We decided to return to Spain for another couple of weeks as we’re not heading up to Belgium until late March for the Spring Classics.  Rather than go in the campervan we zipped down in the BMW, stopping at a hotel southwest of Zaragoza.

At one time it must have been quite the place – lovely gardens, and thermal hot springs/spa.  The room was nice, but there wasn’t much sound-proofing.

Breakfast the next morning was nearly the best we’ve had – next to the one place in Mutters, Austria a few years ago.

We made it to the house mid-afternoon and it was especially nice that the piece for the pellet burner finally arrived and it’s up and running again – how nice it is to have heat!

We’ve arranged for the driveway to get done, although they still need a week without rain to be able to do it properly.  The pool is as full as it’s ever been with all the rain – no need to get the tanker truck up this year!

We had a couple of nice lunches out at the bar in Los Cerricos – happy kitties getting bits of swordfish and pork tenderloin as usual.

We only stayed two weeks before heading back north again, experiencing only one highway delay due to a truck losing a load of oranges.

Just past Pamplona they’re twinning one of the tunnels – it is quite a busy road as it goes to Irun on the coast.

Just before the French border, in the small town that gets a lot of French visitors for the cheap fuel, tobacco and liquor, we saw the results of an accident.  There was one car stopped and four people crouched on the road next to a bike-rider – they’d already gotten a neck brace on him and also on his left leg.  He was conscious, which was good, but I started crying anyway – you never want to see an injured cyclist lying on the road.  A mile or so beyond the border we passed an ambulance racing towards us to take the cyclist to the nearest French hospital.

The Basque folks are still defacing road signs, and there are still remains of burned tires, etc in some places left by the farmers’ protests months ago.

My little Sly guy back at the spanish house is very happy that the dog is gone again – he spends most of his days stretched out on the heated rug in front of the pellet burner now, and goes outside whenever he wants to.

There’s a new dog at the bar – an adorable little black chihuahua named Valentino Bello – I think someone gave him to them – not as a replacement for Snoopy, of course, and he does seem to be settling in quite nicely.

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