Peaked and past it

Weather: need to get the uphill walking done in the morning!  Even mr "I don't sweat" could wring his shirt out by lunchtime

Picos de Europa

We'd had enough of sand in our ears so we headed for the hills again.  The Picos are so named because their needle sharp peaks were the first sight of land for Spanish sailors returning from their voyages of discovery.  Beautiful area which reminded us a bit of the Lake District with its narrow roads winding round between mountains, occasional tourist towns full of people buying tutt and campsites full of sporty families staying in tiny tents.

At our campsite we'd taken on a walk that had a signpost saying it was 7.5k one direction and 1.5k in another.  We ended up walking for 23k (but we did meet a slightly mad woman collecting 4 leafed clover who told us she was on tv and invited us to stop at her house for cider).  So we were already pretty tired by the time we decided to join in with the sporty vibe in the new campsite and do a mountain walk.  Climbing up 500 metres in the first 3km didn't sound that bad, but by the time we got back to the village 4 hours later i couldn't step up from the road onto the pavement.

Before and after......

So today we are mostly resting :-). And the bonus is that we're in a free aire next to a museum with park.  And do far no other motorhomes have turned up.  So when all the families out enjoying the park  go home we've got the place to ourselves 

The basque region: where does that language come from?

And we asked why lots of people hung blue bags of paper outside their flats.  Apparently there are 2 different systems for re-cycling (maybe one basque and one spanish??) and this is how one group are protesting.  It really is a different country.