Month: May 2013

Today dawned overcast, but our spirits weren’t going to be dampened by gray skies. Especially since we’d been so blessed by the weather gods the first two days! Here is the view from our balcony right after I crawled out of bed (we slept in again):

After a delicious breakfast, served as if we were the only people in the hotel, we headed into Potes. It was market day, so we had some fun checking out what the locals like to buy and sell. There was everything from flea-market-type antiques to clothing of all kinds, fruits & veggies to candy and nuts…

We had decided at breakfast that we would try the steep road to Fuente Dé, and just see how far we felt like going. As we wound our way up the cañon de Rio Deva, we were pleased to discover that it wasn’t as straight up as the maps made it appear. Hearing the roar of waterfalls, we pulled over to enjoy views like this:

We kept getting glimpses of the Picos de Europa as we climbed…

As an aside, I’m not thrilled with the way my videos mess with the blog format, so I’m going to try posting a link to one I uploaded to Vimeo instead. (Hope you don’t mind going there to see my goofy clips!) It’s one of Mallory riding along near the top, with peaks beyond her in the distance:

http://vimeo.com/65577852

And here’s a view of the Picos at the end of the road:

In the description of this ride, it says that we must ride the cable car at the end of the road (which is a dead end, by the way). It’s apparently one of the main tourist attractions in the Picos, and Cantabria in general. Well, continuing a theme of our trip, when we got to the top, we learned that it was closed for the one week of the year that they do major maintenance and repairs! It was open yesterday, but not today…

Feeling a little disappointed, but happy that we’d made it all the way to the top, we decided to head back. The last couple of kilometers had been very steep with a fair headwind, and it was starting to sprinkle, so we thought it just as well we weren’t staying up there an hour or more longer for a tram ride. I took a panorama of the peaks as we were leaving; the funny thing is that the distortion makes it look like the cables curve the wrong way in the upper left of the image:

Another thing we’d read in the Iron Donkey guidebook was that there is a hotel along today’s route that serves a spectacular version of ‘Cocido Lebaniego’, a local speciality made with chick peas, cabbage, dumplings and about five different meats. Of course we couldn’t pass that up! We’d seen the Hotel de Oso on the way up, and were more than ready for a typically late Spanish lunch (3 pm) on the way back down. The hotel landscaped very nicely:

Our meal was espectacular! Mal had the Cocido and I had the Menú del Dia, including steak carpaccio and hake sautéed in batter. We probably spent two hours there, and had so much fun!

On the rest of the ride down, mostly coasting, we found a local cheese shop where they made their wares on the premises:

(Yes, we bought some, “Con Tres Leche”!)

All in all, it was a great day! Thirty miles, and an amazing lunch. Here’s one last Cantabrian scenic, near the bottom of the return ride:

Talk to you tomorrow!

After a fabulous dinner last night, including a couple cañas and a nice bottle of rioja, we slept like babies and didn’t wake up until after 8. The guy from Iron Donkey also came last night and got Mallory’s tire replaced. So by the time we were ready to hit the road, we were feeling rested and confident. Of course, the fact that it was another perfect day didn’t hurt!

At the same time, we knew today was going to be a tough one, and it lived up the billing. Right off the bat, we climbed out of the Cabuérniga valley to a high basin and the village of Carmona. Here’s the view towards the top of the first climb, looking back towards Cabuérniga:

Over and over during the last two days, we’ve seen countless idyllic views like this one, approaching Carmona:

Carmona itself is a medieval village at its core, with many structures that appear to be hundreds of years old. Here, as in every village we’ve seen, I love how everyone puts lots of geraniums on their balconies (though this particular building is obviously not very old!):

At the top of the quick downhill to Puentenansa, I took this panorama of the breathtaking view across the valley:

We started right back up the other side, this time not quite as long, but still a workout. We started looking for a place to stop and eat our picnic lunch at the bottom of that second pass, in the town of Quintanilla (here’s another flower-laden house, below the rocky ridges we rode along all day):

We finally found a little rock wall to sit and eat on, alongside a pasture at the base of the next climb. This last one turned out to be the longest and hardest of the three! About a third of the way up, right before it got relentlessly steep, we found the quaint village of La Fuente. It featured an ancient (12th century) church:

And here’s Mallory posing next to a roaring waterfall just across the road from the church:

As I said, the last big climb of the three began in earnest above La Fuente. As an example, it began on this long stretch that was supported by a huge old wall on the downhill side:

Thrilled that we had the toughest part of the day behind us, we began the long descent to La Hermida. Across the way, we saw spectacular examples of how one must get creative to work the land in country such as this:

Along the many switchbacks to the bottom, we ran into some goats. Not sure if they were wild or not, but they didn’t look like your average domestic ones!

The final 15 kilometers to Potes, along the Rio Deva, weren’t bad, but considering we’d already ridden more than 30 miles and done 5,600 feet of elevation gain, we were pooped! The stretch wasn’t steep, but it was uphill, and our butts were sore! 😉 Here’s one last shot, taken of some of the ‘Picos de Europa’ that make this area such a popular destination:

We’re in Potes for two nights and have six or eight options for tomorrow’s ride. The most popular one is 23 km one-way, and goes straight up the whole time, for a total of almost 800 meters (about 2500 feet!). At the top is a cable car that goes another 1000 meters up, with a nice hike back down as an option. We’ll see if we’re up for another workout like that! Whatever the case, you can read about it tomorrow!