Picos de Europa National Park to Getaria, Spain

Well, another day, and another beautiful place to stay the night. But first.

We woke this morning in the Picos de Europa National Park. Sunrise 8.40am. Makes it hard to get an early start on our hike on the Cares river route run. This apparently is one of the most breathtaking trekking trails that can be done in Europe. The Cares route is called “The Divine Gorge”. The path is carved in the rocks of the mountains and it is a wonderful journey over 12 km between Caín (province of León) and Poncebos, in Asturias. We started at Poncebos and were doing the hike to Cain and then back, so approximately 24km. You can get a taxi back but it takes 3.25 hours in the car and it only takes 3 hours to walk. Also costs 115 euro.

So off we head, early today. Start time 9.12am. Up, up and up for 2km the track winds through the gorge up the mountainside. It was an amazing sight with huge mountains either side of the gorge. It was cool but not cold like other walks we have been on. We passed a few hikers on the way up. Stopped to take some photos of mountain goats on tiny rocky outcrops. It took us about 3hours to walk the first leg and we stopped at Cain for a very healthy lunch. (Potato chip sandwiches on crustless bread and a coke, oh and a row of chocolate for dessert). We only passed about 6 people on the way to Cain.

We then headed back to Poncebos (unfortunately on the same path. It was a gradual climb for about 10km but not noticeable except in 2 spots that only lasted about 5-10 mins each. It was quite busy at the start we met 53 people and 3 dogs in the first 26 mins it was like Pitt St. Would be crazy in the summer. Then in total we past 116 people and 5 dogs and some goats in 2 hrs and 16 mins. A great days hiking.

Now for most people after a long hike they would just go to the pub for a beer or back to their hotel for a rest but not on Broadie’s tour, we now have a 3.5 hour drive to our next stop. We are going to a little town just east of San Sebastian called Getaria. We were going to stop at Mundaka which has the best surfing break in all of Europe but the wind was onshore and the time was getting away. Maybe next time.

We extended that tie by about 20 mins with a wrong turn followed by a series f wrong turns because the GPS couldn’t keep up with our mistakes. DB just takes all the mistakes in his stride and eventually gets us to our new home. An amazing room with a view of the ocean and the vineyards. It is a gorgeous house with a lovely room. And amazing price (only 55 euros).

We headed out for dinner, hopefully for some tapas as San Sebastian is supposed to be foodie heaven. Spanish is a challenge. We found a tapas bar recommended on Tripadvisor but our only problem was we didn’t know what to do and they spoke no English. Lucky for us the guy at the table next to us explained that you choose your tapas from the bar and they charge by the number of skewers and their size. A bit like plates at a sushi train. It was fun and very yummy. A great meal.

Well it is rest time as we still have 1,342km to travel to Amsterdam in the next 4 days.