Lost in Spain!

It's Tuesday, April 11th and this is the first time that there's been an opportunity to get to the blog because we've been travelling for 5 of the last 7 days, and finding our way about for the last 2. I don't know yet if it's going to be possible to upload pictures from here; it's a very slow connection. So for now, it's text only!
The doughty Pride of Bilbao took us safely across the Bay of Biscay but, oh best beloved, not a whale or dolphin did we see! The wind blew at a steady force 5 to 7 and there was heavy weather in the deep waters of the continental trough, so Captain Macfadian decided to keep us "close in the lee of France" as we steamed ever southward. Your intrepid travellers spent the whole of a day up on the open top observation deck. We saw many excellent gannets and a most
awesome sunset. No whales, though.
And so we arrived in Bilbao early on the morning of April 6th and began our drive south. The first night was to be the mediaeval city of Avila, where we would
stay in a hotel that's a converted Synagogue. With its 1.4 litre engine, this new car that we have is a mite underpowered for hurtling down Spanish motorways, so we smiled at the faster vehicles as they zipped by as we bowled along, and we got there just the same. Eventually ...., not because of our speed, but because the map that we'd downloaded showed our hotel on the opposite side of the town from its actual location! We learned a lot of basic Spanish asking passersby in the maze of mediaeval one way streets where we'd find, "Reyes Catolicos y el Hospederia la Sinagoga, por favor". All were helpful, some volubly so and we got engaged in some very long and, let's be honest, one way conversations before we finally found the hotel.
What an amazing city Avila is. It's surrounded by almost complete, and very hefty, mediaeval walls punctuated by narrow posterns. Inside the cathedral is home to pigeons, sparrows, lesser ketrels and storks. In fact, every church tower is topped by at least one great bundle of sticks, and storks fly around among the roof tops or stand on their nests clattering their beaks.