We moved on to Caravanning Oyambre, just outside Comillas. This was a pleasant enough campsite with a pleasant enough bar, which deserved sitting at just to check that the beer was also pleasant enough. It was.
The site is “close” to Oyambre beach; close if you think a 2km walk makes it close. I had to correct my impression that the site was more or less right beside the beach. Francine and I wandered down to check it out.
There are a few campsites here, better avoided by sane folks, that are pretty much full of the would be surfing community. Yes, the beach attracts surfers in their droves, though for a large part of the time they seemed to be walking about the sand carrying their surfboards rather than attempting to ride waves with them.
The main tourist attraction in these parts is the first house ever designed by Antoni Gaudí, he of Barcelona cathedral fame, el Capricho. It was begun in 1883 and, unlike its much larger and more famous sibling, was actually finished (in 1885). Leader Andy had arranged a couple of cabs to take us down the 5kms or so into town so we could admire it.
I managed to damage my head on entering the first MPV-like taxi with a lower-than-usual sliding door – ‘t was hiding behind my hat brim, guv. I just about managed to avoid denting the car’s doorframe.
When we got to señor Gaudí’s (over)ornate house, I can’t say that I did admire it. According to the Rough Guide, “it has a whimsical tower adorned, like most of the exterior, with glazed handmade sunflower tiles”. In fact, you really can’t see anything but glazed sunflower tiles, so thickly coated with them is it.
In all honesty, I thought it was a pretty ugly monstrosity. Whimsical or not, in my view it takes more than going overboard on gaudy [read Gaudí?] decoration to make a good architect.
As one might expect, after visiting the house we repaired to the port to find a glass of reality correction fluid.
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