Aranjuez – Bilbao
I got my bearded one up quite early to take him for his walk outside the palace grounds and then we returned to the hotel – actually it is a hostel but very nice and we had a leisurely breakfast in the verdant atrium, at least they did and I am happy to say it was a lot cooler this morning.
Today we are heading for Bilbao which is the Port where we are going to get on a huge kennel to cross the sea to England but that is tomorrow.
We are booked into another hotel this one is called Euba but the address is very strange as we are deep in Basque Country, a part of Spain where they do not even speak Spanish, but my bearded one is not perturbed, he has an electronic device called a GPS aka Mavis which speaks to him in English.
After another five hours or so of sleeping (for me, not him) and directed by Mavis from time to time, we arrived at a very grand house and entered a large driveway and parked alongside the car that we had been following for a while.
My bearded one climbed stiffly from my short kennel and followed the other driver through the front door, up a short flight of stairs and into a large hall. At this point the gentleman ahead, put down the bags he had carried from his car, turned around and was clearly going to speak a foreign language but my brave bearded one pre-emptied the obvious and presented instead, a broad smile, a passport and a hotel booking reference.
This gentleman turned out to be most kind and a little amused. He put his shopping away, hung his coat on a hook, and then took my bearded one by the hand into the library of his home and showed him on a map where our hotel was actually located, some four kilometres away.
Love Douglas
To: Iberian Agent (aka Douglas)
From: P008 Agent SW (retired).
Good to hear you are returning from foreign parts. Where are you planning to take leave this year? I trust your coms were not classified as I revealed content to my skirted handler who for some reason collapsed into laughter when reading your final comment. They commented something about the folly of relying on technology. We canines have our own method of tracking. Await further coms with interest. over and out. P008
My dear P008 Rtd. Glad you received my coms. I hadn’t sanctioned the general publication through the normal advisory channel as the first few days of leave or in this case active duty (I have a long kennel to maneuver ) although not classified it Is not normally of great strategic or geographical interest,. Albert aka Long kennel is underway. ETD 17th destination is classified but if you don’t tell it will probably be The Caldon Canal to start with. Coms will be arriving daily.meantime.xx Iberian agent .
OMG! Dear Uncle Douglas, what an amazing story. Please try and tell your bearded one that he needs to upgrade his talking map thing (Mavis). Our controller calls his talking map ‘TomTom’. Why it has two first names that are same, we don’t know – anyway, our controller never gets lost or visits strange houses. Lots of love, Bumble and Trooper
PS We hacked your site and added the most appropriate picture that we could find. x
Bumble and Trooper many thanks for hacking into site, much appreciated. I have to say it was not entirely Mavis’s fault the postal addresses in Basque Country are not compatible to Mavis or TomTom systems. They do not have post codes for reasons best known to Basques it is avery busy area – wait for it – there are too many basques in one exit! Hohoho
Ho ho! So who was at fault – Mavis or your bearded one? Hope you got a good dinner anyway.
Millie
Well Millie it was certainly not my fault! Nor was it my bearded one’s he did his best bless him.
As I said in my reply to Bumble and Trooper above basques don’t have post codes! Tell your Daddy I will call him and hope to see him on 12th at 2:30 BG
Douglas, tell your bearded one, he’s a muppet!!