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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Santander

A pretty town on a sheltered bay, Santander is a tourist resort and university town.


Typical construction of the area

Post Office


I don't think the U.S. Postal Service can possibly top this mail drop box

1941 Town Square

King Alfonso XIII had the Palacio de al Magdalena built 1908-12, and moved in the next year, returning every summer until 1931, when the the Spanish Republic was proclaimed. It was used as a university for many years, until it was sold, along with the peninsula it sits on, to the city of Santander for a conference and meeting hall.


 Within the park are replicas of the ships Columbus sailed to the new world in. Built in Iquitos, Peru in 1977 by a local man, they were sailed to Santander and sit here filled with concrete


This is a replica of a raft a la Thor Heyerdahl, built by the same local in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1970 and sailed from South America to Australia.


It's pretty much all a concrete replica except for this, its original toilet

Nearby, there's a rather sad "roadside attraction" with a few seals and sea lions kept in tidal enclosures with nothing much to do. This sea lion was sitting on a ledge at the edge of his enclosure.


We were lodged quite near the water's edge next door to the Casino and a block from a fanciful local castle



The Cathedral-Basilica of Santander was built during the 13th century. A dynamite explosion in the harbor in 1893, the Spanish Civil War, and a disastrous fire in 1941 required extensive reconstruction and repair. We had a short time to visit prior to a scheduled wedding.










The wedding was quite something, especially the 1932 Citroën the bride arrived in


Underneath the Cathedral is an earlier church, 12th century, which now serves as the crypt of the Cathedral, but is still open for use


                      




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