ok, so the trip to spain is on a countdown- less than 60 days.......i am starting to obsess about details- rereading confirmations of hotel reservations, print out driving instructions- worry that 5.5 hours from barcelona to hondarrribia is a long time in the winter- when will it get dark- how early should we start......that sort of thing. i have read through the 'graffiti wall' on european travel hosted by rick steves- our hotels in mardrid and barcelona come recommended by rick steve reader as well as by rick himself-- this much is good. i have cut and pasted many of the restaurant picks for us to try- especially the vegetarian and/or seafood ones. for some odd reason- no comments on spanish cuisine were from the basque area- rick steves doesn't cover it either- we must be going completely outside the box to travel to this neck of the woods............i like the idea of tapas, which can be ordered by pointing- i cannot locate my spanish phrase book- i may be poiting regularly on this trip......one last comment about the travel posting boards- i read one man's post about a trip he just returned from (10/30) to italy on which he put regular gas into his diesel rental car.......done that- will never do that again.......