Last night in Spain

we can hardly believe it, but tonight is our last night before crossing the border back into France... the only potential drawback to the forthcoming revelry is that the last bus leaves town at 11.30. so possibly we won't be all that late.

we got horribly lost trying to find the hotel, even tho navman (Sharon) seemed sure she had found it and stopped helping. eventually we got here. there are some advantages now we've made it: free parking, free wi-fi in our room, plus our first balcony of the trip. it has a lovely view of the motorway!

last night we ate in style at Gijon. We went to a sidraria (sp?) and had the seafood paella of Geoff's dreams, along with quite a bit of the sidra (cider), which must be poured for you, into an enormous glass, but only about an inch at a time, which you have to drink in one gulp. this becomes slightly more difficult as the night goes on. we rose to the challenge... discovered when the bill came that each bottle cost the staggering sum of about 2,50 euros! we had 3 if you must know.

also our waiter, who came from the dominican republic, introduced us to percebes, which are a kind of weird mollusc-y claw-like thing that take a wee bit of technique to eat, and are delicious. sweet and only the faintest bit iodine-y. well, anyway, it was a clever upsell on his part, but no regrets from us - best meal so far and lots of fun as well.

We visited the guggenheim in bilbao this morning, which truly is amazing. the highlight was probably works by Anish Kapoor - he's worth googling (as are the percebes). especially his large yellow piece (Geoff's favourite) and a cannon, gun, thing that fired huge red wax globs that looked like bits chopped off giant lipsticks at the wall (my favourite).

will post some pics in due course. probably should make the most of free wifi in room while we have it - most of our hotels only gave us half hour bursts in the lobby. we have also driven back into the land of orange (network) which lets me post from my phone, possibly at great expense, but it's fun.

Basque country really isn't like the rest of Spain. its geography is way more hilly and green, compared with the large flat expanses that characterised much of the rest of the place. I was going to ask Geoff for his view, but he's lapsed into forty winks so you'll have to wait.

It's good to hear that Hamish and Kate have returned to full health. In fact, Hamish sounds positively bursting with enthusiasm...

we had the loveliest walk around the coast line at Gijon yesterday - they've developed it into a nearly six km stretch, punctuated with sculptures and with plenty of room for strolling, cycling, roller-blading, etc. we also saw people fishing and practising rock-climbing and the ubiquitous couples indulging in serious PDAs... if you don't see that, road works and people drinking and smoking and having fun, then you're probably not in spain...

gotta go - this post is already way too long... more later :-)