Mon, Jun 12 - to Bilbao

It started raining last night, but was reduced to drizzle by daybreak.  After breakfast we said goodbye to the lovely La Posada de Babel.  We originally had planned to visit the Altamira Cave Museum and see the replicas of the famous prehistoric drawings, but it's Monday and they are closed!!  So I checked the Lonely Planet to Spain and saw that there was a Gaudí house on our way to Bilbao, and a tour in English at 12:30.

 I managed to misdirect us into the pretty little coastal village of Pechón and we got back onto CA-131 and entered Comillas, an absolutely lovely town full of amazing mansions, but also a really  confusing road system.  We drove back and forth and finally found the Capricho de Gaudí, a very early Gaudí which he designed in 1885 for the Marques de Comillas who was born in this village, moved to Cuba and made a fortune on banking, tobacco, and slave trading, then returned to his hometown and fancied up the whole place.

Capricho de Gaudí

We finally found the building and as we were despairing of finding a place to park, a nice couple rapped on our window and said they were just leaving, so we parked, bought our tickets and joined the English tour just after it started.

  The building is made of brick decorated all over with alternating tiles of sunflowers and leaves.  The inside has only one bedroom as the Marques was a bachelor. Every room has different ceiling moldings and intricate methods of adjusting windows and moving multi-pieced wooden window coverings with very little effort.  The sad part is that Gaudí never saw the house, but designed it from afar, and that the Marques moved into the house and died a week later!

Gaudí's Stained Glass Windows

Folding Wooden Window Shades

A Ceiling in the House

The house was in private hands until around 1970 when the government decided to protect it.  The amazing thing is that it looks as if it was just constructed - nothing looks worn and all works perfectly.   After seeing several Gaudí buildings in Barcelona a few years ago, it was a treat to see this early work.

We hit our first traffic jam of the entire trip just outside of Santander; the freeway was completely jammed up for miles and we crept along until we saw the problem:  the center strip had been planted with hedge plants that needed trimming, so a crew was out there clipping and leaf-blowing and getting everything all spiffy while hundreds of cars edged their way along!!

Bob continued driving until we got near Bilbao; we got off the freeway and filled up on diesel and then headed into the confusing mess of freeways of the city.  Fortunately, west of the city we started seeing signs for "airoportua", the only word in Basque that has that many vowels and that I know the meaning of.  We were directed into the airport and found the rental car building which is part of the short-term parking structure.  Unfortunately, as we found with our arrival so many weeks ago, there is almost no signage directing one where to go to return a car. We drove around and around and by chance found the down ramp and descended two floors to Europcar's area.  We left our great little Audi and hauled our luggage to the terminal and found the taxi queue.  It took about 25 euros to get downtown to our NH Villa de Bilbao hotel; we checked in and got a nice room on the seventh floor where we relaxed for a while.

At 7:15 we rode the elevator down to the hotel restaurant, Le Bol Blanc.  They have a buffet for starters and desserts and a menu for mains.  A rather unusual set up, but it was OK.  You have to have some discipline to avoid stuffing yourself before you get your second course, but we had some good tapas followed by cod scramble with mushrooms for me and grilled salmon with a tasty fruit sauce for Bob.  Also an interesting Basque white wine.