Los Raqueros

A great relief to be back on dry land again! Thanks for all your caring comments. The sun was out first thing this morning in Santander and we saw this little group of bronze statues along the front. They were made by a local sculptor Jose Cobo and they depict the orphan children in the mid 1800s who scraped a living from the docks by being paid to dive into the water to retrieve items and coins that had fallen into the water. The activity died out in the 1960s apparently as a result of education being made available to all. They were such interesting but slightly sad little sculptures.

After a wander around the town and a light lunch, we drove on to Limpias, a little town about 30 kilometres east of Santander where we are staying for 3 nights in a Parador hotel. It's wonderfully comfortable and doesn't move either! Sadly the clouds rolled in this afternoon, and we had light rain as we walked down into the little town. I've added a couple of extras, showing one of the magnificent flowers on the 100 year old magnolia trees in the hotel grounds and a pretty little bridge crossing the local river. Tomorrow we'll do some exploring  further afield.