Hi Jer etc
Well, I'm back at home on my own computer now. No more viruses I hope.
We did have a fabulous time, and all the better for incorporating visiting cities as well as the coast.
The first two nights we spent in Madrid. The temperature was up to 40c! But we took the kids on the Madrid Vision bus which you can hop on and off all day long (until midnight!). We got off at the Bernebau which went down well - we managed to get inside to have a look at the pitch (from a distance). We stayed at Hostal Cervelo on C. Atocha and had a big air conditioned room with beds for all 5 of us, including our own bathroom complete with Heno de Pravia soap etc. My husband went to Cafe Jazz Populart on the first night, and the second, when my Dad arrived they tried to go to La Solea flamenco that we had gone to last year, with our 13 year old, but it was closed for August.
The next night we spent in Burgos, which was incredible. What a pose emporium! Lots of older people parading themselves in the balmy evening air along the riverside and in the plazas. Certainly the place to go on the pull if you are in your twighlight years! A lot of very elegantly dressed ladies around. It was obviously a place which had a big share of rich people living/visiting. The cathedral was something else. We made ourselves sweat up to the top of the hill where the castle is only to find that a funny little train also runs up there; never mind, it was all the more worthwhile for putting up with the discomfort of the heat to see the views over the city. We stayed in a hotel that I had booked via easyJet.
The next 13 nights were spent in the tiny village of Pando, about 3k from Comillas on the Cantabrian coast. The house belonged to a gentleman who vacated it just for a few weeks in the summer in order to let it. It was more than big enough for the 7 of us to stay there with plenty of privacy. It had 4 bedrooms, and lots of space. There was no shop, so it was a good job we had the rental car. We had been told that the bar (10/15 mins walk away) acted as a small shop, but it didn't.
We all liked it in Pando and the neighbouring village of Ruiloba.
Comillas beach was the only beach nearby that we didn't get chance to visit. It was of course the busiest one, but perhaps one of the safer ones. We seemed to visit ones with red flags a lot, where the waves were really good. I thought red meant you shouldn't go in???? Comillas itself was interesting I thought. We spent an hour at the cemetery there and took some nice pics. The Universidad looked amazing from the palace on top of the hill, just up from the Gaudi folly.
San Vicente de la Barquera was also interesting. I enjoyed going up to the church at the top by the castle and looking up the estuary, it was so serene, the only sound was a curlew. The seafood restaurants looked spectacular be we didn't get chance to sample them.
I loved all the beaches we visited. So clean and the waves were just right for making the swimming a bit more interesting. The sand was so nice too. Icecreams weren't bad either! The sea was very warm, really enjoyable.
Gaudi's folly looked like it had been made from Lego and Sticklebricks. I liked the sunflowers on it.
We did all our shopping at a supermarked called Lupo in Comillas and ate really well. Lots of jamon and yellow rice and bread and monks cheese (bought from the monastery from a miserable monk at Corbreches.)
Most of the wine we bought was of the 33p carton variety - I don't like it, I prefer the 90p bottles. We did buy a �4 bottle for our last night's meal, but I preferred the 90p one. We had our fair share of morchilla, and the nice ones were more like haggis than black pudding. Mum was not too well one night and missed the nightmare experience of some black coloured sausages she bought from the travelling butcher - they tasted of smoked silage with lots of lumps of fat in; not nice at all!
We spent an afternoon/eve in Cabezon de la Sal where there was a fiesta going on. Very busy - we just escaped in time I think. The dancing was good - lots of fit men with castanets. We watched a very important game of bolos there, and to this day do not know the rules.
The fiesta in Ruiloba and Pando went on for two days and we were in it all. The bolos pitch was squirted full of foam for all the local kids, including my youngest 2, who are 11 and 5. We joined in the procession of San Roque (something to do with a plague I think?), and joined in with the chocolate making and drinking for the children of Pando and were treated like royalty by the local men feeding us barbequed stuff next to our house during the evening - all part of the fiesta.
We spent a day in Santander which was a little disappointing due to the lack of visibility. But I enjoyed the bus journey back late at night, going through all the villages with their lights on.
Then we travelled back in the hire car and spent a night in Aranda de Duero, which would have been better if we could have found somewhere to eat before 10pm and our 13 year old son hadn't been really suffering from the runs. We ended up going back to the hotel and him putting himself to bed whilst the rest of us me ate in the restaurant, which wasn't too expensive, but wasn't what we had planned.
Next day was back to Madrid to hand the hire car back. My husband enjoyed driving in the throng of Madrid - I would have hated it. I think he enjoyed the challenge, but it would have been difficult without me navigating. It was a relief to take the car back with no bumps. We even vacced it out and washed it in the morning.
We spent the afternoon wandering around and visiting McDonalds for the youngest's Birthday! (What a confession). We visited the Prado and got accused of cultural overload by the boys. We showed them The Surrender at Breda (?The one with the lances, painted by Velasques (can't even spell that!). Then we visited a fantastic dance shop for the little one to get her birthday present, which is a flamenco dancing dress - it was no more expensive than the ones we had seen in souvenir shops, but was still dear. The lady serving us was extremely nice and bought her a silk flower for her hair to go with the dress.
Next day we visited the Reina Sofia and showed the kids the Guernica and also some Dali stuff. They were impressed more by the glass lifts.
We said goodbye to Madrid and got home with no hitches.
All my internet arrangements ran smoothly (hostal/hotels/car hire/flights/taxies to and from Madrid airport etc etc), and I can't wait to do it all again.
It is interesting to find out from our children what they liked the best. It seems that although they appeared to be in heaven on the beaches, they all liked Madrid the best. Weird isn't it? Not weird really, just surprising - I really really love Madrid, but wasn't expecting them to!
I would go back to Cantabria, but there are probably other places I need to go to first before retracing steps. The weather was interesting, very very changeable, but I didn't mind that too much - probably preferable to the intense heat in the South at this time of year. The heat in Madrid did not bother us because it's so easy to escape into air-conditioned buildings.
If anyone wants any more info on any part of our holiday, don't hesitate to ask.
Jo-Anne
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(hey, there goes that thumb thingy again 
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
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