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Published: September 30th 2010
September 15th
So today was just a typical day, got the kids ready, took them to school, and picked them back up again. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to go to one of the many beaches in Santander.
We end up at the Playa del Bikini on the Magdalena Peninsula, home to the English-style Magdalena Royal Palace.
The Magdalena Peninsula is a 69 acre peninsula located near the entrance to the Bay of Santander in the city of Santander, Cantabria along the north coast of Spain.
At the entrance of the bay of Santander, there is a small peninsula that is called La Magdalena. It has a beach and a park that is opened to the public, and it is very popular during summer. In the middle of the peninsula is a hill that is bordered by pine trees. In the middle of this hill sits a palace that was built for King Alfonso XIII. He used to spend the summers in this palace. Now the university owns it and during summer it is the site of an international piano contest, sponsored by the wife of Spain’s wealthiest banker, Emilio Botin. The peninsula has
a little zoo that contains many seals and it is very entertaining to watch them. There is also a full scale reproduction of Columbus’s ship the Santa Maria. When one looks at it, it looks very small and one would certainly be scared to cross the Atlantic in it, so Columbus must have been a brave man. The Magadalena peninsula and park are beautiful and thousands of people enjoy themselves in it.
October 2nd
After watching the kids for the night by myself as Carlos and Natalia were in Oveido, on saturday morning I dropped them off at their grandmothers for the rest of saturday and sunday so I could have the days off. Around noon I met up with another au pair named Ester. She is my host families closest friends' new au pair. They previously had another girl named Becca, who i met and had visited with a couple of weekends ago but she was just temporary for the summer. So now they have Ester, till Christmas; a 23 year old from Houston,Texas. Anyways we met up in the afternoon and spent the day walking around Santanders main beaches, El sardinero,Playa del Camello, Playa del Bikini
etc and as well all around the Magdalena Peninsula.
On Playa del Bikini there is a nice wharf that goes out into the ocean. We drifted down it and ended up spending a hour or two there just getting to know each other and comparing what our au pairs jobs are like. It was nice to be able to talk to someone in a similar situation and shed some light on some things. There was alot of activity going on around us, as it was a hot 26 C Saturday with a mild breeze. So the beach and wharf was busy with people and sailboats. Not far from us was an 36 year old spaniard man who i could feel was sort of watching us on the wharf. He was jumping off the wharf and doing yoga while we were talking. Eventually he came over to talk to us. Ester being fluent in Spanish as she spent the last year in Salamanca studying Spanish and then traveling all over spain; she was able to fluently talk with him and help translate a bit for me. The encounter reminded Ester and I how Spanish culture is as both of us
discussed how a 36 year old man would not come up to a 20, and 23 year old randomly in Canada or the US. Anyways, though it was a friendly conversation; he was interested in where we were from and why we were here. etc etc..
After Playa del Bikini we walked around the Peninsula, to the Royal Palace, then to the mini zoo where we say the penguins and seals being fed. After we just drifted along the beaches, which are stringed together along the coast by my house. It was fairly windy now and it was athletic weekend here in Santander so the beaches were very busy with Surfers, a ultimate Frisbee tournament, and a field hockey game in the sand.
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