We motor off returning to our normal blissful traveling selves and R. tells me she would be glad to drive in the "country" but will continue to "let me" drive in the city.

Continuing on up the autopista we find the exit to Comillas and enter this antique beach community about an hour west of Bilbao on the northern coast of Spain and search for "El Capricho"... (the Caprice,)... this building... ah... home... ah... no, restaurant, was designed and built by that early 20th century modernist  (a.k.a. art nouveau)  architect Antoni Gaudi. This is an early work by Gaudi and as such was conceived while he was still under a heavy Moorish influence. A huge turret forms the roof of the entrance and the whole is covered with 3 D tiles of leaves and daises and  festooned with fluid wrought iron, railings and balconies. We spent a leisurely 2 hours over lunch in the former library of El Capricho and had a duck, ham and foie gras salad, venison roast with apple butter and a chestnut moose smothered with zabione for dessert. Martini Rosso, Vichey water and of course as I’m a barbaric American who can determine his own fate, I had beer. What a treat this was and as a further treat, afterwards, we toured the rest of the house, all paneled with woodwork no longer affordable, ceilings as if from a fantasy castle with spikes and wood squares and borders. We also toured the grounds, taking lots of photos to prove to ourselves later that it was not all a dream.

Getting lost only once more, we finally find the proper side road to Potes and the Picos de Europa... Wow, what grandeur, what verdant hills and dales... feeling like in a time machine into the past we motored along through these incredibly green hills into the mountains...

Continuing down life’s highway, through several antiquated villages, we arrive in Potes, our pre-determined stop over in Los Picos de Europa.. It too is very, very old but has the appearance of being done by Walt Disney and being small it is impossible to get away from the too touristy area of town as it is all thusly so. It seems that there is little room at the inn also and so after trying several places that are either closed, full or look like velvet brothels, we settle for a slightly smoky flavored hovel right on the road where I dreamed a dream of our ex neighbor Fred cutting all the trees and bamboo in our yard down to the level of the eves of our house to open up his view and my having pushed him off the top of the fence hoping to cause him bodily harm while screaming 'viva bambu' till blue. The room was not as bad as the nightmare but it had a beam running through it that had probably cut through my chi, de-fenging my shui and causing the above said dream. Needless to say, we only stayed one night.

In the morning we arose early and vacated the premises sans brekkie and drove to road’s end at Fuente De to take the telefrique - cable car - to the top of the mountain, for a rise of 1,000 meters or over 3,000 feet. WOW! It was drizzling this AM and would continue to do so, but at the top the whole of the mountains were enshrouded in clouds and it was as if in mist we walked to a refugio (refuge) about an hour away after the less harrowing than expected ride, suspended by seemingly a thread in the gondola.  Joining us on our walk, or we joining he, was Xavier of Bilbao. As we trod the path, we could barely see in front of us because of the fog, we probed him on his feelings about Basque independence, as we had learned he was Basque. Much as it is in Ireland for the Catholics under Protestant British rule, the Basques feel repressed by the Castilians and feel there is no opportunity for advancement in their society. The memory of Franco’s suppression of them is still fresh whereas they were on the losing side in the Spanish Civil War. He indicated that there was no Basque music on the radio and Basque artists had no venue for their talents. When queried if he thought they would gain independence, he indicated that he thought that Madrid would never let go of the Basque country or of Catalonia because most of the natural resources of Spain are in these regions. Rosemary wondered about the use of force and he said that there are factions that did believe in the use of force and that the politicians were unable to provide any solutions but he did agree with us that in a war there are no winners and that even if the Basques won independence, that the function of government, regardless of political position, is to subjugate the masses and maintain the status quo.

We parted with Xavier at the refugio, he marching on and we returning to the platform via the same route, observing along the way that here, unlike all over the U.S., the graffiti, the pledges of love, were created using stone. Rocks that were sized and positioned to spell out "Maria y Jose" and more.