Portada Casa Moro

I woke to the sound of a vehicle rumbling over cobbles at what seemed an unfeasibly early hour.  “Must be the dustbin lorry” I thought to myself, remembering a holiday in Dinan, aeons ago, where the binmen punctuated the night with their loud oaths and flashing lights.
 
Groping for my watch, I discovered, to my shock, that it was already ten past nine! The vehicle was the tourist train. The pulsing night club opposite had kept me up late on Saturday, and obviously I’d had the perfect Sunday lie-in.
 
All we needed was a slap-up breakfast, to paraphrase my sister Tanya/TML. This was what my inner doctor ordered, but wasn’t on offer. Never mind, we braved the car and the driving experience, and headed off along the coast, to a sort of sea and estuary town called San Vincente de la Barquera, before turning around and heading back through a beautiful nature reserve full of trees, towards Comillas and beyond. We didn’t explore the town of Santillana del Mar because it isn’t by the sea, confusingly, and there’s a park and ride system, and by this time we were hungry.
 
Back in Comillas, we parked and had a huge lunch at a restaurant around the corner from our hotel, then went home and slept off the wine!
Eventually we roused ourselves and went down to the beach at Comillas. The evening sun was still warm enough to allow youngsters to cartwheel along the shore in their bikinis. The sensation of fine sand beneath my bare feet and the sound of the ocean waves combined to bring me a personal vision of heaven. Next time, if I return, I would like to stay within earshot of the ocean.
 
This gateway was designed by Gaudi, who envisioned the large doorway as being suitable for cars, the smaller one for people, and the top one for birds! It’s on the main walking route from our hotel to the beach. I’d already noticed that the street was called “the way of the doorway for birds” so when we read up about the monumental gate, this suddenly made sense.
 

We are now back in the hotel, knocking Bacardi and Coke. The English women’s football team has just beaten Spain. Next match: England vs Scotland.