We have spent the past week in the beautiful Picos de Europa park, in Cangas de Onis, Spain. This area, Asturias, is noted for its wonderful cheese and milk products, sidra (cider) and of course, pork. The lovely green farm and pasture land has a stunning backdrop of the snow capped Picos. It really is a remarkable area!
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| This scene was repeated everywhere! |
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| It must have been an awesome parking experience to warrant a souvenir! |
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The area is also know for its wonderful recreation. There are 2 rivers for fishing, canoeing, kayaking and swimming in the warmer months. It is only 25 miles from the Atlantic, so the climate is fairly mild, and the valleys are at low elevation, and the peaks climb to over 8,000'. There are many hiking trails in the parks and lots of bike riders trying to scale 2 of the most difficult climbs in Spain. The area is very sparsely populated and looks a great deal like Austria at times. Small villages dot the area, and the "big" town of Cagnas was probably about 5,000 people. But in that small town there were more restaurants and shops selling the foods of the area than I have ever seen. The other interesting business model of the area is Rural Turismo. We stayed in one ourselves, and it was a lovely little apartment on a farm. In the tiny village next to us, which consisted of about 15 homes, there was one bar/restaurant and about 5 Rural Turismos. That was the case everywhere. We just could not imagine what the area must be like during the summer months when all of these places would be full.
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| The roads were pretty quiet this time of year, but I did a little tailgaiting. |
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| Our new friends at the cafe where we got our | internet fix |
We did some sightseeing when the weather was
not suitable for cycling. One day we went to the
famous prehistoric cave paintings. The entire talk was in Spanish, of course, so we got very little out of it, but he did translate two phrases for us:
Three meters. and 20 million..... We are guessing size and age....
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| Checking out the high peaks |
We are now in Bayonne, France. A beautiful town just north of Saint Jean de Luz and Biarritz. Tomorrow we head to the Pyrennes.
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