October 31, 2021 – Altamira Caves

Before we get to today’s events, I thought I’d tell you about returning to the U.S. Carolyn and I originally had a flight on Nov. 3 from Asturias, Spain to Madrid and then another to London before a non-stop flight London to SFO arriving at 7:30pm. Due to a scheduling change by British Air we will now fly Madrid to Chicago on Iberian Air and after a 5 hour stopover Cicago to SFO arrriving 11:21pm. In addition we need to have another PCR Covid test to enter the USA. Spain’s laboratories are closed on Sunday. Monday, Nov 1, is a national holiday. So we will get our tests done at 8am on Tuesday and hope that we can get the results back before leaving for the airport the next morning.
On to today – we first went to the Altamira Caves. Found in 1868 by a man and his daughter, skeptics didn’t believe they were prehistoric paintings. It wasn’t until 1902 that the scientific community admitted they were real. During the 1970’s large numbers of visitors caused damage to the paintings primarily by the carbon dioxide and water vapor in their breath.
A complete replica of the paintings were created and with the adjoining museum is open to the public. It is quite amazing. Some painting were done on surfaces to create a 3D effect. We spent 1 1/2 hours here.
Next we walked around Santillana del Mar, a medieval town near the caves. The buildings are intermingle medieval buildings with newer ones from the 18th and 19th centuries. While here it started raining heavily so we hopped on the bus and left. We had extra time so we stopped in Comillas which has a very beautiful castle built for King Alphonse 12th. The architect was friends with Gaudi who designed some furniture inside the castle. We only saw the outside. Next door is El Caprichio, a fantastic building designed by Gaudi.
Our final stop was Vicente da la Barquera, a city famed for seafood. We had a huge pan of paella here.
Back to our hotel to pack for our move to Ovieda tomorrow. We will be going to meet Sira’s mother and sister tonight. More on this tomorrow.