Crossing Spain

So we are now on the other side of Spain, in Baiona, below Santiago de Compostella. After Girona, where we left you on our last post, we navigated back to Barcelonaand dropped off the car at the train station,luckily the guy who took back our car ignored the scratch on the side!! We honestly do not know how it got there. we spent a night in Barcelona, the hotel at the train station is extremely handy and got a train to Vitoria. Vitoria is the capital of Catalyuna, but mostly it was on holidays! every other shop was shut and we had difficulty finding an open restaurant. Also we discovered it seemed like it would be very difficult to get to our next nights sleep in Arriondas...as the buses were full. However next day all worked out and by 9.30 we were on our way to bilbao and from bildao to santander and took the narrow gauge rail from Santander to Arriondas. a lovely train journey, arrived at our destination at about 7 pm. a lovely country hotel on the hillside in the most beautiful countryside. Hotel Posada del Valle. Had two wonderful days there takin it super easy, walks, swapped books and great food including vegetables!!! Claire got her foot stood on by an Asturian pony ..more of those later. On to Oviedo which is an interesting town to visit a good Art Muesum, got a car two days later and by a seriously circuitious route, including a dead end about twenty kilometers up a mountain on the worst road ever, we got to Somiedo Valle del Lago camping. (We decided to go through the dead end ..it looked better on the other side than the road we had driven up on) It was more than worth it. VAlle del Lago sits in a glacial valley in Somiedo Natural Park. It is a Biosphere park which means the environment and cultural protection are key concern there. It is home to twenty bears, wolves, hundreds of birds of prey, rebecko, a kind of wild deer/goat, lots and lots of horses and a farming/tourism community. The camp site was lovely, set beside a stream in a green field fringed with trees. The stars were so bright on clear nights. We did alot of walking. Claire went on a horse ride with a true Gallego cabellero and survived. We visited a troop of horses and foals at the top on a hill who came to talk to us and a regal stallion who didn´t. WE got friendly with an Irish family and Mark got beaten at chess by one their eight year old son..he did struggle! After six nights and one very rainy day! (yes just one ..but you should see our tent! ) we decided to move on. On the way to the west coast we stayed in a Parador to ease sore backs after camping and that was just the ticket. In a new camping site now not great but hey at least we can truely compare. . we are off to the Illas Cies in a half hour to go swimming hopefully. Lots of love to you all. time is flying, miss you , Claire and Mark