ASTURIAS, SPAIN, August 2015
62 images

After our brief stay at Brockley in the West Country of England, Joan and Bill, together with Ant & Con Ridge, flew to Spain, where we were met by our friend and tour guide Lucía Tabares (left), native of Seville, and scientific colleague of Bill. Lucía made everything work, and her blend of selected activities, flexibility, new and unknown excursions, occasionally getting us lost in tiny villages created a trip of a lifetime for us.

Some technical issues: We met up in Bilbao, in the Basque Country, but spent most of our time in Asturias, just to the west. We had two rental cars. We stayed mostly in two- and three- star hotels, which were without exception clean, comfortable, and usually quiet. We ate delicious local food - a typical dinner of two courses, plus wine, water, and bread, cost about $15.

Now, a little bit about Asturias, in four brief lessons. We saw evidence of all of these things on our trip.

1. Geography: Asturias lies in the far north of Spain, tucked between the Sea of Cantábrica (Bay of Biscay) and the the Picos de Europa National Park. It costs ten times as much as in other parts of Spain to build a road here. You'll see why.

2. Geology: About 350 million years ago, vast undersea limestone deposits were thrust far above sea level, fracturing into three big massifs that became the Picos de Europa (named by sailors returning home, whose first sight of the mainland were these peaks). Subsequent mountain glaciers (not the continental type, which didn't reach this far south) plus rainfall (which dissolves the limestone, producing a characteristic landscape called karst) widened the fractures into today's spectacularly steep terrain (left).

3. Deep Human history: We visited Altamira, which like its sister cave in France (Lascaux), has provided a wealth of fascinating information about the early inhabitants of Asturias - about twenty thousand years ago. The actual caves are closed (to protect them and their exquisite paintings - right) to most visitors, but a full-scale replica has been built, and the big attached museum houses many artifacts and displays of interest to all - from children to professional historians.

4. Roots of Spain: In 711 the Moors invaded the Iberian peninsula from north Africa. Within a single decade they had conquered nearly the entire peninsula - until they arrived in Asturias. Here, Pelayo and his army stopped them in their tracks, and also began the "reconquest," which over the next 700 years gradually pushed south (left), expelling the Moors, ending in 1492, when Granada fell. Pelayo became the first King of Spain (although his kingdom was just a bit of Asturias).

We began in Bilbao, Basque Country, walking to the Guggenheim Museum. It is sheathed in titanium, with a flower sculpture of a dog outside

4. Bill, Lucia, Joan, Con, Ant

9. Ant & Con celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary

10. Bilbao at sunset

11. Bilbao

12. Pinchos (tapas) in Bilbao

13. Day 2: Puente Vizcayo, Bilbao. It is suspended by cables attached to a tall tower that spans the river, and shuttles cars and people back and forth across the river. It's the oldest (1888) of its kind

14. Lunch is a peaceful hotel garden. Lucia & Ant

16. Con & Joan

18. Santillana, Asturias

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21. Our hotel in Santillana

22. Altamira - they don't allow pictures in the replica cave or museum.

23. Market in Llanes

24. Llanes

25. Lunch in Llanes

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28. Llanes

29. Llanes

30. Llanes

31. Key rack at our hotel in Arenas de Cabrales

32. view from hotel room in Arenas

33. Arenas

34. pasta, mushrooms, goat; fabada - traditional Asturian bean soup; ensalada

37. salmon; stuffed peppers with Asturian cheese; lomo

41. Steep terrain near Poncebon

42. Our big hike - Ruta del Cares (route along the Cares River)

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45. The trail was made about 70 years ago

46. Fortunately, the trail is about 6-7 feet wide. Even so, Joan was not thrilled...

49. Looking across the chasm

50. some things are the same everywhere

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52. Backpackers

54. Day 3: On the way to the Lake District - Lagos de Covadonga

55. We travelled by bus, on steep, winding, narrow roads

56. The hillsides were covered with a lovely cactus...

57. ...with vicious spines

59. At Lake Enol

60. Covadonga (L. Cova Dominica = cave of our Lady). Site of the first Christian victory over the Moors, in 722 AD. On the plaza in front of this Cathedrial (built in 1901) is a statue of the famous Pelayo, first King of Spain, who won the battle and started the Reconquest, which took 700 more years to complete