In the Ballad of Enjoy The Silence, the Depeche Mode group called us to remove the words and learn to enjoy the silence. Well, perhaps, the best place than the Spanish region of Cantabria, to implement such and not found. There is not a single sign, associated with us with different resort leisure, and the rest in the classical understanding of this word will not meet here. For the most part, cantabria are sent to cantabra and pilgrims who have decided, like Paolo Coelho, go through more than eight hundred kilometers on foot along the path of St. Jacob.
They slowly wander along the seamless rugged rocks. Many in the hands of Sorah, hung with seashells on the wind. Sea scallop shell - a symbol of pilgrimage in Santiago-Decomposella. Its images are bangible on the roadside pillars throughout the path from France to the Spanish region of Galicia neighboring with Cantabraiga, where pilgrims are sent. Most left the father's house not at all from religious motives, but for the sake of searching for the meaning of life and immersion in silence, which here seems completely tangible.
The coastline of Cantabrian Cantabria, only the sea is very cold, does not have a swimming
Photo: pixabay.com/ru.
The dream of introvert
However, people who are tied to office work can pass in the Cantabria an express course for immersion in authenticity and non-doubt for the sake of finding unbearable ease of being, because the main format of the holiday practiced here is Hayking in the mountains. Popular routes are several, we stopped at the National Park of Collados Del Aason. We were seduced by the stories that the Waterfall in the region is located in its territory. Alas and ah! It turned out, he has a non-permanent, seasonal character, and in the summer instead of the stormy fluxing water, you see only miserable jets flowing along the smooth surface of the cliff. From afar they do not even distinguish, only you will hear a characteristic murmur. Collados Del Aason itself is not the kingdom of wildlife. In the meadows surrounded by green mountains, horses horses and cows hurt, and walking routes pass near farmers. However, and completely mastered people, the National Park cannot be called: the locals in theory exist, that's just not come across the eyes. What I say, I know for sure. During the walk, we met the Belgians family. The baby broke the car, the mobile phones broke, and they had to stand in place for three hours, waiting for at least someone would pass or erupt past.
Main gastronomic specialty - Canned Anchoves from Santona
Photo: Julia Malkov
Sea gifts
Meanwhile, the Cantabria is unusable to call the Cantabray - it means to shamelessly sneak against the truth. Joke Lee, the length of the coastline of the region of two hundred eighty four kilometers! Sand everywhere white, sometimes even pink, and waves are transparent, blue topaz colors. It looks like almost Hawaii, only here is not enough: water and in the hot month of July here herses a maximum of sixteen-seventeen degrees. However, minuses give birth to pros. Yes, to swimming the cold Cantabrian Sea does not particularly have, but the fish and molluscs it is richly incredible. The main local gastronomic specialty is canned anchovies from the coastal town of Santon. In all restaurants of the world, they are valued, as if black caviar, which should be recognized, completely justified. Fish chops in the Biscay bay once a year, purified and cut into thin strips. Then the fillets of the Anchovs are immersed in salt for six to eight months, and after rush to tin cans. As a result of the cunning manipulations, the fish acquire a completely unearthly taste: sharp, saturated, but at the same time gentle. In the bars of Santon, they serve them right in tin cans. The hosts of the institutions are reasonably believed: if the taste of the product is perfect, what is the extra ceremony? We try and agree: completely nothing!
Center for Contemporary Art Botin Looks As Like Giant Spaceship
Photo: Julia Malkov
City without past
The fact that residents of Cantabria are far from conventions, once again convinced in the capital of the region of Santander. Embankment in the city center. The boys scatter and jump from her into muddy water, and the spray flying in all directions, and the case will pose an elegant public committing an evening promenade. In any other city of the world, such behavior would be considered a hooliganism, but the authorities of Santander's fun of young people approve. Not only equipped the staircase on the embankment to safely exit water, but also perpetuated the battlefield process in bronze: the sculptural group depicting the boys in the sea is one of the symbols of the city. The title of the main local attraction is proudly brings the center of modern art Botin, looking as if a giant spacecraft. It was built in June 2017, and today the works of the most significant artists of the world are exposed in his halls. In terms of the same monuments of history, Santander surprise tourist, alas, nothing - in 1893 the ship was exploded in his port, transporting dynamite, and the entire center of the city burned down.
In the National Park, Del Ance is the highest waterfall in the region
Photo: Julia Malkov
Wonderland Cave
However, lovers of antiquity gray, cheat. In Cantabria there is a monument of history, compared with which the antique temples seem to be a new model. We are talking about the cave of altamir, which is just thirty kilometers from Santander. Her ceilings are decorated with gigantic flange canvas of the Paleolithic period, and found a monument of primitive art in 1879. The archaeologist-amateur-lover Minestino Santa de Sautola. Until the seventies, one and a half thousand people came to the miracle, today, tourists can visit altamir only once a week, and on the other days, guests have to be satisfied with the inspection of the cave built immediately. We are extremely lucky, and we get the opportunity to see the original. Along the stone corridors, we get to the main hall of the cave, where they are frozen with an open mouth with an amazement. On her ceiling ocher, coal and hematite images of bison, horses and boars are applied. Each is more than a meter long, some at all in 3D, and when you think about the fact that drawings from thirteen to forty thousand years, the head finally goes around. Between the foliar paintings - left chroas prints of the palms. They are different as a message to descendants and you won't call. The phrase "Life of Cork, Art is forever" comes to mind, in no wonder the scholars are called Altamira of the Sistine Chapel of Primitive World. I think Michelangelo would not argue with such a comparison.
The cave of Altamira is called the "Sicastine Chapel of Primitive World"
Photo: Julia Malkov
Our advice to you ...
Cantabria is the perfect region for those who feel bad to heat. In summer, the air temperature here is held within the comfort of twenty-twenty-seven degrees, and in the same Madrid or Seville, it sometimes rises to forty.
While traveling around the Cantabria, you can visit the Basque Country. The road from Santander to Bilbao by car or public transport will take about an hour.
Complex dinners are popular in local restaurants. For fifteen euros, you get a chowder, meat or fish dish and dessert. The food is delicious, and the portions are so big that one lunch usually grabs two.
In addition to the Anchovs from the local seafood, it is worth trying the sea cutter of Navuha and rare mollusks Precebes. Cathes make them risk for life: cut off the cliffs, the waves are constantly fighting.
Cantabria is a popular place for those who want to master the amuses of surfing. Training camps are open throughout the coast, the living conditions in them are Spartan, but the week of intensive classes is cheaper than in neighboring Portugal.