It’s been a monumental effort getting everything ready for our late summer break to Spain. Wisdom tooth surgery, an overgrown garden and allotment; familiy and friends to visit meant we had much to do in the days before our departure. We decided to leave the caravan behind and only take the campervan, Nellie. We would need good weather to expand on the tiny space of the campervan.
We managed to book ourselves a midweek crossing from Plymouth to Santander today (Wednesday) and arrived in Plymouth around 1:00pm for our crossing on Pont Aven. We were one of the last outfits to board the ferry and had already been warned that this was a very full crossing.
What we weren’t prepared for was just how close together vehicles were being parked. Literally just centimetres between as the crew attempted to create extra parking lanes. I’ve never see such a crowded car deck before.
Whist we were quite late departing, due to the crowded boat, we made good any lost time and enjoyed an exceedingly smooth crossing, arriving some 10 minutes ahead of schedule in Santander. For once, our late boarding paid dividends as we were in the first 10 or so vehicles to disembark. We were on the road to our first site within 15 minutes of docking.
Our first stop was Santillana del Mar, just a short journey from the port of Santander. Our chosen site was a very commercial operation – part of the Kampoah group – and the price was still peak summer rate. Fifty Euros per night! Still, this site is very close to the medieval town of Santillana del Mar being perhaps a 10 minute walk away.
The site itself has many glamping tents and this section of the campsite was still rather busy. At nightime, the glamping area is a sea of lights.
Our pitch at Camping Santillana del Mar wasn’t quite as spectacular as the glamping pods…
In 1889, Santillana del Mar was declared an historic-artistic site and nearby is the UNESCO World Heritage Site – Altamira Cave.
The town is one of the most touristic and most visited towns in Cantabria and is part of the network of Spain’s most beautiful villages. The town is also known as the town of three lies – Sant, there is no Saint here; llana, the town is not level and del Mar, it isn’t by the sea!
Later in the afternoon we walked around the old town, at the heart of which is the Santillana del Mar Collegiate Church. Alas the church was closed today.
Just as we were preparing for bed, the heavens opened and we endured a massive 4 hour storm with torrential rain, thunder and lightening. Quite an experience for our first attempt at sleeping upstairs in the pop-top.
Friday was a dry and relatively warm day and after faffing around with some campervan issues in the morning, we set off early afternoon on our bikes to Altamira Cave, just outside the old town of Santillana del mar.
This is a UNESCO world heritage site but the original caves are no longer accessible to the public in order that they may be preserved.
It is renowned for prehistoric cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest paintings were applied during the upper Paleolithic around 36,000 years ago. The site was discovered in 1868 by Modesto Cubillas and subsequently studied by Marcelino Sanz Sautuola.
Because the caves are no longer accessible to the public (visiter numbers in the 1970s were approaching a quarter of a million each year), they built a fine replica of the main cavern. Just 3 Euros each to enter the Altamira site.
In the evening we walked back into Santillana del mar and ate at one of the restaurants overlooking the main square.
