Afternoon Walk in Santander

After an amazing meal at Laury, my wife, her parents and I took a three hour stroll around Santander to get the digestive juices flowing. It was so nice to have some sunshine finally that I got a little shutter happy and took a bunch of photos. Believe it or not, I'm not posting all of them.

I was sent to drop something off at the car and I passed this horrible window creature. It looks like he's asking for money or something. Does this really entice people to enter the shop? This is just how I like my clowns: behind bars.

Santander Town Hall.

Some building corner.

This race of alien balloon children wanted us to enter this shop, but we resisted.

Behold these clouds you see before you!

Huge palm tree.

I think that "Barnicles!" should be an exclamation of disbelief.

Big Black Bollard.

Some bollards with their children.

Life preserver, reflection, bollards, and a horrible building that looks like a stiff dead animal on its back.

If slightly rusted inanimate black iron objects could feel emotions, this photo would be very romantic.

Snowy peaks and a plane coming in for a landing at Santander airport. If you can't see the plane, click through to Flickr for a hint.

First ever bollard-based video on the internet? My request for the Bollards Flickr Group to allow videos (a brand new feature on Flickr as of last week) has been denied, unfortunately.

I have watched your video and think a frame of it may have made a half decent photo (nice light) but the audio and overall dullness of it convinces me further that video certainly does not belong in this group if at all on Flickr. No video in Bollards for me.

Elitist snob.

A fishing rod basking in the afternoon sun.

In Santander, there's a set of famous statues of boys playing on the docks. This diving kid is pretty well done.

Big rusty bollard boy.

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We saw some spectators gathered around a fisherman. He had caught a cuttlefish. I can see where it got that name... It just wants to be held.

Bench reflection.

The marina.

Aquador! Sounds like a superhero's nemesis.

Reflected yacht.

I'm certain that this is some sort of nautical measurement device that's been bolted to the concrete for posterity, but I'm curious to figure out how this tool would be used. Any ideas?

Mast Reflections

There was a sailboat race going on.

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I experimented with speeding up this video, but I've decided that it's more fascinating in real time and with the sounds of the jangling riggings. Not to mention my father-in-law's commentary.

Moon and fishing pole.

Full Santander docks panorama.

Metal balls flee towards a vanishing point.

A city lamp.

This is the square where all the young people go to party at night. I've been there a couple times. The restaurant that I took my folks to was just up the hill there.

Only a couple more sips left in this beer. How sad.

For people that don't know what ventilador means in Spanish, someone has drawn this nice picture. Cool name for a bar.

Banco Santander is a huge nationwide bank.

This bollards were perfectly aligned with the setting sun, so that the top of each one just barely cast a shadow on the base of the next one. Nice.

In case you doubted the ubiquity of those statues, this is a pharmacy shop window.

Why would I want a serving dish that's already so dented?

Terrifying toy guns. Or at least I think they're toys.

This is such a typical Spanish shop. Look at all those wonderful Spanish hams hanging up there.

From the same shop as the previous photo.

The creepy/sexy wood nymph with the huge golden crystal ball is pretty interesting, but check out what's behind her. The text reads: "I.T. Witch". It's a witch using a laptop with, argh, a real mouse.

The Santander bus station.

This is the castle of the con-men that are taking all my money this year.

We stopped by for a beer in one of our favorite restaurants in Santander. Isn't that a lovely sight?

Some cheeses.

There are Spanish hams hanging over the bar. I took this panorama from my bar stool.

Brass knuckles. These severed hand door knockers have always disturbed me a little.

And thus concludes our Saturday in Santander. Two hours of eating and three hours of walking. Needless to say, we weren't the least bit hungry upon returning home, so the empanada we bought that morning was saved for our destination on Sunday.