to find a small parking station under the multi-storey buildings. The first sign said parking costs 40 euros per hour. When we questioned the cost with the attendant, who didn't speak English, he wrote 1.80 on his palm.

The Orange shop was closed for the siesta. Nobody in the Movistar shop spoke English and they indicated that their SIM wouldn't work in our device. Next we tried Vodafone. At least they spoke some English but they too said it wouldn't work. None of them were very helpful.

Suzy programmed the TomTom for the beach at Santander but we ended up on the coast in a farming area. This time, when we stopped to reprogram, there were cows staring at us from the paddocks.

Eventually the TomTom successfully got us to Playa de Santa Justa and it was well worth the hassles. This a beautiful beach with tall hills on each side. However the main attraction is a old stone house that is built into a large cave on the side of the hill overlooking the beach.

It was only a short drive back to our hotel and we went to the restaurant across the road for a late lunch. By this time it was 3:45pm and the two waitresses did not seem to be at all happy to see us. Neither of them spoke English but we eventually figured out that they close at 4pm.

Both of us ordered a hamburger which turned out to be different from any other hamburger I've seen. It consisted of a meat patty on a plate next to an egg, chips and salad. There were no hamburger buns. Luckily we had ordered bread before the meal.

I ordered a 50cl bottle of red Spanish wine. It was a good meal. We then went back to one of the lounges in our hotel for coffee.

For dinner we went to the first restaurant that our receptionist had recommended last night,Pasaje Los Nobles. Not only was it open but it was very busy. The waitress took us to a table upstairs where it was less crowded. Our waitress upstairs was very good and her English was quite good.

Because we had a late lunch, it was about 8:45pm before set out for dinner. This seems to be a more normal time for dinner in this part of the world. The downside is that it was raining.

We weren't very hungry and so Suzy ordered crumbed prawns from the entree menu. I ordered the salmon and a bottle of red wine. For dessert we had a delicious chocolate brownie to share followed b espresso decaffeinated coffee. It was an excellent meal.

One of the interesting features of the restaurant was the menu. It was presented like a book. You read through several pages of nice prose before getting to the food and wine. It was nicely artistic.

We were back in our hotel soon after 10:30pm. By this time, the rain had eased off. We congratulated the receptionist on her suggestion of the restaurant.