21st July 2022
In the morning we packed up camp to head into the Picos de Europa (mountain range). Something about this campsite (or area) made it particularly prone to bird poo. In our one week stay our awning was soiled more than in eight weeks of touring France, and we all had our individual “lucky strikes”. Whilst we had managed to brush the worst of it off, we rolled the remaining mementos into the awning and packed it in the van.
This was another hot day (reaching a little over 30 degrees). We drove about 1 hour through a steep-sided mountain pass to the town of Potes, stopping in a “car park” (paddock??) and heading into town to take a look around the shops and get some lunch. George wisely chose the chicken salad, whilst I had the beef cheeks in red wine sauce and Lindsey had the stewed goat. The food was delicious, but consistennt with a theme we had already observed: the Spanish are not enthusiastic about vegetables in restaurant meals! After ploughing through our large portions of meat, we hit the road again. The climb up to about 1000 metres at Fuente De was thankfully quite gradual. On arriving at the hotel (Parador), we were impressed with the building and the magnificent view of the 800 metre cliffs towering above the hotel. A cable car climbs steeply up from next to the hotel, offering the best way to reach the views above (unless you dislike heights!)
Dinner was more meat. We unwisely all chose the “veal”, which turned out to be an enormous steak with a stack of seven chips and a small amount of stewed peppers. The two other steaks we had encountered at other restaurants were similarly huge and lacking in any supporting act. I must look up the colorectal cancer prevalence for this part of Spain!
