Cantabria

After our Europe trip we were a little disappointed in all the brown and yellow around us in Spain.  A friend mentioned that the Northern Coast was quite green and beautiful so we took her word for it and made plans to go North  to  Cantabria.  She was right, it is green, hilly and full of beautiful beaches, the best we have ever been to. 

We arrived Friday evening and had just enough light to check out a beach before it was too dark.

Playa de Santa Justa

Beautiful, but maybe too rocky for swimming.  To the right was an old building built into the wall with a ruin up above on the hill.  Of course we knew we had to check them both out. 

View from up on the side during our trek.

The building in the hillside turned out to be an old church "Ermita de Santa Justa" from the 16th Century.  The next picture shows what Mason was looking at.if you dare 

These GROSS slugs were everywhere and we had to really watch where we were stepping.  This particular one was just about 2" but we saw others that were up to  4" long-Uuck!

Looking back at the beach!

From on top of the hill with the ruin, just before it was too dark to make it back to our car without stepping on anything squishy. 

Playa de La Concha (the only beach where we saw shells)

We parked here to buy a necessary boogie board for the waves.  You can see the beach to the left of this old picturesque building below the amazing sky.

 

 

Saturday morning, with lots of waves and lots of beach.

The beach was extremely shallow for likely 100 meters  Morgan and Brent are way out there and the water is still below their waists. 

Kamree was worried that Mason would fly away.  By the time we were driving away the waves/water had moved up the beach to where Mason is standing.

Playa de Los Locos

This was our favorite beach because it wasn't too shallow or too deep and the waves were perfect for boogie boarding and apparently surfing.

There happened to be a surfing competition going on while we were there which we enjoyed watching from below.

Waiting for just the right wave!

Kamree and I went for a walk to the far end of the beach!  After this photo I turned to video the crashing waves on the rocks and Kamree dramatically shows me how ready she was to go back in the following video!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what the boys were doing while the girls were out there in the waves.  Yes those three figures are Kamree, Kaiya and me.  Morgan got cold after playing in the waves and fell asleep,  of course when it was time to go he insisted he wanted to play longer.

All 9 of us running from the poisonous waves.  

Playa el Sable de Tagle

We didn't get in the water here.  The beach was really dirty, smelly, and it got deep really quick, but still beautiful. 

 

Castillo Aguilar de Campoo

We stopped here on Sunday on our way home. This castle, now just ruins, was built for defense and is first documented in 1039.  It was rebuilt several times in the 12th and 14th centuries.

This was the center inside the castle.  We climbed this mound of rocks to find an inner room/chamber at the top.

Queen of the Castle!

Kamree and Brent walking along the walls.

Mason guarding the wall!

 

Burgos 

We stopped in Burgos since we had nothing really to rush home for and this 13th century cathedral  looked really neat from the freeway.

 The cathedral's construction began in 1221 and it was in use as a church nine years later but work continued off and on until 1567.

And we even got to meet the prince!