Tuesday 24th January 2017

From San Vincente de la Barquera we made the very short journey east to the town of Comillas where we had this marvelous view of the Picos de Europa.

I think the striking dark and steep peak in the centre of this picture is The Naranjo de Bulnes (The Orange Tree of Bulnes) 2519 metres (8262feet) in height.

We had come to Comillas to visit Gaudi's El Capricho however when we got there we found that it was closed from yesterday to Friday for "works". Professor Sod and his law come to mind.

We did however manage to photograph bits of this amazing building through the railings.

And over the wall. Typical Gaudi genius and madness!

After the disappointment at Comillas we moved on the short distance further east to the Altamira Cave - "The Sistine Chapel of Prehistoric Rock Art". This is the only possible known rival to the cave at Lascaux (which we visited earlier on this trip) in terms of the quality and quantity of prehistoric cave painting.

Like at Lascaux the cave itself has been closed to the public for many years due to the damage caused to the rock art by people breathing when they visited the cave. Also like at Lascaux a reproduction cave has been created in which photography is not permitted. Unlike at Lascaux the reproductions of the reproductions of the prehistoric rock art in the adjoining museum are also not allowed to be photographed - presumably to boost the sales of postcards in the gift shop.

We moved on a little further east and stopped at the aire at Cabarceno.

We arrived just in time to take the cable car across the adjoining Nature Park. We saw deer.

And Buffalo.

And elephants.

From the top station on the cable car there were great views to the City of Santander.

Back at the aire there is a nice lake.

As dusk approached large numbers of Egrets flew in to roost in the trees on the lake shore.

Today we traveled 44 miles (71 kilometres). We are at N43.35857 W3.81884