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6 June 2024 - Muxia to Suances, Spain
We were sad to leave Muxia this morning as it is a small friendly town with a relaxed atmosphere. We drove 5.5 hours eastwards from Muxia in Galacia to Suances in Cantabria. Suances is only a half an hour drive from Santander where we will be taking the ferry back to Plymouth.
After driving for about two hours we encountered some very thick fog. The visibility was very poor and we followed a truck until the fog cleared after about 10 kilometres. That area must be prone to fog as they had special lights on both sides of the carriageway to guide us.
The weather was pretty miserable the whole journey and clouds blocked the mountain scenery. Unfortunately the weather is meant to be bad until we return to the UK in 4 day's time.
We were delighted with our very modern and bright 3 bedroom penthouse apartment in Suances. We had booked it through Booking.com for Eur 104 per night which was an absolute bargain for such a fantastic apartment. It was the best accommodation of our entire 10 week trip and I highly recommend it.
Suances is a small town split into the upper town, where we're staying, and the lower beach area. Our apartment was in the centre of the upper town and after settling in we walked around and did some grocery shopping.
7 June 2024 - Day Trip to Santillana del Mar
We were pleased to wake up to a brighter day than had been forecast. We took advantage of it and visited Santillana del Mar which is only a 15 minute drive from Suances. Parking Publico is a very convenient car park by the tourist office and public toilets. There are ticket machines but when we went there were signs stating it was free.
Santillana del Mar is an exceptionally well preserved medieval town unspoiled by modern development. Unfortunately it can often be spoiled by a multitude of tourists as it is very popular with Spanish visitors. It wasn't very busy when we visited though.
There are 2 main pedestrianised cobbled streets with well preserved medieval buildings. Unfortunately most of them are now shops and restaurants for tourists. The main square is the Plaza Mayor.
The main sight to visit is the Romanesque Collegiate church of Santa Juliana. It started as a monastery in the mid 12th century. A group of monks built it in an effort to contribute to the repopulation of the area and to house the relics of the martyr Juliana. It is worth paying the small fee to enter it.
We had lunch in Santillana del Mar and then returned to our fantastic apartment.
8 June 2024 - Day Trip to Comillas
In the morning we drove to Suance's lighthouse and walked on the headland around it. There were good views of the beaches at Suances. Unfortunately it was a gloomy and breezy morning but at least it was dry!
We then drove for 30 minutes to the town of Comillas. We tried to park in the very central Aparcamiento Comillas but it isn't a large car park and was full. Parking is free and there are public toilets there. We ended up parking in the free Parking Municipal del Polideportivo which has plenty of spaces but it isn't quite as central.
The tourist office provided us with a useful map of Comillas with information on all the historic buildings that can be visited. We saw the most important buildings which were:
The Palacio de Sobrellano. It was built as a summer palace in 1888 by the First Marquis of Comillas and was the first building in Spain to use electric light. The First Marquis fled to Cuba as a 14 year old and made his fortune there before returning to Spain. It is free to wander around the gardens which is what we did.
The impressive University Pontificia de Comillas was founded in 1890 and is a private university. We only viewed it from the gardens of the Palacio de Sobrellano. The university was originally created as a seminary, sponsored by the First Marquis of Comillas. It is one of the most prestigious universities in Spain.
The Caprice which was designed by Gaudi the famous Spanish architect. We decided not to pay to see the interior.
El Duque is a 19th century English style building. It was closed for renovations.
Near to El Duque is a statue of the First Marquis which was erected as homage to him for the great benefit he brought to Comillas.
From the statue of the First Marquis we could see an impressive cemetery that is in the ruins of a gothic church overlooking the sea.
The Iglesia de San Christobal dates back to 1617 and is next to the Corro Campios which is the main square in Comillas.
We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around Comillas and then returned to our apartment.
9 June 2024 - Suances
We woke up to rain so we had a quiet morning in the apartment. In the afternoon the rain stopped for a while and we went for a walk along the seafront below Suances. We didn't do very much today but after 10 weeks of travelling we were happy to relax in our comfortable apartment.
10 & 11 June 2024 - Santander & Plymouth
We had to check out of the apartment at 11.00 and then drove 30 minutes to the ferry terminal in Santander. The ferry was only sailing to Plymouth at 18.30 but they checked us in and we were allowed to leave the car at the terminal while we walked around Santander.
We were pleasantly surprised with Santander. A large part of it was destroyed by fire in 1941 and we expected a lot of ugly modern buildings. However, there were a number of elegant buildings and it is a pleasant town in a beautiful setting.
As we walked along the waterfront we saw our ferry arrive so we walked back to our car. There is a shop at the port which sells booze and I bought 12 bottles of wine for about Eur 10 a bottle. Two of the assistants informed me that one of the wines I bought was served in the Vatican. A good sales pitch!
The ferry sailed on time and it was much fuller than when we came over to Spain in April. We had our own cabin again and it was a pleasant crossing as the sea wasn't rough. We arrived on time but for some reason they left us stuck in our cars for an hour before we could disembark.
It has been a very good 10 week road trip. Overall we were very lucky with the weather as it wasn't too hot, cold or wet. Our 10 year old car behaved very well on the 5,500 miles trip and the only issue was that the air con needed re-gassing.
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