Picos de Europa

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This morning I woke up at 9am - when breakfast starts. Realising I was late, I grabbed a fleece and jeans to toss on over my pjs, and ran down to breakfast. It was only cereal and a cup of tea, so it was ok that I was a little late.

Around 10.30, we set off for the Picos de Europa - I see them as the Cairngorms of northern Spain... Unfortunately, to get there requires going all the way to the coast and back, when as the bird flies its actually quite close. Our first stop was at Santa Iglesia de Santa Maria, which is the oldest church in the region. The architecture was an interesting mix of Christian and Moor, and there was a lovely story about a couple. A Spanish noble fell in love with a Muslim princess, and they married. To mark this, two trees were planted: a yew, signifying the Cantabrian, and an olive tree for the Moor. While the views here were great, there was a lot of white fluff floating about, which I've been told was pollen...

Anyway, we stopped at the visitor centre for the national park, which was quite interesting. As can be expected, it explained the flora, minerals, people etc of the area (strangely not the animals...). What I found most interesting was a short documentary about Beato de Liébana, a monk from the area who lived in the 8th century. He's known for writing a manuscript - a commentary on the apocalypse, but I also discovered he was involved in Adoptionism. I hadn't realised such a thing existed, but the belief is that Jesus was an adopted son on God...

Next stop was lunch, though Fernando thought it was too early (at 2pm....). We wandered around the town of Potes, and found a wee restaurant. As he had noticed I like cider, he suggested I try the local Sidre. The bottle arrived and was 70cl! I only drank about a third of this, because it was 6% and also because it's a fuss to pour: it needs to be poured from a great height into a tipped glass. I don't imagine this is very easy when you are near the end of a bottle! I did taste the different between it poured this way and poured normally, and it did taste better poured the proper way....

After lunch, we headed up to Fuente De (which it took me a long time to figure out the meaning of!), which is the source of the river Deva. I twas getting confused between fuente and fuerte which means strong. I was wondering why on earth you would name a place 'strong of'.... There was a cable car from the valley floor up into the mountains, but I decided to come back another time to take it up and walk down - we didn't have time to do it this time. The mountains were incredible though, and they completely surrounded you! We headed back down the valley, and up the side of it, to the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana. However, it seems to have been a fairly important church - it houses the biggest remaining piece of Christ's Cross, supposedly. The've dated the wood and it seems to have come from the right region and time, but I guess we will never know... The views from here were stunning though, looking down onto Potes and the valley.

Next stop was San Vicente de la Barquera, on the coast. It's a lovely wee town, in an amazing location. I would happily live there! (though not in the shabby house that was for sale...). Our intention here was to get an ice cream - it was delicious!! On our way to the heladería, Fernando was hailed by someone. After he'd said his hellos and we had carried on, he explained that it was Ignacio Diego, the president of Cantabria! He was sitting opposite a senator, and beside the mayor of San Vicente. I felt slightly privileged when I was introduced and the president said, in English, 'nice to meet you'...

With our ice creams in hand, we walked up to the church. It looked very nice, but was shut. The communal area in front would have been nice, except for the school group occupying it, both physically and vocally... Anyway, we headed back to the car, but before we got there, Fernando stopped again. We were introduced to Carlos, a childhood friend. We then spent the next few minutes wandering around, and I felt a little like I was sitting in on a reunion...

Finally we came back to the house, for dinner and bed (still not there yet though!), but on the motorway, I noticed a great bridge. It's not for us, but for the animals, connecting the two wild areas, so they don't need to cross the road. Ingenious! Why do we not have these in the UK?!

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