It has been a while since our last update due to Cathy’s dad
passing away and then Anatolijus’ back issues that seem to have consumed most
of the winter.
Our last trip in December was to a well-known city in
Cantabria (north of Spain) called Santander.
You may have heard this name because one of the biggest Banks in the
world goes by the same name, headquartered there.
On the way there, we could not resist but to stop again in
Bilbao, at the Guggenheim museum, which we first visited several years ago when
Cathy’s parents came to visit for the first time. On the way back, we could not resist but to
stop at the Subway restaurant in Bilbao besides the Guggenheim for a sandwich
fix.
We went for a 4 day weekend, and luck so had it, that we hit
perfect 4 days, with temperatures in the high teens, with last day clocking in
at 17 Celsius, pure sunshine.
We had a nice hotel Las Brisas 2 steps from the beach, which
made morning walks easy. During our stay,
we made it a point to ensure we maximize our gastronomic experience and do the
right amount of sightseeing.
The first days we stayed in town, went to some recommended
restaurants for lunch and dinner and explored the town and the waterfront. The highlight was the Royal summer house
which has since been converted to an international summer university, which is
known for some spectacular parties among students. Situated right on the ocean, the location
doubles as a favourite wedding spot as well as the student locale. Surroundings feature a very green park and a
small “zoo” featuring penguins and seals.
The third day we did our “feature” excursion, which was the
pretext for the entire trip: the Cabarceno
natural park. The park was opened to the
public in 1989 in a reclaimed iron open pit mine, featuring 3 square miles of
wonderful landscape dedicated to protection of endangered species. The unique thing
about the park is that the animals live in a “semi-free” environment, whereby
the “enclosures” are naturally made (via landscape anomalies) so the animals
have lots of places to move around. The
park tries to maintain the habitat that is as natural as possible, promoting
natural survival and mating cycles. In
the park we saw bears, giraffes, gorillas, elephants, Bengal tigers, lions,
camels, zebras, rhinoceroses, hippos and many other species that were roaming
the lands. The bears and tigers
certainly left the biggest impression as seeing them so close was very
exciting. The park certainly exceeded
our expectation and the fact that you can drive into it and drive around on
specially developed paths made this as close to a safari as we have gotten so
far. Enjoy some of our pictures with the
blog.
4 days went by like a snap: eating, touring, walking on the
beach provided for nice amount of exercise, relaxation and enjoyment. We are absolutely heading back there as we
missed much and have to explore more.
The final note: the last 2 weeks of February the northern
coast of Spain was pounded by 140km/hour winds and 12 meter (36ft) waves, which
damaged much of the coastline from Galicia to Cantabria and Basque
Country. Cities like Santander and San
Sebastian were very hard hit: the beachfront promenades were completely
destroyed, beachfront shops and real-estate washed away or damaged. Government declared the zone a national
disaster zone, which affected citizens, merchants, fishermen. With the tourist season just around the
corner, the country has lots of cleanup and rebuilding to do.
