We had a nice day parked up in Zarautz. It was great to get out on our bikes, although I fell off my ebike for the first time (and hopefully the last) – Colin claimed I was trying to get up a steep hill without peddling, but I’m hoping it was just me being in the wrong gear. The painful bit was getting my beautiful shiny new bike scuffed though.
We headed back westwards along the North Coast, bypassing Santander as we now have a ferry booked back from there in January. We stuck to the motorways this time, which we are really impressed with – good condition, not crowded and crossing dizzyingly high viaducts over deep gorges and valleys. After a quick stop at a coastal town called Laredo for coffee and food supplies, we headed to Santillana del Mar. It is a beautiful medieval town, being described as one of Spain’s most beautiful villages. Although it was quiet on the day we visited, judging by the number of restaurants it must get packed in season. It is also on the Camino del Norte pilgrim route so there were several posadas catering for the pilgrim walkers. We enjoyed walking around the town in the sunshine. We were parked in a car park in the centre of town so decided to eat out in the evening. Most of the restaurants were closed but we ended up in a nice traditional place in the main square.
The next day we awoke to heavy rain again. We visited the Museo de Altamira which was just a couple of miles up the road. At the site there is a cave where paintings dating back 14,000 years were discovered in the early 1900’s. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage site and due to too many visitors to the cave damaging the structure and the paintings, they have recreated the cave in the museum on site.
Colin thought it was a bit of a con just seeing a replica, but it did show just how remarkable the paintings of bison and deer were – the details and colours were fabulous. There was a very interesting museum attached with displays on how the caves were discovered and all about prehistoric life both in Spain and all over the world.
The next place we stopped at was at lovely beach town called Comillas, where we visited El Capricho de Gaudi, an incredible house both inside and out that Gaudi designed for the Marquis of Comillas in the late 1800’s. Gaudi went on to use some of his design features here in his well-known creations in Barcelona such as the Sagrada Familia and Park Gruell. Colin, who doesn’t generally have much good to say about architects, loved all the detailed touches in the design and layout of the house.
From here we carried on through some lovely looking coastal towns, but it wasn’t beach weather, and all the campsites were closed for winter, so we continued to another very attractive Cantabrian town, Potes, surrounded by mountains (not that we could see them) and is a tourist hub to visit the Picos De Europa, Spain’s first National Park. The drive to Potes was incredibly scenic, with the clouds lifting and sun coming out to accentuate the golden autumn colours.
We overnighted in a car park in Potes. Seeing the forecast was set to be good for a couple of days, we set the alarm to ensure we were up at the Fuente De cable car station for opening time. This teleferico whisks visitors up a 1.4km wire in less than 4 minutes dropping them off at a station at over 6000 feet.
The views of the Picos are spectacular, and there are several walking trails of varying distance that can be done. We walked for around 3 hours soaking up the views – it was a clear fresh day, and the sky was a brilliant blue. There were Cantabrian Chamois (mountain goat antelope) grazing on the sparce vegetation – one posed nicely for photos.
We took the cable car back down and had the most incredible drive to a small town in the Picos called Posada de Valdeon where there is a municipal campsite in a beautiful location. The drive to get there took us zigzagging up roads with spectacular views. The campsite had electric hook ups and water and was very quiet, so we decided we’d stay a second night
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The plan was to go for a challenging bike ride - it was hills all the way whichever way we went but we knew it would be beautiful. Unfortunately, my ebike hadn’t held its charge since last used so we opted for a short ride down to a village called Cain where walkers joined the route of the Cares, a scenic walking trail high above the river running through a gorge below. I believe a good head for heights is required. Although a short distance it wasn’t sweet. As we descended the steep windy road into the valley, my mind was distracted from the amazing views by the thought of ‘how the beep beep beep are we going to cycle back up this?’. There were a fair number of 19 and 20% gradient hills. In just 5 miles we had descended over 1600 feet. We were surprised to find a couple of cafes in Cain, and a fair number of visitors preparing to walk the trail. We had a coffee and a Snickers bar, then braced ourselves for the return journey. My e-assist doesn’t seem to cover 19% gradients, so with an expiring battery, I probably pushed about 4 of the 5 miles back. Colin was obviously a hero and managed to cycle the whole way, albeit he had some lengthy recovery stops waiting for me to huff and puff my way pushing my heavy bike.
Back at the campsite we had another peaceful evening, joined by a bored pony that kept trying to chew my bike wheels and the truck.
We are now heading back to the Asturian coast to continue are general route westwards.
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