Picos de Europa

On Saturday, our group took the second of our three excursions to visit the Picos de Europa mountain range and Potes, a neighboring town.  I had such an amazing time hiking up the mountains, eating in an authentic restaurant, touring Potes, and of course, taking lots of pictures!

Our day began early as we were asked to arrive at the university at 8:45 in the morning.  The program directors told us that it would probably be chilly on the top of the mountain, so I wore lots of layers and brought a backpack with some snacks and sun lotion.  We took a nice bus and a tour guide came along to explain us the history and importance of the sites we were seeing.

The bus ride was about 2 hours long, but I'm not entirely sure.  It felt really long though because we were all pretty tired.  However, the bus ride was very scenic!  Unlike my family's incredibly dull 4 hour drive to take me to school, this ride was filled with cute houses and towns, beautiful green fields, and towering mountains.  Despite being tired, I enjoyed listening to our guide's information about the area as well as talking to friends.

Our bus ride was slowed down when we approached a cattle crossing!  There were actually men trying to keep the cows on one side of the street so that the cars could pass the cows from the other side!

Approaching the Picos!  View from the bus.

Finally, we arrived to the Picos de Europa.  This literally translates into "the Peaks of Europe."  It is a group of mountains that cover three regions in Spain and is Europe's oldest national park.  We were then told that in order to get to the top of the mountains, we had to squeeze in to take the teleférico (a cable car).  Although it looked slow, the teleférico actually traveled very fast and took us to the top in only a couple of minutes.  It was initially scary as the car started to move, but the ride was very smooth.

The teleférico or "cable car."  That little car held about 15 people and carried us quickly to the top .

View from the area on the top of the Picos where you take the teleférico to return to ground level.  Don't look down!

Once we arrived to the top, we had about an hour to walk around and take pictures.  We had great weather with plenty of sun.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

View from the top of the Picos de Europa

Looking down

Probably my favorite picture I took at Picos.  It doesn't even look real!

Me getting all pensive on top of the Picos de Europa.

After Picos, we drove about 30 minutes to Potes, a neighboring town.  It was absolutely adorable!  We spent most of our free time eating lunch in an authentic Spanish restaurant.  The meal consisted of a drink, first course, second course, and dessert.  I started with cocido montañés, which is a stew made with beans and a variety of meats/sausages.  I think that my madre has made me her versions of this dish, and I like it very much.  I played it safe for the second course by having chicken.  For dessert, we ate this delicious dish called cononigos.  It is an egg meringue with a cream sauce that tasted like melted ice cream.  Amazing!

We toured around the city visiting:

Qué mono! (How cute!)  Potes is such a pretty town!

Beautiful scenic view on a hill above Potes                               

A church on top of the same hill

Another church we visited and toured inside.  All of us in the Art History class were commenting on the different architectural features of the church.  I don't remember its exact name, so I'll look that up and update this later.

Museum where we saw an exhibit on old books- how they were made, what they looked liked, etc.  Unfortunately, we only saw replicas of the original, ancient books.

The torre (tower) that has a beautiful, panoramic view of the town of Potes.  Inside, there is a historical exhibit/museum.

View of Potes from the torre

We finished all of our sightseeing around 5:00pm.  It was such a long day filled with lots of walking, so we were all exhausted at the end.  Once the bus began its 1 hour 30 minute ride back to the university, everyone took a nice siesta.

I had such a fun day and our excursion exceeded all of my expectations.  If you are ever in the Cantabria region of Spain, I totally recommend visiting the Picos de Europa and the neighboring town, Potes.  I promise you'll have a great time!