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 - always up only

A set of travelators

The Trip to Llanes

I took a short ride on the the narrow-gauge railway that runs along virtually the entire north coast of Spain.   The timetable is here.  You cannot buy tickets on the web.  I do not think you can even buy this ticket from the machines in the Santander Feve station.  I got mine from a helpful guy at the counter.  A return ticket to Llanes cost 15.60 euros.  I had over a month to use the return.  I don't think you save anything much by buying a return, so maybe I'd get a single another time in case my plans changed.

The train got to Cabezon de la Sal OK, but then someone got on and told us to switch to a replacement coach;  I never found out why.  The coach followed the rail route stopping at each station.

You cannot see the Picos de Europa on any of this journey.  They are always hidden by other hills, and ultimately, near Llanes, by a high range called the Sierra del Cuera.

I stayed in a village 1.5km outside Llanes called Cue, a pleasant walk from the town.  It was very peaceful, hardly any traffic, cowbells, the occasional rooster.  Like most towns in the area, Llanes has a medieval quarter.  It also has a very attractive town beach - Playa de el Sablon - that reminded me a bit of the Sydney north-shore beaches.  

Playa de el Sablon

A number of other beaches are reached by path from the town.  Playa de Toro was the best - quite wild, with a big bar at the back.  I had a Mahou.

Playa de Toro