Day: April 22, 2024

We’ve almost always found the laundries in Spain to be spotlessly clean and well-appointed with good baskets, tables, coin-exchange machines. We did the laundry a few days ago in Portugalete and to our surprise it was really dirty and no coin machine. Even stuff on the floor you could trip over. We didn’t want walk to a further one in the rain so we went ahead and used the creepy one.

Today, the laundry here in Santander was back to the good standards. As soon as we took our clothes out of the dryer, the properietor came out and started cleaning the outside and inside of the dryer. Later I noticed a sign that said: “The machines are disinfected after each wash.” (Top right sign below.) I imagine that is something left over from covid.

Now for the “coffee” part of the story. There was a bar next door. After we put the clothes in the dryer, we ran over and ordered two cafés con leche. We had planned to drink them quickly at the bar but I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the clothes for long so asked the bar tender if we could take the cups next door and she gave me a big smile and said “claro que sí” (“of course!”). And, of course, we hadn’t paid for them yet — you do that when you are done with the coffee.

Astute readers may have noticed the sign at the bottom right of the top photo that one might interpret as “no food or drink” but (1) we hadn’t noticed that sign till we’d already brought in the coffee and (2) Charlie, the sign expert, said that it meant “no hamburgers and coke.”

They used to say about the Camino that “cash is king” because few places took tarjetas. But the pandemic and technology changed that. Touchless was in. We had about €280 in cash from our last trip and now, after two weeks, that is getting low. The exchange rate, which becomes relevant later, in the rant part, is about $1.07 per euro.

We pay for just about everything with Apple Pay. It is very convenient and we have an easy way to look at a record of everything we spend. Our pizza dinner was one of the few meals that required cash.

Anyway, time to get more cash. We chose a bank ATM that doesn’t charge a fee. After you ask for an amount, in our case €300, they ask if you want them to convert it or have your home bank do it. I have blogged about this before also, always have your bank do it. They offered a rate of 0.8455 euros per dollar. Actually it has four more decimal places, presumably to give you some feeling of exactitude. A quick calculation revealed how bad this was. They wanted $354 for €300. I tapped the button for no conversion. Then they did something I had not seen before. They asked again, saying are you sure you don’t want us to convert it for you. You can count on our rate but you don’t know what kind of rate you bank might give you. I declined again. We got the cash and the email from the bank in about three seconds. They charged us $320 for €300, a little better than the rate of $1.07 that google said of the going rate. That was the highest markup I have seen on any cash machine.

Chinese food lunches: 1
China store purchases: 2
Cities we stayed in all day taking a break: 1, Santander
Beautiful markets visited: 1, see post
Cash machines used requiring a rant: 1, see post

We love Spanish food but when we are in bigger cities we like to see their take on other country’s cuisines. Yesterday it was Mexican and it was very good. Today we tried a traditional looking Chinese place. It was also very good, lighter than most Chinese food in the US. The owner (at least she seemed to be in charge, the place was called “Restaurante Mr Wang”) was friendly and laughed a lot. She has been in Spain for 41 years. We wanted to try things so ordered too much and only ate about half the food. No problem, we had just been to a China store and had some Tupperware-like containers that we got for other purposes (to replace our trusty bowls we use for breakfasts). She thought that was great and even washed them out for us. So Chinese food for dinner also. Everyone in the place seemed happy and smiled a lot. I imagine living in Spain is way, way better than living in China.

We have talked about China stores in previous blogs. They are an institution in Spain. Always run by actual Chinese people (it seems), they are kind of like old-time 5 and 10 cent stores with a little of everything. Lost your US to European plug converter? Go to a China store. Need a cheap bowl, go to a China store. Need warm slippers (which we did in A Coruña)? Go to a China store.

In Santander we saw, for the first time, China stores that also carried food like fruit and milk (which we need for our breakfasts). They don’t close during siesta so that’s handy for us and probably a number of locals as well.

This place was huge, like most China stores, and had many thousands of items, kind of like a hobby shop. I didn’t see any item that was out of stock. I was imagining the huge job it would to keep up with the stock and the ordering. I can’t imagine how they do it. As far as I know each store is independent so they don’t share stock and ordering software.

We decided to stay two nights in Santander to get laundry done and do some regrouping and reserving ahead. The population is 172,000 but like all these cities the old-town part is small and walkable.

We decided to stay in Santander for two nights. It’s the last big city we’ll come to on this trip (the first two being San Sebastian and Bilbao). It’s nice to have a day puttering around the city and catching up on few things like doing the laundry. Our hotel is very central so lots of great restaurants and bars and markets and people socializing in the streets.

The big central market of Santander is a block or so from our hotel. They are open 8 to 2 every day except Sunday. It is a huge market selling fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, etc. Also an outdoor area selling cheap clothes and such. (I walked through that part briefly but quickly got claustrophobic.) The food part of the market was among the best we’ve seen in Spain. Unfortunately it was hard to just enjoy it. I kept wanting to hold on to it, take it home with me. Why don’t we have these great places in the States? Incredible fresh food for incredible prices. We have farmer’s markets but those can be expensive and only one day a week and only in season and much smaller.

We bought three things: some bread, some spanish seedless raisins (the seller said those are the best), and some fresh peas.