After a very smooth journey by coach and plane, we arrived at the airport in Santander where we were met by our guide for the week, Pablo. A short coach ride took us to the hotel which was to be our home for the week in Santillana del Mar. We settled into our rooms and had a supper of very traditional Spanish paella followed by ice cream. We were all in bed very early and, despite our excitement, fell asleep very quickly.

We were awoken quite early on Tuesday in readiness to explore the city of Santander and then to enjoy time on the beach. We thoroughly enjoyed the town trail which took us through the central part of the city and ended at the cathedral. We then took a coach journey to el Sardinero, a beautiful beach where, as you will see on our photographs, we had a jolly good time!! This was followed by an ice cream treat – must be one of the best ice creams in the world. In the evening we were able to explore the village of Santillana del Mar, which is like walking back in time through narrow cobbled streets edged by very old wooden houses all decorated with lovely window boxes.

Wednesday was another early start. We visited Cabarceno Wildlife Park where animals are kept in surroundings as close to their natural ones as possible. We thoroughly enjoyed a spectacular display by birds of prey which flew so close to our heads that we could feel our hair stand on end. We oohed and aahed our way to the souvenir shop, had a picnic lunch and climbed aboard the coach which then took us to the Altamira Caves.

The caves house paintings completed 20,000 years ago. Unfortunately, the public are no longer able to go inside because it was found that people’s exhaled breath was damaging these precious works of art. So, a replica cave has been made. Despite the fact that we knew we were not looking at the real thing, the experience was very humbling. The children commented on how the paintings inspired one to want to draw. We were amazed at the high standard of the work and compared the tools and techniques at our disposal today with what was used all those years ago. We marvelled at the way the painters had to draw from memory. We felt it was such a privilege to be able to see the work and were grateful to those who had preserved the original caves. Despite the simplicity of the tools the stone age people had demonstrated tremendous creativity and we were impressed by the patience they must have had. It’s amazing to think that the original paintings are still there. We felt a little jealous that some people had been able to see the real paintings but felt that the right decision had been made to build a replica. We all kept saying “Amazing!” We had a drink and biscuit in the café to celebrate Ben’s birthday – what a way to spend your tenth birthday!

Before supper, inspired by the start of the European Championships, we had a game of football in the local park and later fell into bed dreaming of far away people and their cave dwellings.

Thursday was another cultural day. We visited Gaudi’s Capricho in Comillas. This “amazing” building is now an expensive Italian restaurant. It inspired us to discuss the meaning of capricious. The building certainly wowed us all. We were amazed and awed by its flowery theme. It had wavy and bendy lines and made us dizzy.

We left Comillas for Bilbao and the Gugenheim Museum. We had a fabulous time in this amazingly different building all listening to our own audio units. We saw the exhibition of Asian men standing in different poses but wearing the same clothes and the same smiling expression. None of them, however, had any feet. We were able to walk amongst the figures. We saw the huge puppy planted with many different flowers. A very tired group travelled back to Santander, not too tired, however, to admire the wonderful views of the sea, beaches and the mountains of Northern Spain.

On Friday, we had a much deserved lie in before visiting the local village to buy presents and souvenirs of our memorable holiday. Mrs. Wild was thrilled to meet a lady who had lived in Russia for a time and had called her dog Laika. We said “Goodbye” to our hotel and enjoyed a quick dip in the pool in Santander before leaving for the airport.

We had a great flight back to Stansted but it was a very tired group of children and staff who arrived back at school at 12.15 am on Saturday morning.

Mrs Wild, Mr. Lengden and Mr. Woodward were delighted to receive a card from one of the children which reads,

“XXXX has had a wonderful time in Spain. Thank you for taking the time away from your own lives to be with the children last week”

Do you know what? It was an absolute pleasure and a real privilege.