Impressive Trip To The Spanish Alps (Picos Europeos)

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

We've been following the northern coast and visiting small towns along the way.  The beaches are fabulous and this time of year it is summer vacation.  30 days for companies and 90 days for students.  I wish I had been a student in Spain.  

Now we are in the town of Viadago, it is pretty close to our last stop in Castro-Urdiales.  We wanted to be here to stay in a nice hotel that was affordable and close to the Spanish Alps.  We found the place and it is a superb location.  We are minutes from the beach and several small towns are all within a 10-minute drive.  The car has really come in handy and I'm glad we decided to rent it.  The Alps can't be seen from here but we took a drive yesterday.  

It's a curvy two-lane highway and the speed limit never varies much from 40 to 70 km.  As we rounded the passes we could see the peaks or picos of the Alps.  Truly impressive as you can tell from the pictures.  I haven't downloaded pics from Juan's camera but he took most of the shots.  A great place for a drive and to take pictures, there are pullouts all along the route.  It is an hour drive to get to the visitor's information center for the national park.  All of the towns, hotels, and restaurants are located along the highway.  There isn't a town with more than a couple hundred people and most are under 50 persons.  It takes a lot to get supplies and goods up to the top.  

Like most medieval and pre-medieval towns they are all located along the rivers.  Going up to the peaks the water is always along your side.  In some places, there are some minor rapids and some that appear to have a small beach.  Calmer waters for now allow kayakers to take their rigs and float around.  

The rock is impressive and the visitor's center takes you through all the details of the area.  It is a great learning experience for children and adults as well.  The explanations are in both Spanish and English and describe the type of rock, flora, fauna and minerals that were extracted during the mining days up until 30 years ago when the mines were closed.  We spent a good hour and a half going through the exhibits.

This is a house in the back of the visitor's center.  Imagine living and farming there.  Cattle of course, are a huge source of income and at this elevation they do well with grazing on the local grasses.

This is typical of a small Spanish town in the sense that people sit around and drink coffee and eat bread.  A lot, they do it all day.  They stop frequently for a coffee and a chat.  In fact, we stopped along the trip for a coffee and a tortilla de patata.  I need to learn how to make them, they are delicious.

Here in the town of Potes, we found the majority of the tourists.  The place was packed but people aren't very pushy or in a hurry to see things.  They do park anywhere they can and with the huge amount of rvs and RV rentals, it can get pretty complicated as well as congested.  Just as in Mexico, the kiosk is the central meeting place for the townspeople.  In the background, you'll always see the peaks!

Even though we have been here two weeks it still doesn't seem to sink in that some of these homes and buildings are hundreds of years old and well-preserved, and some are still in the hands of the original families that built them.  In the case of most Americans, it is very hard to trace your roots back more than 150 years.  

This was taken in Castro-Urdiales.  

Today is Sunday and a rest day.  We made the decision to stay one more day here and do laundry and goof off.  We went to Unquera, a small village about 6 minutes from the hotel.  While we were there we met a very nice couple (brother and sister) and they gave us some good tips on where to visit before we head back towards Madrid at the end of this week. 

A woman came in to get her laundry and she joined the conversation.  It turns out she is from Mexico City and moved to Spain after the last earthquake in 2017.  She opened a Mexican restaurant.  We are going to have dinner there this evening.  We haven't had anything spicy and hot since we left home.

In the town, they have a local policeman.  Yep, just one and he strolls up and down the street stopping from shop to shop to make sure all is well.   If he sees a travel bus or RV in trouble on the narrow streets, he gets out and does his thing.  A very friendly guy who is willing to answer questions.