The same way Paris has the Eiffel tower and New York has the Statue of Liberty, Santander has the…read moreCentro Botin. The Botín Center is an art center designed by architect and Pritzker winner Renzo Piano. It is located in a privileged location in Santander right on the water, and through a broader urban intervention, the architect manages to integrate the city center and the historic Pereda Gardens with its bay. Light and lightness have been essential aspects in the conception of the project. Depending on the angle that you look at the building, you an see a sliver of architecture through the tress or a massive round edifice on the water. The main thing I loved was that there is an open top floor from which you can see the entire city of Santander and the bay. You can reach this vintage point by stairs or elevator. It's free to go up. Periodically there are cultural events and art galleries inside the center.

This a very beautiful and uniquely designed art center that overlooks the bay. I believe that…read moretickets during our visit were about 10€, and I thought the exhibitions were worth the entry fee (even if a couple were not my cup of tea). From my POV, Centro Botin gave a bit of a mix of modern and classical exhibitions. While I enjoyed most of the exhibits, I will admit that the views of the city and the bay from the Centro were a bit more interesting than a couple of the exhibits. Outside of the museum, there are plenty of places to take pictures of the beautiful scenery of the bay.

Wow, my first second-hand store in Spain! I love recycled clothing stores in the U.S., but they are…read moregetting so popular, they kind of exploit customers based on the price. Not so here. The shop is small, but they get clothes daily, and really they have very high quality clothes for not very much money at all. I loved their small section. Usually, I cannot find true small/petite clothing, but everything on the small rack pretty much fit me perfectly. I found a cozy MING rain jacket, a navy blue blazer that was just perfect, a button down shirt, and the cutest jeans, and it was all just 13 euros! Everyone was so happy and nice inside. Shopping is really fun here, and they have one curtained dressing room. They mainly have clothes and then some purses. I can't believe it was so reasonable. Everything was about 3-5 euros except for some of the more expensive items like a leather purse. I should have bought that. I'm sure it was crazy expensive originally.