Santander and Llanes, April 2024
Santander is very hilly; the best thing about the city is the many outdoor escalators and travelators to get you up (not down) the hills. There must be 20 or 30 of them, sometimes in long chains working their way up. They are not (only) for the tourists; sometimes they just go up to nondescript housing quarters. One set leads from the University of Cantabria at the bottom of the hill, via about 4 escalators and 2 travelators, to a hospital at the top of the hill. Unlike the UK or even Germany, none of them were broken. They are marked as black lines on the free map of Santander available at the tourist office. There are also lifts, and a long disused railway tunnel, to help you move between levels and neighbourhoods, but it was really the escalators I enjoyed the most. At the top of the long set of escalators that start on Calle Florida, you can find a basic bar called the Doble A where they do a Vermuth de la Casa for 2 euros. Scenic Escalator Popular Escalator Escalator - alwa
