Wednesday 26 September Setienes to Llanes Spain

Late slow start this morning as all still asleep at 8 am. Body clock is getting a bit confused as sun doesn’t rise until nearly 8 am and now starting to get dark by about 8pm.

Now nice very hot water flowing but crisis with shower this morning when after the second person in the apartment had showered the hose to shower head split so Lyndsay and I had our showers kneeling on floor of shower. Then I had to use my iTranslate again to tell the owners “El agua de la ducha es muy caliente ahora pero la manguera de la ducha esta roto”.

Muesli and fruit, eggs on toast and fig jam on toast for breakfast this morning.(The fig jam is the wonderful  Corsican Fig and Hazel nut jam Philippe gave us in Nice)

 

Managed to get away by 10.30 am heading for somewhere between here and Bilbao where we have accommodation booked on Friday and Saturday.Travelled partly by motorway and partly by back roads.

First stop was at Cabo Penas, another peninsula about an hour’s drive away with a lighthouse at the end and a maritime museum with a giant squid which we gave a miss!!

 

But by the lighthouse itself there was a wonderful old fashioned foghorn and then at the café right at the end there was a man fishing off the edge of a 100 metre cliff edge !!

 

In the café we also discovered that the strange device we have seen around is something for decanting wine.

Lunch stop was at a small beach further along coast where there were about 4 people in surfing but a bit too rough for us to even contemplate a swim.

 

Continued on to Llanes a small coastal town with lots of one way streets  and after a few false starts we finally found an apartment in Apartamentos San Pedro, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms  and lounge with parking at door for €54 a night for 4 people. Will stay 2 nights here!

 

Unpacked and then went for a walk around the beach ( looks good for swimming) and old town, found an antique shop,back to apartment and then out for dinner at Covadonga Restuarant about 8.30 pm. A bit disappointing

 

 

Tuesday 25 September 2012 Luarca (Setienes) Spain

Overcast day that turned to bitterly cold rain and wind later. Had some difficulty with temperature in shower and turning stove on. Rod had a fiddle with switchboard and turned on some fuses and seems to have resolved problem. Managed to sort out washing machine and did 2 large loads, some hung out side but had to be re done after rain later.

Bit of a walk around the village, took all of 10 minutes. Every house here seems to have one of the food store houses, very similar to pataka in Maori villages except for building materials –here all stone foundations with lip to stop rodents etc climbing in. There is one in our back yard.

Saw milk tanker driving up other side of the valley, so somewhere here someone is milking cows. Mostley we see cows in ones or twos only

 

Found we could drive 3 km directly into Luarca from Setienes without the previous complexities. Spent an hour or so driving up the hill at the end of the port and having a look at the church and down to port. There is a nice bathing beach with couple of surfers but very strong wind so not tempted to have a swim.

Nice simple lunch at Don Angel restaurant in square and visit to supermercado, price of wine is astounding.

 

Then headed off to Playa de Cueva, a wide but stony beach about 5 km out of town where we had a great walk in a wild wind. River came into one end of the beach  and there were heaps of sea birds around.

 

 

After that we went off to the end of the Cabo Busco (the Busco Peninsula) where we had another wild wind walk  around the lighthouse for ½ hour before being driven back to car by driving wind and rain.

Busto Head

Busto Head lighthouse

Lynds about to take off into wind

 

Dropped my latest wireless mouse on stone floor and managed to squash the battery terminal –used the iTranslate app on iPhone to ask for a piece of wire “necesito un precio de alambre”. I could see from his frown that he thought I was really mad. iTranslate is now my  next best thing to Google maps. Piece of copper wire was provided, bent appropriately with little pliers on my Leatherman and repair done successfully and mouse function restored.   

After sorting out wet washing (still raining so bought it all inside)  we went off again to old city and  Don Angel for dinner.

Luarca by night

 I had fixed menu –fava beans with chorizo and pork for starter, eggs,chips and chorizo, rice pudding with anise. We had a jug of very nice sangaria amongst us. Waddled home.

TV in restaurant showing live footage of  riots in streets in Madrid. 20 people hospitalised and money markets scared. Restaurant owners watching with concern

 

Monday 24 September 2012 Potes  to Setienes-Luarca Spain

 Another beautiful morning in Potes with sunrise on the peaks.

Supermarket open at 9.30am so stocked up on provisions for lunch on the road today. Small market was just starting in square as we were leaving town.

 

Packed and away by 9.45 am, heading north through the very winding road we travelled yesterday and then turned west just before Panes.

 

Stopped in Cabrales to buy some cheese as that was centre of the ewes milk cheese manufacturing and whilst there one of the car doors slammed trapping my right ring and little fingers at about first joint level. Much loud swearing as I couldn’t get to handle to open door and Rod came to rescue. Lyndsay managed to ask for ice for my fingers at local bar and I spent the next couple of hours navigating with right hand in ice pack. There was a bit of swelling initially but the ice seemed to be very effective at stopping any further.   Fortunately that joint doesn’t work anyway.

Turned off at Cangues and headed for the Covadonga Lakes which Helen C had thought would be a good lunch spot. They were, but after Lyndsay had driven 18 km of winding twisting road often just one lane with no barrier and a drop of hundreds of metres.

Final altitude was 1660 metres (5400 ft) and another place and view well worth making the effort for and lunch was great.

 

3 kiwis having lunch in middle of field

Interesting to watch Spanish “townies” hassling the cows which wander all over this area.

Back down the hill and continued west along the coast via motorway. Mrs TomTom had a major fit when we encountered some new roundabouts and new motorway so she had to be ignored initially, then appeared to have resorted herself however then managed to send us  down some very strange roads to Luarca until we turned her off and resorted to Google maps ( which was very accurate)  to get us to Setienes, the where we were booked into an Arpartmentos Rurales.

Arrived outside the local bar after an encounter with a cow being towed by a tractor and another tractor  spraying effluent over the fields only to find we had arrived at our lodgings.

Bar and village store and general meeting place

 

 Some language difficulties so had to take the young woman “Sandra” in the car to show us how to get to our accommodation, which looks like a converted barn, but very well done indeed. We have apartment with kitchen/living room, 2 bedrooms, nicely appointed bathroom and secure parking within courtyard.

Our apartment downstairs

View through gate into courtyard

Food storage houses all over this area-this one just behind apartment

Had dinner at bar below apartment , chorizo sausage, fried eggs and chips !! About 10 locals in the bar,in their farmers working clothes, some playing cards and all intrigued by the 4 foreigners.

 

Its also the convenience store and the bus stop is next door. Only about 20 houses in this hamlet and everyone of them seems to have a John Deere tractor in its back yard.

 

 

Sunday 23 September 2012 Potes Spain

Fine morning  and  sunrise (which isn’t until about 7.30 am) on the peaks of Picos de Europa which are west of the town  had to be seen to be believed.

 

After breakfast we set off early heading further  up the valley about another 23 km to the Fuente De cable car intending to take a ride to the top.. Check it out at http://www.roughguides.com/travel/europe/spain/cantabria-and-asturias/the-picos-de-europa/fuente-de.aspx  

 

 

However when we arrived there we discovered it was closed for the day as the winds were blowing in excess of 80km/hr at the top which we could hear from the bottom station.


We could imagine how interesting ( thrilling ? scary ? ) the trip would have been as there is just the bottom and top stations 1400 metres apart and you travel  straight across the valley and up the sheer slope.

cable car bottom station

 

View right acorss valley to top of cable car

 

Top cable car station

 

 

 

Spent an interesting hour or so there watching a herd of sheep and goats being guarded by 3 large dogs plus there was also a herd of cows wandering across hillsides with bells clanking gently. There were also a couple of groups of about 20 walkers in each  heading off up, zig zagging across the face of the mountain.

So change of plan and went back through Potes and headed north to Tama where we discovered this superb new visitor centre and museum covering the whole Picos de Europa National Park region.

 

 

Excellent displays about geology of region, mining used to be the big industry in this area until late 1970’s including the mining of some relatively rare minerals. As well there was subsistence farming, sheep, goats, cows, crops of corn, wheat, and some grapes with distilling of  spirits from these etc. These are now promoted as artisan industries and the major industry here now is tourism especially mountain climbing, hiking, canyoning and kayaking. You can buy any major brand of outdoor clothing in Potes.

 

Continued on the small village called La Hermida for lunch then back to Potes for siesta.



Later I went for a long walk around the old part of the town to take some photos.

Hairdressers laundry 

Our hotel Casa Cayo was right on the river bank and rose up 3 stories

Casa Cayon lower level by river

Casa Cayo upper levels 

Casa Cayo from across river

 

Also monastery with a fragment of the cross

 

Monastery with Cross fragment

 

 

Much cooler day today, about 25 degrees as a bit windy. Pleasant temperature.

Dinner tonight was in the restaurant at Casa Cayo which was very nice, large servings would have fed about 3 people, place was packed with hiker type people.

In bar at Casa Cayo before dinner

 

Lynds on our balcony above street.

Quiet in the town tonight, not as many tourists around today, so good night’s sleep. Stars very bright in very black sky when I woke about 6.30 am.