After a day of driving along the Bay of Biscay, we arrived to part of the Cantabrian mountain range known as Los Picos de Europa. Exploring this phenomenal national park made up the bulk of our third day and it was full of spectacular views and quaint mountain towns.
We spent the night in a quiet hotel, recharging with food and sleep, before heading out to explore the nearby town of Potes. It is a gorgeous place, and perfect to have a meal and a wander. It truly is a wonderful town and we can't sing its praises highly enough, as you can see in the 360 experience we made about Los Picos.
The main things to see are the Torre del Infantado and the lovely bridges that cross over the river. We just loved the calm and peaceful vibe of the town and enjoyed the few hours we got to spend there. We did visit after the main summer holiday season though, and I can imagine this place gets extremely busy during the peak months.
Our next stop was just half an hour up the road from Potes, in an area called Fuente De. We parked at the base of a mountain and queued, hoping to get onto the first cable car of the day. But it was surprisingly busy and we actually made the third or fourth trip up to the top. It was well worth the wait and early start though, as the cable car took us right up to the top of the mountain and we were treated to some spectacular views.
We think this was probably the best viewpoint of the trip and we thoroughly recommend watching it in virtual reality to truly appreciate the scale of it all. The snow-capped mountains and breath taking views of the valley make this a must see when you visit this area, especially as it’s so easy to access. There's a café at the top, where we stopped for a coffee and very chocolatey hot chocolate. They warmed us up nicely!
The rest of the day was spent doing one of two things: when we weren’t stopping at a viewpoint to soak up the vistas, we were taking a break in a gorgeous town to eat a little something and enjoy the quaintness.
The roads through the mountains were great and it made for a fun and easy drive in our little Fiat 500. We were really impressed by the views and the beauty of the towns, and this was probably our favourite day of the trip.
Next time we finish this trip with a drive to Gijón, another interesting visit to a cave, and we take another look at the coastline in this area of northern Spain.
For now, we leave you with lots of great photos to gaze out.
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We could have spent a whole day strolling through the beautiful old streets of Potes,
and we really struggled to cut down the number of photos for the blog! |
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I'm sorry, but we couldn't narrow down the photos from the top of the cable car either!
But can you blame us? |
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There was a map in the cafe with loads of hiking trials you could do.
But we decided driving was a better use of our time on this particular trip |
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| This village we stumbled across had a market, showcasing lots of great local produce |
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| Dave was pretty chuffed with all the free samples! |
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| Biggest loaf I've ever seen! |
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This "Roman bridge" in Cangas de Onis isn't actually Roman, but it is beautiful
so we'll let them off the misleading name |
