Our friend, Rafa, who had given us so many wonderful suggestions for our journeys through Spain, urged us while in Comillas (end of Day 2) not to miss el Capricho de Gaudi. This residence, one of the artist’s early creations, was dubbed by the locals as Caprice of Gaudi because it seemed so fanciful and impractical.

Crowned with a minaret and covered with bright sunflowers, the house is a burst of color and curving lines. Inside, it is amazingly practical and comfortable, with innovations like double-hung windows whose counterweights play musical tones and interior shutters that roll into curved cases like sidewise roll top desks.

Tragically, the wealthy lawyer, Massimo, who commissioned the house, lived there only one week before succumbing to illness. Massimo was an “Indiano,” an to immigrant to Spain from the New World (probably Cuba). So here in Comillas we see a century and half old example of the persistence and creative benefits of human migration.

Gaudi loved and appreciated the beauty of Islamic culture and art and married Islamic elements with Western European to create loveliness and joy.