Isla

Last summer my wife, my children and I went to Isla, a small coastal village of the province of Cantabria in the north of Spain, beside to the Cantabrian seaside.

We went by car. Isla is at about 200 km from Logroño. The journey took about two hours. The roads and highways are excellents and once you go into Cantabria the view becomes in an spectacular scenery.

We stayed there for four night and five days. We were in a rural guest house which was away from the village a few hundred meters.

The rural guest house was big, cosy and beautiful. The dormitories were spacious as well as the bathrooms. There was an small swimming pool in a big courtyard. The swimming pool had a roof. The roof was folded in those days. In winter the roof turns the swimming pool into an indoor pool.  In the courtyard also there were a lot of trees and bushes, a large number of plants, ornamental fountains and a large area for children. In this area, there were among other things a board for table tennis, a pair of tables football, a basket net, several balls and a Frog game. With this game, my children and I had a great time. For my children it was something new.

The breakfasts and dinners were in the house's dinner room. This room was more or less a bit small but very pleasant. It was decorated with a rustic style. By general the food was very good and the kids enjoyed it a lot, because every night the cook cooked them what they wanted.

Each day, the main meal was out. We went to eat each time to a different restaurant. We know our children love doing it.

In the morning, after breakfast, we used to go for a walk on the surroundings. Everything was green around the house. We had good luck with the weather and the sun shone all the time, which does not happen very often in Cantabria.

All paths led to somewhere interesting. Many of them ended in a cliff. The view from above was spectacular. The sea breaking on the rocks, the white foam, the seagulls, some ship in the distance. We spent long whiles sat there, contemplating the scene. The kids lost no detail of anything, everything was exciting for them.

One morning we arrived at the end of a path which ended in slope. We could see a red roof domed. It seemed something strange. When we were nearer, we could see that the roof belonged to a lighthouse. But there was a little problem. The lighthouse was surrounded by a stone wall like a fence. This wall was not very tall. I could persuaded my wife and we climbed the wall.  It was worth the effort. The place was wonderful. My wife took a lot of photo, especially with the kids. The lighthouse was beside another cliff thus the set was spectacular.

After the walks we used to go to the beach. Really it was one of the beach more strange than I never saw. At about fifty meters into the sea was another beach a little smaller. My children and I had to make a big effort to reach it. I had to carry my younger son during a while on my back.  Between the two beaches everything was quiet but beyond the second beach the sea was rough and the waves were enormous.

We have been in many beaches but the beach of "Isla" is what bigger mark have left on my children.