Swompdonkey

I hope will forgive my horrible spelling and bizarre punctuation (question marks? randomly? inserted¿?¿?¿)... these Eurokeyboards are pretty funky.

So the wedding on Saturday was everything we hoped. Bizarre, unseasonably warm weather in Cantabria (a supposedly humid, temperate mountainous region in northern spain), meant that we enjoyed a good post-ceremony roast in the sun, sipping cocktails outside the church, before we headed in for a belt-busting lunch in the hall next-door. The area around Torrelavega is absolutely beautiful, if nothing like what people expect when you say "Spain". It is lush vegetation, towering mountains, and misty valleys.

The night before, we had had a big Segura family reunion feed in the centre of town. The enviable lifestyle of spaniards means that even completely untouristy towns like Torrelavega (which does not even rate a mention in Lonely Planet) still has a bustling nightlife scene most days of the week --when DO these people sleep?

On Sunday we packed into cars to visit Santander --San Sebastian´s somnolent coastal cousin, and then Santillana del Mar, where my parents got married 31 years ago. We went to mass in a medieval Romanesque church, where the same priest who was there three decades ago still presides over his flock. He remembered my parents, and my brother Joe, who was baptised by him. The place was a 11th century dream, and a definite recommendation for anyone looking for a romantic spot to slip away to.

After a busride to Madrid, we are now enjoying the blast-furnace temperatures of Spain´s capital in the midst of June. It promises to get worse when we head south to Andalucia tomorrow... God help us!