Hello, hello! I am writing this after a lovely little weekend in Santander, Spain (in the north, and the home of Santander Bank! How cool!). Luis and I had talked about spending the weekend visiting Santander, Spain, but then asked his mom if she wanted to join for her birthday, and then his brother- Adrián- also joined us. It was a good weekend! We planned to only stay in Santander, but we actually saw 4 cities over the course of two days.
Friday- Visiting Burgos, Spain
As soon as Luis finished work on Friday afternoon, we headed over to his parent’s house to pick up his mom and brother, who were ready and waiting for us. We didn’t take long to load into the car and head out to Santander, which is about 4 hours from Madrid (without traffic). Along the way, we decided to stop in Burgos, Spain for dinner, knowing we wouldn’t get to Santander on time for dinner (even though you CAN eat super late in Spain- midnight is fine!- but our hotel was outside of the city center). I’ve wanted to visit Burgos, Spain since one of my favorite cheeses comes from there!
(Photo from Google)
Another delicacy from Burgos is the morcilla- which is rice mixed with pig’s blood and fried. Definitely NOT my cup of tea and, no, I did not try it. Unfortunately, I also didn’t get a chance to try the cheese! We were only in Burgos for a couple hours where we had a mediocre dinner, walked around a bit, and headed back to the car where we realized that, what we thought was a 50 minute ride to Santander was actually a 1 hr and 50 minute ride. Fun times…
When we finally arrived in Santander, it was almost 2 am and we all had to laugh that there was no one at the reception desk, the doorbell to the building didn’t work, and when we called, the woman who answered came out of one of the rooms, dressed in sweatpants and a tank top. Luis’ mom was thrilled about the location 😉 Unfortunately, it was the LAST hotel left in or near Santander, so we didn’t have much choice. Mom and Dad- this hotel reminded me a bit of our AC Ho-Jo hotel experience.
It was fine though, as we were all exhausted and ready to crash.
Saturday- visiting Santander, Spain and Visiting Laredo, Spain
The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel and then went into Santander for a day of exploring.
We had trouble finding parking, so while Adrián and Luis’ Mom explored the Peninsula of Magdalena (a peninsula with a castle, a small zoo, beautiful views, and a little train you can ride), we found parking. Eventually, Luis and I got a chance to walk around the penincula and watched people take wedding photos at the castle before continuing our walk around the peninusla. Incredible views!
We met back up with his mom and brother and then we all rode the hop-on, hop-off city bus. I am usually totally against those buses, but I actually thought it was great. You get to see so much that you wouldn’t see otherwise, and learn a little about the city. If you book online, there is a small discount FYI.
From there, we had lunch. We stopped at a pinxos bar (pinxos are a type of food that is traditional in northern Spain. Basically, it’s a piece of bread with all different things piled on top. Some places make beautiful pinxos and they are always at an affordable price).
We got a bunch and split them up to share.
My favorite was the one you see above- two types of cheese over an apple chutney with lettuce. Sweet and salty at it’s finest.
We stopped and had some teas at a restaurant with views of the ocean (Balneario de la Concha) and then made our way back to the car and headed to Laredo, which is another coastal town, anout 45 minutes from Santander.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Asador Ruiloba, which was yummy- one of my favorite meals from the trip. We had salads, and shared fresh fish and then headed back to Santander.
Sunday- Visiting Reinosa, Spain and Visiting Palencia, Spain
On Sunday, Luis and I started the morning with a 20 minute run and some light stretching. We were both exhausted, but I convinced him that it’s better to move and get some exercise in before a 4 hour car ride home. Once we finished, we had breakfast and then we all checked out of the hotel and loaded ourselves back into the car. We drove about an hour to Reinosa, which is in Cantabria and just an hour from Santander, so it’s an easy stop on your way home. 
We walked through the cute little town, which was quite empty, but did have a lot of people out having coffees and beers (in true Spanish fashion). We had a coffee, and then got back in the car to head to Palencia, which is a part of Castille and León. We walked through the completely empty town- it felt like a ghost town!
I’m sure Madrid also used to be like that on Sunday, but it sure isn’t like that now!
We stopped for lunch at Taberna Plaza Mayor, one of the few restaurants that actually had any people present.
At first glance, the restaurant wasn’t all that impressive, but we all agreed that the food was really good. My favorite?
This huge plate of vegetables (parrillada de verduras)! I could have eaten this for lunch and been juuuuuust fine. But… we didn’t stop there. I also had this huge fish to take down, but ended up only eating a few bites before passing it along to Luis (who ate it after eating his own plate of fish).
Luckily, I had room for this chocolate cake… not to worry.
We walked around Palencia a bit more, visited the abuelos….
And then headed back to Madrid. We hit some minor traffic, so we were in the car for about 3 hours without a break. Needless to say, we were all more than happy to be home. I am so glad I had the chance to visit Santander, Spain, with Luis and his family. They treat me well- like I am part of the family and I think we all had a great time this weekend.
That brings us to today- Monday! I went for a long walk in Retiro park this morning and now plan to spend the rest of the day working on blog posts. Over the weekend, I felt very inspired to write a lot of new topic posts, so I want to start drafting them today. Of course, if any of YOU out there have ideas or requests for posts, I am all ears! Please send them my way.
Happy week!