San Vicente de la Barquera, Spain
As the weather is still a little inclement, we decided to remain active and yesterday spent the day back in Santander. It’s about 40 minutes from our campsite, so we were there by late morning, and following a quick coffee at the Cafe Pombo (quite famous apparently, and we were the worst dressed people in there!) we set off along the coast to find the Palacio de la Magdalena which was built by the town in the early 20th century for the royal family. You can see all of the Bay of Biscay from there apparently, and we could make it out in the distance from the town centre.
We had a lovely walk along the seafront, much of it on pedestrian areas, passing through beautiful gardens, along stretches of wide sandy beaches, and amused ourselves watching the surfers as they caught the waves in the choppy seas.
However, after an hour or so we realised we’d lost sight of the palace but continued on, until we reached the very end of the last peninsula. Where has the palace gone? In desperation we consulted the map only to find that it was behind us – two and a half miles behind us! How we missed it we can’t explain, but we set off back, arriving some 45 minutes later. A quick trip around the palace grounds, taking in the somewhat overcast views of the bay, and we headed back into town – another two miles further back the way we’d come!
By this time our feet were getting a bit sore, and we were very hungry indeed, so it was with some relief that we pitched up at La Gloria de Carrideo, a Spanish tapas bar which got good reviews on Trip Advisor. We ordered what we thought was about right, two dishes each and a salad to share. Unfortunately this would have fed a family of four with seconds to spare, so we didn’t make much of a dent in it. The proprietor said he thought we were hungry! We returned home along the coast road away from the motorway coming in through Comillas which is 4km from the campsite. We went back to Comillas today as it is where an early house designed by Gaudi was built in the 1880’s. It was fascinating, as was the palace, and the university – neither of which we went into, but just admired from outside. It seems Comillas became an important town in the 1880’s as a result of the Marquis de Comillas having been born there in poverty. He became the richest man in Spain and built the palace, and university. His wife’s brother in law commissioned Gaudi to build his bachelor pad, but unfortunately he’d been a bit of lad in Cuba and caught something nasty (they didn’t say in as many words but I reckon it was an STD) which killed him off before he’d had chance to occupy his new home. It had loads of owners, and fell into disrepair until in the 1970’s it was restored by the Spanish government, and is now back to its former glory, as you can see from the pictures. By the way, Spanish post offices are just like Knaresborough’s – understaffed with long queues! 
