I’ll start with a quick update on the Vuelta de Espagna, because I know you are all dying to know the result of yesterday’s time trial. The good news is that although Simon Yates did not win the time trial, he was quicker round the course than his two nearest rivals and so increased his overall lead. Go Simon!!
In all our travels I don’t recall ever being forced to retrace our steps to find a supermarket, but that’s what happened today. When we looked on our database for reasonable sized supermarkets (not just LIDL I promise) on our route for the day we couldn’t find any and since we were heading into the sparsely populated Picos de Europa we decided it was wise to stock up. So we travelled east for 10 miles or so to our nearest LIDL (other supermarkets are available, but Basil doesn’t know how to find them) and topped Basil’s cupboards up.
With food replenished we once again headed west to a campsite in the Picos de Europa National Park. I had however programmed in a stop in a village called Comillas to see one of the few buildings by the architect Antoni Gaudi outside his home city of Barcelona. For anyone not familiar with his name, you may know of the great art nouveau cathedral in Barcelona called the Sagrada Familia.
It turned out that knowing a bit about Gaudi was not sufficient. The car parks in Comillas and within walking distance of the Gaudi building were either full or not suitable for Basil’s ample dimensions. It has surprised us throughout our brief period in Spain how busy with tourists everywhere still is. You may recall a week or so ago, when we were on a campsite in southern France, me saying how quiet it was. Not in Spain. There are still far more people than we expected, in particular Spaniards, still on holiday.
Disappointed we pushed on to our final destination. Just as we were running out of food we were likewise low on cash, so we programmed in a cashpoint from SatNav’s database. When we had been in Santillana del Mar a few days ago I had tried to get some cash from a Santander cashpoint, the one behind iron bars, and had been told there would be a charge of €5, so I politely declined. Today the first bank we stopped at also happened to be a Santander and again they wanted €5, but before I succumbed I decided to try a different organisation a few metres down the road and hey presto it was free. Note to self – avoid Santander when in their home country!
Picos de Europa
Our final destination was at a small campsite just outside the village of Potes in the Picos de Europa National Park. In the many blogs I have read the Picos de Europa is one of the those places that everyone seems to love and so it was a must on our list of places to visit. The final few miles were a little tricky, with overhanging rocks threatening Basil’s structural integrity and a few places where we had to stop because the road was not wide enough to accommodate us an an oncoming lorry or bus. We were lucky on our drive into the park that there were clear skies and so we were treated to spectacular views of the almost unbelievably precipitous mountains jutting up into the blue. They are the most spectacular mountains I have seen in Europe, with the possible exception of the Dolomites, with which they have a passing resemblance. The photo above was from the only place I managed to find a place to stop, but there are more spectacular views which I hope to capture tomorrow.
Basil’s spot at Camping La Isla
We had a choice of campsites and we opted for a fairly intimate little site called Camping La Isla (43.157204, -4.654365 €15 with ACSI including free WiFi!), which is situated in woodland next to a rushing stream, which we can clearly hear from Basil. Although it is small it does actually have a small swimming pool and restaurant, both of which are amazingly still open. Initially we have booked in for two nights but with the lovely situation and temperature we may well be tempted to linger a little longer. One of the reviews of the site I read said “planned to stay for 7 nights but ended up extending it to 12”. It may well be one of those type of sites!