Middle-aged flash packers

It’s been quite a while since I’ve used my Spanish language skills. Even though I’ve been trying to refresh them lately, the challenge of making myself understood while wearing a mask and then listening to the muffled reply from someone also wearing a mask, is proving very difficult indeed. So far I’ve managed to make a restaurant reservation for the wrong night and received ordinary tea instead of green tea. Steve has also been sticking his oar in by telling our breakfast waitress our room number is 37 when it’s 36 – he keeps getting 6 and 7 muddled up.

We’re quite good at walking though, the tricky business of putting one foot in front of the other hasn’t alluded us yet, and we have done two stunning walks from Arenas Cabrales.

Yesterday’s walk took us up some wide tracks to a high point of 750metres and some superb views of Naranjo de Bulnes. Naranjo de Bulnes is this area’s equivalent of the Three Chimneys in the Dolomites – very spiky and beautiful rock formations. I would love to get up close and personal to N de B, but it won’t be on this trip unfortunately.

Today was a stunningly clear and very hot day so why not do 920m of rocky and shadeless ascent? Silly not to. We clambered to the top of Juan Robre Peak then wound our way down, back to Cabrales via a balcony path.

The Picos de Europa area is full of ghost cows. As they graze, you can hear the bells around their necks, chiming and clanking like crazy bell ringers, yet you can’t see them. That is how I like it.

Tomorrow we will be heading off to Segovia, apparently a scenic and historic town on our way south.

Meanwhile, I have started an expectation list for our tour of Spain. If you recall, my expectations of Spain were generally low, so each place will be marked from the following: expectation exceeded, expectation met, expectation dashed.

Picos de Europas- expectation exceeded. And then some.