Curious Santillana del Mar

Santillana del Mar has exactly one and half streets of patrician medieval buildings, picture perfect. John accuses them of not being a real town, since their visitor parking lot(s) is just about the same size as the town itself (or bigger). My issue with them is -- where did/do all the plebeians live then and now?!

The other reason to visit is the nearby Altamira cave paintings. In order to preserve the very ancient, prehistoric paintings, what you visit is actually a complete replica of the cave, which was just fine with us, not being fans of caves. Curiously the museum does not allow photos. I have vivid memories of first seeing such painting in my grade school art class textbook. It was good to see them in 3D, considering the entry is only three euros.

The Old Town.


Tour group in the Old Town.


Walking to the cave museum. We took the long road; 5kms. The return was just 2 kms




View to the ocean.


I was bad and took a photo in the exhibit section of the museum, but not in the replica cave. ;-)


Walking back to town.


Santillana del Mar at night.