Hello.

There's a small village in Cantabria called Comillas. It has a little beach and it is near Asturias.

I know that, when you come to Spain for just a sort period of time, you haven't enough time to visit the little villages but, if you are going to spend here more than one month, you should visit Comillas (and Santillana del Mar and San Vicente de la Barquera).

In Comillas there are three main monuments:
-El Palacio de Sobrellana.
-La universidad Pontificia.
-El Capricho de Gaud� (Gaudi's whim)

All of them are really amazing but, the one I really fell in love with was El Capricho de Gaud�. Nowadays is used as a Restaurant.

I have found a few links where you can take a look at the photos of these 3 beautiful monuments. The Palacio is near to El Capricho, just a few meters.

http://www.cantabriajoven.com/comillas/comillas.html http://www.turcantabria.com/Datos/Pueblos/CostaCentral/Comillas/pontificia.htm http://www.turcantabria.com/Datos/Pueblos/CostaCentral/Comillas/capricho.htm http://www.admi.org/Capricho.htm http://www.adic-cantabria.org/c2/economia3.htm http://www.artehistoria.com/frames.htm?http://www.artehistoria.com/historia/obras/12670.htm

Bye!

totx

Yes, yes, yes!

As a family, we spent 2 weeks last August in a little village called Pando just outside Comillas. We loved it.

The beaches were fabulous, and so clean, and uncrowded.

Comillas itself had a vibrant market - especially if you were in need of buying underwear or necklaces!

We hope that one day we can go back to that area, and maybe get to the beach further along the coast that is Jer's favourite. Was is Llanes? (Put me right there Jer if I'm wrong).

Jo

Hey Jo & totx, ahhhhhhh yes Cantabria, one of the forgotten treasures of Spain.

It is not high on the "to see" list of most visitors to Spain but is, in my book, one of the best and most relaxing regions of them all.

I hit Comillas, Santillana del Mar and of course Llanes on the northern route of my mega Spain trip years back.

I still have vivid memories of them all

Although Santillana del Mar it is not on the sea as its name suggests with "del Mar" ("of the Sea"), it is a breathtaking little village near the Cantabrian cost. I mostly remember its flowered balconies, cobblestone streets and little gift shops.

When we saw Comillas, we stayed at an abandoned (well... just empty because it was April and not many visitors) youth hostel in the hills off the road just outside of Comillas (a few miles) and I rememer that everything was soooooo green. Without a doubt "El Capricho de Gaud�" was the highlight in Comillas. I recalled being in Barcelona a few weeks earlier and reading about the "Whim" at the Gaud� Museum in the "Pedrera" or "Casa Batll�" (way cool 360� panoramic at www.gaudiclub.com/ingles/i_partici/i_impart/alarcon/alarcon.html ).

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh Llanes! Yes Jo, it was Llanes where I mentioned I found my favorite beach in all of Spain. Found some cool live webcams of Llanes at www.llanesnet.com/webcams . For me Llanes has the most amazing beaches (3 different ones in the village if I recall correctly) in all of Spain. Just go! The best part is that, due to the colder water, they are not always packed like the beaches of the Costa del Sol, Costa de la Luz, Costa Blanca and Costa Brava which in summer get to where you can not find a square meter to put your stuff and sit (much less lie) down

Saludos, jer...

p.d. thanks for the web links totx Can never have enough in my favorites folder! One thing, when I looked the first 3 and the 5th link lead to nowhere. Maybe the webs were down at the time.

Hello!

I've try just now the links and all of them lead to their websites, but is true, they are very slow (about 2 minutes in showing the page).

And about Santillana del Mar ... as Jer's said, in Spain is known as the "Three lie's village" (La ciudad de las 3 mentiras).
Why?, because its name is composed of "Santi (Saint/holy)" ... "llana (flat ground)" and ... "del Mar (of the sea)" but there was no Holy man in this village, it's not a flat village and there's no sea.

But, I agree with Jer, you MUST go and see Santillana del Mar.