We arrived at the airport Monday with plenty of time for our 9:15pm flight, so we stopped at the pub for a beer, walked around the shopping area, went to the bathroom, got water for the flight, charged our devices, got another beer, had something to eat, went back to the bathroom, stopped off at the charging area to top off our devices…etc, etc, etc. We even started watching the security folks until they gave us the “stink eye” and then we headed to the bathroom again. Finally, it was ready to board. This would be a short flight to London where we would layover and stay the night at the IBIS hotel. The hotel was small, and fairly inexpensive, but they made it up on the breakfast…$27…ouch! And it was terrible. Our flight didn’t leave ... read more

We were up early on Tuesday to walk to the bus stop. Our train left the station at 8:30 and it was a 30 minute bus to the station. We have the bus and train transportation down and we both are relaxed now. It's time for some stress to keep us on our toes. Maybe a bus strike would do the trick. The train from Seville to Valencia is about 8 and a half hours so there is plenty of time to read, and nap. We had lunch in the club car which consisted of a boxed sandwich, chips and a beer. The scenery along the way is unremarkable. At the station, we were picked by our host, Carlos. This is the first time that we have been picked up by our host. Carlos is a ... read more

Wednesday we hopped a train to Madrid. Matrid is located almost directly center of Spain and like Logrono is surrounded by low lands of scrub brush and lots of olive trees. It has a population of about 3.5 million with a metropolitan area of about 6 million. Many of the buildings are fairly recent (since about the 18th century) because of the down turn of Spain after spending all their money fighting the British and the French during the 1500s and 1600s. In th early 19th century, Madrid looked more like a small town than a modern city. During the 20th century the popultion doubled. After the death of Franco and the start of the democratic regime, the 1978 constitution confirmed Madrid as the capital of Spain. Benefitting from increasing prosperity in the 1980's and 1990's, ... read more

Friday, on the hike down from Picas Urriellu, Kathy fell and hurt her knee. It happened to be on the thin trail around the basin. She was about 10 yds in from of me when she fell and began to roll toward the edge. My heart skipped a beat...I'm tellin' ya. It scare the @#$t out of me. I yelled at her not to move until I got a picture but she never listens to me so you will have to imagine the scene. It turned out okay but she struggled down the rest of the hike which was about 4 1/2 miles (nothing to sneeze at with a busted knee). Fortunately, it rained on Saturday so we just walked around the hills of Sotres, slept, and had dinner. On Sunday morning we took the shuttle ... read more

Monday we arrived in Las Arenas de Cabrales which is the gateway to the Picos de Europe National Park from the north. This is a small village of about 350 population on the Rio Cares. We began our hike as always looking for the beginning. The directions provided were good but the signage did not match the directions. After half an hour at the tourist info center we were off for our adventure. And what an adventure. First we climbed 650 m. That's about 1950 ft or for those that don't know...that's a long way up. The views were spectacular. As the instructions said, "just start up any path. They all go to the same place." Now this might sound like strange instructions to most and it did to us too. But as it turns out ... read more