Blogs from Picos de Europa National Park, Asturias, Spain, Europe

24th March So, had an early night & slept soundly, woke late & read the news in bed with tea. We were going to jump on a bus to Gijon but Cathy didn’t feel too good so after brunch we walked to the supermarket for a couple of bits, around 6 kilometres round trip. No-one spoke a word of English in there, I bet they’re fluent in Spanish in Sainsbury. Whilst we walked over we could see what we thought was the tower & roof of a church but when we rounded a corner the building was gigantic. Turns out that this place is the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura & is rather splendid. Didn't visit as Cathy was deteriorating. Nearby was another huge building which was a University hospital on the scale of the JR ... read more

23rd March Disturbed night sleep with the ship pitching all over the place & the fittings creaking all night. Still, this ferry is much better & quieter than the ones we used to use 20 odd years ago. Just had our petit dejeuner & now sat in the reading lounge which is very comfortable & from here I can see that I did leave the handbrake on Billy. Now we’ve arrived, an easy disembarkation & port exit. Within 500 yards Cathy had the first run in with the Dyson & we took a wrong turn haha! Only a couple of minutes detour though... 160 km drive to the first site near Gijon along a very quiet coastal motorway at the base of the mountains most of which were Picos de Europa. The windy weather we’d sailed ... read more

Rain was forecast for today, all forecasters seem to have agreed on that all week. We found one forecast that promised a dry morning at least so got up a little earlier than usual and headed down into town. We had hoped there might be a market but there wasn’t and the town was surprisingly quiet. The car parks were full so we don’t know where all the occupants of the cars were but not many were wandering the streets of this very attractive town. We have of course visited Potes before so we just did an amble around, along the river, through the narrow streets of very beautifully restored and decorated buildings. Had a good coffee and shared a cake under the stone arcade which lines part of the main street through to the bridge. ... read more

We have been enjoying the northern Spanish region of Asturias with its cliff lined beaches and brightly coloured fishing villages. I even managed a quick dip in the Atlantic at one of the beaches, Playa De Silencios, reputedly one of Spain's most beautiful beaches. A quick splash then out; freezing! More recently we have been in the mountain area known as the Picos De Europa. So named by American sailors because they were the first peaks to be seen as they approached Europe. Today we have walked part of a trail namedRuta Del Cares. A spectacular hike which was made by workers when mountain streams were diverted to produce hydro electricity. (This is also amazing as they tunnelled through the mountains way back in 1915.) The trail rises 300 metres in the first kilometre (got us ... read more

Sunday, September 19th in Picos de Europa. After staying just outside of Potes, Cantabria at the beautiful Hotel de Orso for the weekend my host family wanted to Becca and I to experience the Fuente De cable car that gives you a beautiful 360 degree view of the National Park;seeing as Saturday turned out to be a semi-cloudy day while we were hiking a bit in Picos de Europa National park my host family decided it would be pointless to take the cable car up the mountain due to the low hanging clouds. So we decided to try it again for Sunday, hoping weather would permit a great ride up. We were right to wait for Sunday as it permitted the perfect weather. Only a few of us went up in the cable car. Overall, only ... read more