Santander

8/22

Today we woke up, late for them, and rushed out the door to the city of Santander. It was a cross between New Orleans and, I think, New York or London. It was so cool. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures. We went everywhere. I had wifi for, like, a second. Not enough to upload anything. 

A church/cathedral in Santander. 

The bank with a quite handsome and dapper looking fellow in front. His name was Alfonso XXIII, the grandfather of the current king of Spain (and former king of Spain). 

This is, kind of, the greeting for visitors in the city. It is a monument commemorating when they became free from the French. 

The bay was really pretty. There were mostly sail boats out because it was quite windy. 

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures that I have taken. It was completely filled with boats. 

That night we ate outside in a little area beside a pond. It was really cute and sweet. When I sat down, this is what was put in front of me:

I looked at my host family and said, "it has a face." They all laughed and said that fish do have heads. It was definitely not my favorite way to eat a fish, but it was really good. There was ham in the middle of the fish. I almost screamed because I thought it was the insides of the fish. It was really good as well! We have peanuts, too! I love the Spanish word for peanut: cacahuate. It is fun to say. 

We are heading to the Altamira Caves tomorrow! Yay!

Bye for now,

Mikayla

The Post with No Photos

8/21

Today we went to the VERY TOP of the Picos de Europa. If you are not familiar with these, they are huge mountains. They're really beautiful. 

Well, Mikayla forgot her phone at the house. She did bring her camera, however. 

So once I have my computer and wifi, I will upload them! They were amazing. It was definitely one of my favorite parts so far. I have lost of pictures, I promise!

Mikayla

More Cities

8/20

The day after we hiked, we relaxed in the morning and visited another city about 30 minutes away. It was beautiful and had 2 historic churches. 

It was really beautiful. It also had a really pretty bay. 

And there was this one flower that I am still thinking was a hybrid plant of some sort:

The next day we visited El Soplao, a famous cave that was used for mining up until 36 years ago. 

It was so cool. Like DeSoto Caverns, but much bigger and a lot deeper. 

Again, they didn't allow photos in the cave. 

On the drive back down the mountain, we almost hit these not so friendly faces. There were many!

All together, it was a pretty cool day!

Mikayla

Long Walks on a Long Mountain

8/19

Today a really beautiful mountain. I have way too many pictures, it's sad. 

After twisting both my ankles because of random rocks, we made it safely to the car. I am proud of my 3 hours long walk. The sights were the best part:

I went kind off of the trail while my host family rested and climbed up a little part of the actual mountain.

I persuaded her to join me!

I know this post is mostly photos, but that was my day. Photos while walking. It was hot, mostly because I was in jeans. (This was because my host family insisted that I wear pants because it is cold in the mountains and my actual sport pants were used the day before. This is the day I learn that cold is much different word to me.)

I definitely enjoyed it! They kept asking me if Alabama is green! It made me laugh. 

Hasta luego!

Mikayla

Cathedrals and Mountains

I don't know when exactly I will have wifi again, so I am marking this post for Sunday, August 18. 

Today we did a lot. We left Río Duratón and headed for Burgos.

 It was only about an hour or so away. It is famous for its Cathedral. We planned to visit that, but before we visited a monastery. It was beautiful, both were. And I have pictures to prove it. 

You couldn't take pictures in the monastery, but we could take pictures of the outside. 

Here are those pictures: 

I don't know that guy. He was just kind of there. 

The cathedral was massive. And before it, you hit the door to the city:

I was literally staring into the sun for this picture. Sorry for the squint. 

You walk through the tunnel, and BAM. A huge Gothic Cathedral. 

This is the front door of the church. 

Close up. 

We walked through the doors, and my host father asked me if I wanted the tour in English. I nodded happily! We have gone on the other tours and I only got a fifth or so of what they were saying, so that was wonderful. They gave all of us a telephone thing, and mine had English all over it. It was nice. You just pushed the button for the room you were in, and it told you all about it. 

There were 29 or more rooms. All beautiful. Here are some pictures:

This is called "The Golden Stairway". It was so awesome!

This was one of the main corridors where almost every room that was to the left was a chapel for a certain saint or bishop. 

One of the magnificent ceilings. 

This one was my favorite. 

This was a special design because they had to fit a dome in a rectangle. Obviously, they figured it out and it turned out nicely!

By far the most beautiful chapel. 

This was the coral room. 

This corridor was filled with tombs of saints, bishops, kings, etc, on the right. 

And speaking of tombs, they were literally everywhere. In every room. Either in the ground with something above it like so:

 

Or they were in boxes of cement or marble or ivory (those who were most noble). They were my favorite, as you will be able to tell with my many pictures:

By far the coolest, prettiest, creepiest ones. They were a royal couple, king and queen. 

That one was obviously opened. I didn't stay in there for long. 

This was in the corridor full of tombs. There is a crack. None of this tombs have been opened. That crack stretched all the way around. Needless to say, I walked away slowly. 

A better view of the corridor. There were many more behind me. 

We were done with the tour and began to walk out. Before the hall ended, a huge courtyard appeared. 

Christi, me, Alicia, Pablo

It was such a beautiful place. No way could you see something like that in the US. Some of the sculptures and paintings were done with Leonard DaVinci and Michael Angelo. It was amazing to say the least. 

After we went into a gift shop, and I love to shop. So I bought earrings that were pieces of the Crystal of Marano, which is a very famous church known for the crystal inside of it. 

One of a kind. 

Then, we went for ice cream, but I miss Lemonade so much that I got this:

My host father and sister did as well. It was so good. 

After that, we headed to where I am now, I beautiful house in the north. I will find out the name of the city tonight. But we went through mountains, around mountains. It was beautiful.

We finally got to "La Casa Rural", and it is so beautiful. 

We have the right side, the other has another family in it. I am currently sitting at the balcony. The view is ridiculous!

It is really amazing. I will keep writing and post all of them once I get wifi if I have many! 

Mikayla