Santander, Spain

Santander is the capital of Cantabria and the natural base for the middle stretch of Spain's green coast. The bay it sits on is one of the largest in northern Spain, and the city runs along its southern shore from the port at the western end to the Magdalena peninsula and the Sardinero beaches at the eastern. The Magdalena Palace, finished in 1912, was a gift from the city to King Alfonso XIII and is the building most visitors come for; the peninsula around it is a public park with views back across the water. Nearer the centre, the Centro Botín on the waterfront is a contemporary arts building by Renzo Piano, and the cathedral above it keeps a twelfth-century crypt beneath a much-rebuilt upper church. The city is also the doorway to the villages inland and along the coast — Santillana del Mar and Comillas to the west, Castro Urdiales to the east — and to the Cabárceno reserve in the hills behind it.