Palacio La Cajiga Abandames

... swift action resulted in them being relocated underneath the van, despite the protestations of Lymºs board, which proceeded to lash out and cause him bodily harm about the head. (A: ha ha ha !!) However, all is forgiven and we all lived to surf another day.

A very pretty (cobbled alleyways, olde worlde stylee, cows in a field with not only udders, but also tuneful bells which, when youºve got a dozen, made quite a din a la Mike Oldfield) little town, unlike the campsite which was essentially a sodden piece of grass, for which we were charged Euro 22, for the pleasure of a night's shut-eye.

.....or "The Christians Get Nasty Back!" We've driven out from Bilbao about 3 hrs. We drove mostly down the coast--lots like highway 1 down the California coast. Some very beautiful sights....after getting used to driving a car the size of a large anchovy can and the stick shift (which I haven't driven in over twenty years, I'm sure!) I was able to allow the sights to sink it. A few missed turns--thank ...

... saying. We were at La Playa Franca and it was BEAUTIFUL!! I call it “where the mountains meet the sea”. I have never seen anything like that before, so it was very amazing to me. The mountains were literally going into the sea. We spent an hour taking pictures and exploring and just soaking in all of the beauty.

The rest is just said with pictures.....

... the mountains following the river Cares. Although it is only possible to see the river occasional due to it being too far below the path it is possible to hear it. The walk is about 24 kilometers there and back. Approx 16 miles. We have never been on such a spectacular walk. The path clings to the cliff face hundreds of meters above the gorge and burrows through solid rock. It is very difficult to describe adequately.

Tomorrow 2 10 09 we move on.

We awoke to the sounds the ocean across the street. A stroll revealled the Picos de Europe directly behind us. We toured the lovely old city, took some naps, played in another discovered playground, and set off again around ...

... an old lady eating a breakfast of only toast and olive oil, as is commonly done in Spain. This brought back memories of "Spain: On the road again", and the incredibly lovely Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. One of her co-hosts asked her why she eats toast with olive oil, and she explained that she loves it, and eats it almost every day for breakfast. He almost laughed at her, which I never understood - perhaps that's how she maintains such lovely ...

Today we departed La Sopelana and headed for Los Picos de Europa via Bilbao.  We left by 10, but the guy in reception wasn't around so we waited for a while.  We also realized the tent came apart at one of the seams so we took a detour by a strip mall into an outdoors store.  They didn't have the glue we needed, but they did have a pop-up tent for a really good price so we got that instead.  We now have three tents for this trip.  The reason we couldn't just "rough it ...

... many goats just walking around doing their thing. They were everywhere. One of the brothers brought us through the whole process of how they are organized, how they make their cheese, how they brew their sidra, and the like. There's a lot of explain but I would rather get to the huge meal that came at the end of touring day. Alas, the meal. We entered into what appeared to be like a barn. Instead, there were long wooden tables set up with a block of their special blue ...

... Breakfast tea, and got ready to go for a jog. I couldn't wait to get a good jog in, partly because it is amazing to jog with the incredible views around here, and partly because I ate two super greasy churros with a huge cup of chocolate last night. While I was jogging, Asher took the kids to the small town library to look at books and play on the computers for a while. Once again, I was in awe of the area where we are so fortunate to be living for a few weeks. It really is majestic. I ...