Our goal today was to explore the Picos de Europa mountain range and National Park in northern Spain, but we were in for a treat before we even arrived there. Just before starting to climb through the mountain passes, we arrived in Raino, which is beautifully situated overlooking a lake that was mirror flat and perfectly reflected the hills, bridge, and everything around it. (Tom can't resist photographing reflections, so I'm sure you'll see what I'm writing about here.)
When we did get to Picos de Eurpoa, we covered it from bottom to top several times over. First, we rose through forested mountain passes, and stretches of broad vistas -- blue skies over deep green mountainsides dropping down to valley floors. Down below, narrow roads snaked alongside swift streams through steep gorges, rocky mountains towering above us on both sides.
Around noon, as we were on the northernmost leg of our drive, which came within 20 miles of the ocean, we could see coastal fog hovering around the peaks that paralleled the coast. With fingers crossed, we headed south and west to Fuente De, where we hoped to ride a cable car to the top of one of the peaks. Luck was with us, and we'd left the fog behind long before reaching the mountain.
We rode the cable car up and spent about an hour and a half walking around and enjoying the views both down (far down) to the valley floor and up and around at the partially-snow-covered peaks that surrounded us. In one area, there's a viewing platform with one section suspended over the cliff, with just a metal grate underfoot. Eventually, we each got up enough nerve to step out onto it, holding on for dear life; the updraft was fierce!
Once down on terra firma, we headed to our home for the night, an inn on the banks of a river, with lovely gardens and a view of the high peaks from our balcony -- a fine place for happy hour.
We headed into the nearby small town of Potes for dinner with three places in mind as restaurant possibilities. One we could not find, and two were closed. However, when we were at one of them, a young local man suggested a place nearby we might try, and it turned out to be a great tip. We had a regional specialty we'd read about, cocido lebaniego, (a soup/stew with several kinds of meat, veggies, chick peas, and noodles) and it was out of this world. Don't know what we missed when our first three restaurant choices didn't pan out, but this was definitely a case of three strikes making a home run!
The doors to our balcony are open and I think the river will sing us to sleep after this lovely day.
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