Hotel Benzua Llanes

... for GPS--made for exciting times. ["Paul, I think we're driving in a dried river bed....the road ended back there!"]

We made our way into the Picos de Europa, a beautiful national park with amazing mountains. The hotel we're in is nestled in a small valley with impressive mountains all around. The Christian part, a beautiful medieval-looking church sitting up high....and of course a ...

... saying. We were at La Playa Franca and it was BEAUTIFUL!! I call it “where the mountains meet the sea”. I have never seen anything like that before, so it was very amazing to me. The mountains were literally going into the sea. We spent an hour taking pictures and exploring and just soaking in all of the beauty.

The rest is just said with pictures.....

We are staying in a little village called Avin. We visited Cangas de Onis which is a pretty little town with an ancient bridge. We went to the seaside at Llanes and went on a cliff top walk.

Next day we went to Desfiladero de Cares. The pathway was made at the beginning of the 20th centuary by the workmen who blasted out a course for a canal to supply water for hydro-electicity for the area. The walk is from Poncedos to Cain and winds it way ...

... We rolled into San Sebastian around 10 to find the office closed!! Fortunately, they had only stepped away for a break and after setting up we sat by the camper and enjoyed some rose and regular port. 

         

... information place. I discover to everyone's disappointment that we had chosen to visit on the one day of the week that the Guggenheim is not open. Bilbao is still worth a look and the outside of the Guggenheim is at least impressive.

Our house in Pechon for the next 6 days has a view of the red tiled roofs of the village and the sea and we watch cloud sail across the sea. Its absolutely silent in the village at night and shutters on ...

... the other tent was Kevin woke up in the middle of the night with a bug on him and freaked out in a Christy-like fashion.  He was frantically brushing off his face and pounding the floor in case it was under him.  His eyes were also incredibly wide like a spooked tree frog.  The idea of having an opening between us sleeping and bugs was not an option.  We went into the store for glue and a flashlight, almost bought sleeping mats, and left with a tent (no flashlight ...

... where there was a tiny town/village: Population 10. I kid you not. Not sure how they are considered real towns, but they each had about 10 people in it with several tourists. Ironically, the town had about 4 bars. Didn't make too much sense to me. Neverthless, the views of jagged cliffs and cloud-filled skies were unbelievable. Some of us took a little hike up the other village and snapped some pictures. Solid day. When we got back to the hotel, some of us took a walk along ...

... Tito Bustillo. This deep cavern was discovered in 1968 by a group of young cavers and contains some of Spain's most significant Palaeolithic cave paintings, horses and reindeer adorning the walls as if painted yesterday. The caves themselves were also impressive, great halls, stalactites and stalagmites, the sound of rushing water. Our guide also pointed out small holes in the rock which lead to more caverns where there ...

... um Fotos zu schiessen, habe mich mit Freunden getroffen und das seichte spanische Leben etwas genossen und ausgekostet. Mit meinen Interviewpartnern klappts soweit sehr gut, da ich ja bereits in 2007 in einem Altenheim Parktikas gamacht hatte, waren sehr viele liebe Leute gleich wieder bereit, mir bei meiner Arbeit zu helfen. Auch im hiesigen Krankenhaus konnte ich an meine Kontakte anknüpfen und diese nutzen. Ich bin soweit sehr zufrieden, wie es vorran geht ...

... and came back to our starting point. Let me start by saying that the maps in my GPS do not have altitude info. Holy smokes! Even with the switchbacks, it seemed as if we were hiking straight up the hill side! We hiked up for about 2 hours. I believe we climbed about 800 meters vertical (just under 2000 feet) in about 3 kilometers. We came across several old hand built stone structures that I have no idea of ...