Just been on a really great holiday in northern Spain during the Easter break. I’d mentioned to Ali after after Scotland that if she ever needed a hand with the kids on a trip in the future (and also to cut costs!) to give me a shout… well a few weeks ago, she called me to say she’d been offered the use of a holiday apartment by a Spanish friend of hers, in the small coastal town of Suances, just over half an hour west of the city of Santander, and wondered if I wanted to tag along with them.

We flew out from Birmingham airport on the Bank Holiday Monday, so I went to stay at my mum’s over the weekend, and then took the train to the airport from there. I’d not flown by Ryan Air before, so was expecting the worst, but to be honest it was fine! Whilst on the plane, Ali realised that she’d left her money and cards at home – they were in her coat that she decided not to bring at the last minute! She had Apple Pay on her phone, so she was able to pay for some things, but our first issue was that the car had been hired in her name, and was booked using her credit card, and the car hire company couldn’t give us a car without having the physical card! We were able to add me onto the hire (which we’d avoided beforehand to save money) and then make me the main driver so I could use my card instead.

Anyway, we eventually left Santander airport and got to Suances late afternoon, and after meeting a lady in a car park to collect some keys(!) arrived at the apartment. It was really nice, and a decent size – and since the weather was pretty sunny, we walked down to the beach early evening. Ali and the kids  went in the sea for a bit, whilst I decided to stay dry and enjoy the sunny evening sitting on the sand!

The next day was a bit cooler, but the kids and Ali still went in the sea, however they were wearing wetsuits to keep themselves warm! Because I was on a beach holiday, I was determined to wear shorts and T-shirt (to be honest, it was warmer than it often is in Manchester!), but I found it funny that all the locals were wearing big coats! I guess they must’ve thought we were the weird ones!

For the third day, it looked like the weather wasn’t going to be too great, so we decided to drive down to a nearby town where we’d seen there was a zoo. It was a but drizzly when we arrived, but it actually cleared up nicely by lunchtime. The kids enjoyed looking at all the animals, and also trying to work out what the signs said about the animals, which were all in Spanish. Also, I said ‘Hola’ to a parrot and it said it back to me, but the others wouldn’t believe me! Eventually, after both me and D spent ages repeating the word ‘Hola’, it spoke to the both of us, so I now had an excited witness! Bits of the zoo looked a bit scruffy, which gave me a little bit of concern about the animals’ welfare, but as we were leaving we spotted a notice that said that there’d been a really bad storm a couple of months earlier, and basically a lot of the zoo ended up severely flooded. So that explained some of the mess that we saw around the site!

After the zoo, we headed back into the town of Santillana del Mar, which has lots of beautiful historic buildings. We wandered through the cobbled streets, and I ended up buying some chocolate-covered pastries called ‘Palmera de Chocolate’, which are kind of in the shape of a heart, but were pretty dry and tasteless, so no-one was overly impressed with them!

The next couple of days were quite windy, but that didn’t stop us going to the beach! The others were in the sea whenever they got the chance, but I was still holding out and staying out of the water!

On Day 6, the Saturday, we drove over to the capital, Santander. It seems a really interesting city, and we started off near the water’s edge in the Pereda Gardens, and then our next stop was somewhere where D had really been wanting to go to – the fish market!

Apparently he just loves going to them, and even had a trip to one on his birthday! It’s really funny with some of the things that kids can get fixated on! They bought some bits and pieces from one of the fish stalls, and then we went to a neighbouring market and bought some jamon and bread, before taking a walk up the hill towards the a higher part of the city.

What was really cool is that some of the streets had travelators running alongside pavement, because it really was a pretty steep journey for a lot of the way. When we got to the top, we found a little park (where we could have a bit of a rest!) and the kids played on an adventure playground for a bit, before heading back down to the main town, which was a lot easier!

We had some lunch in a cafe at the bottom of the hill. I had a really nice ‘hamburgesa y patatas fritas’ (my DuoLingo lessons have given me the basics!), and the others ordered some patatas bravas to share, which I’ve made a mental note to never order, since they ruin a perfectly good plate of mini roast potatoes with some kind of horrid tomatoey-sauce all over it! As we were leaving, M walked into glass door with a really load bang, which led to lots of crying and a decent sized bump on her head. Luckily we managed to get some ice onto it pretty quick and she eventually calmed down, and even wanted to see what it looked like on a photo!

We took a little trip to the nearby Camello beach and the Magdalena peninsula before heading back, and on the beach there were some rocks for the kids to climb on, and on the peninsula we found a big playground which they had a lot fun on, all followed by ice creams and drinks in a nearby cafe.

Our final full day was much warmer, so this meant I actually went in the sea!

To be honest, I kind of wish I’d have gone in the sea earlier in the week (although the water was quite cold then!), because I had a really fun time playing with the kids. The bit of beach we were on was on a river mouth, so the waves often came in with quite a bit of force, and you had to fight against being knocked over by them – and sometimes you could really feel the water dragging back out!

That evening, we went to get food and drinks at the El Castillo de los Locos which overlooks the Locos beach, and stayed out a bit later than usual to take in the amazing sunset before sitting on a table outside with our food. Also, a random Spanish lady started talking to us, and her English was minimal, and our Spanish is very rudimentary (Ali knew more than I did, but I think she studied it at school!), so it was quite an interesting conversation. But we actually were generally able to understand each other, picking up the odd word here and there, and resorting to Google Translate when we were really stuck!

We flew back to the UK on Monday so I’ve been recovering this week from being on holiday with young kids! In all honesty though, I really enjoyed going on holiday with other people – the majority of the bigger holidays and trip I’ve been on over the last decade or so have generally been on my own, and that can be great not having fit into someone else’s schedule and doing what you want, when you want to do it, but with both this and the trip in Scotland, I really enjoyed having the kids around. I’m not going to lie, it was stressful sometimes, and in many ways I’m thankful that I don’t have that responsibly all the time, but generally it’s been really great getting to hang out with them all. I’m not sure what I’m like as a fellow holiday companion, but I hope I didn’t get in the way too much!

It’s a weird one – when I was younger I always wanted to settle down and have my own family, but obviously that never happened, and I guess it’s hard to miss what you never had, but I’m really thankful to have got to spend some quality time someone else’s family! They really are great kids and it’s a joy to hang out with them, and be part of what they’re doing, and at the moment I’m still in a position of being like a reasonably cool ‘uncle’ to them… that might change when they get a bit older! So, I think I’d have to say this – and probably Scotland as well – were some of the most enjoyable holidays I’ve had, and it’s really been what I needed at the moment.