The Kaye's reverse Brexit

Spain - of the Northern Variety.

There is a Brittany Ferries run from Portsmouth to Santander in northern Spain that takes foot passengers as well as cars.  It’s a pretty new vessel and leaves Portsmouth at 5.30pm promptly each Tuesday.  Meeting Alix and Larry in the terminal we were on board, luggage stowed in our cabins and on the rear deck with a bottle of chilled Chablis by 4.30pm! 

The theme of the holiday was set.  A beautiful sunny day again we steamed out of the harbour, did our Spithead review of the local shipping and sailed off in to the night down the English Channel.   A few bottles of wine and supper later, and thoroughly frustrated with inadequate internet, we retired to quite comfortable bunk beds.  The only concern was the Bay of Biscay, would it be a rough crossing??

Relaxing below decks with the traditional nightcap!

Was the Bay of Biscay rough - NO!

Well no -it wasn’t, and we were all up and hungry for brunch in the main restaurant by about 11am!  This was a buffet and we stayed there until they closed to reset the place for lunch about 12.30pm.  The ship had a number of bars and lounge areas as well as lots of open deck areas for sitting out and we passed the afternoon chatting and reading, then prepared for the first linguistic challenge of finding the Spanish car hire office in Santander. It turned out to be a simple 5 minute walk from the docks.  The car was an automatic Opel “Mokka”, not the Scenic as ordered, but we managed to get all 5 suitcases in the boot with some Japanese style commuter case pushing and we were off into the hills behind to find our first, rustic Airbnb place.

View from the front door, north to the sea on a good day!

Inside the hobbit house.

Luckily the owner had sent her husband out to find us because the directions ran out 2 km from the house, which was up a very windy farm track.  It had no real address, just GPS coordinates but we had no working GPS!  But find us he did, so that was OK.

The Airbnb place was a converted animal stable under a big old farmouse, and we were greeted not only by the host Helena, but also 4 dogs ranging from small to HUGE, a neurotic chicken and some fundamentally angry geese.  They all paraded around outside the front door to the house challenging our right to be there.  But we worked it out with a carrot and stick negotiating technique.  Larry had the stick…

Larry getting ready to fight the geese!

The next few days were spent enjoying the views from the hill top hobbit house, and venturing into the Cantabrian and Basque countryside in search of local things.  One day we went to Camilas and XXXXXXX to the west of Santander and found really cranky old medieval streets and shops selling local cheese and stuff and then we stumbled on an early Gaudi house – what a crazy gem of a place.

The hobbit house up the hill.

On Friday 22^nd we drove the 100km across to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum.  A classic Frank Gehry design all curvy metal exterior.  Mind you he must have been driven demented by the amateurish detailing of the actual construction. The internal steelwork was a mess of rolled steel sections and brackets.  What happens when an American architect works with European contractors who don’t understand the American way. Sad. But a gem from afar.....

What can you say - just architectural magic!

We were greeted at the enty by a Jeff Koons “Puppy”, which the locals have taken to heart and keep renewing (ie replanting!).  We first saw this in 1995 in Sydney at the ICA at Circular Quay.  The blooms were brighter then!

Naff old Koons does it again and again and again.....

And I have to say we were not particularly impressed with the items from the permanent collection that were on display, apart from some great early 20^thC French school impressionist and surrealist (Picasso; Miro: Kandinsky etc).  

Bilbao spider - nearly got her!

And there was a whole gallery given over to a "Madame Bourgeois," who produced many “cells” of pretentious rubbish! Bah!! modern art……… etc . etc.  Perhaps it was a sort of modern art self parodying joke?

Leaving early on the morning of Sunday 24^th we drove on the surprisingly excellent Spanish motorway roads from Santander to Santiago de Compostela, about 400km in 6 hours, with many stops, including one in Ribedo, at a picnic spot overlooking the estuary.  Tres picturesque.

And so into Santiago D C.  

But that, as they say, is a story for another day.