Comillas and El Capricho de Gaudi

The lovely town of Comillas was our last day out of the trip before driving to Bilbao for the ferry home. We were here briefly earlier in the year in torrential rain so it was a relief this time that the weather was perfect!

The town is full of so many impressive building due to Spanish royalty spending time here in the 1800's. It has a small port and also a lovely beach.

El Capricho de Gaudi was quite a surprise. A summer house designed by Gaudi in his early years for wealthy Maximo Diaz de Quijano, an 'Indiano' - someone who left Spain and made his money in the Americas (slave trade). Many features dedicated to nature and also music - Maximo was a Pianist. The house took two years to build and then Maximo spent 7 days living there before he died!

The outside features many sunflower tiles as well as Note and Treble Clef railings!

Clever and very unique but very 'Gaudy' from the outside, however, inside was lovely with some really clever design features. Weighted sash windows plus, when two adjacent windows are moved, the 'tuned' weights touch sounding like church bells in the distance - genius!

The house was designed like a sunflower, with each room facing the sun at the time of day that Maximo would be using it. Bedroom facing east for instance.

As if cradled by the house, a conservatory is built facing south, with an inner corridor around the inside to spread warmth and light to other parts of the house. There was even channels under the warmed floor to spread warm air to other areas.

A coal fire made in Scotland

During a time of disrepair, many of these sunflower tiles ended up on the walls of local peoples houses!

Gaudi also designed some furniture, shown here, some of which, amazingly we could try!

The Cave of Altamira

We visited the Cave of Altamira, near the medieval town of Santillana del Mar, with its narrow cobbled streets, interesting buildings and its Museum of Torture! Nearby is the Cave of Altimira with some amazing prehistoric art.

Inside the replica, looking out

The original cave is only occasionally open to the public and the art inside is carefully preserved but they have built a very good replica that we visited here.

The original cave had been preserved due to a rock fall blocking its entrance, only to be found in 1868 by Modesto Cubillas.

There is also a museum on the same site well worth a visit. Phil's going on a flint knapping course when we get back home, so some of this was interesting to him.

A Coruna, the quirky Ceramica de Sargadelos and Surfing

We visited the Torre de Hercules in A Coruna, a very difficult place to drive to! The tower is actually an old Roman lighthouse that is the only one in the world that is still standing and continues to function.

It fell into ruin and the stone was used as a quarry but it has now been clad in a new 'outer casing' with the original structure still in place inside.

Great view from the top

A very odd lighthouse - Faro de Punta Frouxeira. Built in 1992 with an Avent Guard design. In 2012 it was fitted with an LED lamp and became the first long range lighthouse in Spain.

Old tunnels nearby

Praia da Cristina for a cuppa

A very wild location for a church!

A great find was this ceramics factory at Cervo called Fabrica Ceramica de Sargade. We could tour through the factory ourselves for free - just follow the red line!

Beautiful curved building

Cafe and Te in their own ceramics

Most campsites have closed for the season by now so we were left with various Aires, carparks and other spots, some of which are a bit dubious as to whether we are allowed to stay or not.

Aire at Tapia Casariego

Tapia Casariego is where surfing was first born in Spain and also a lovely town with port and lighthouse.

It also has a refreshing outside lido in an old fish farm.

Playa de la Concha