Astorga, Leon, and Picos de Europa

June 7^th – 12^th

The blogging stopped because I had trouble connecting to WiFi with my laptop. I had moments here and there, but they never lasted long enough to post to the blog. We are home now and I have bought a new laptop. The old one had more issues then connecting to the internet, so I am going to try to catch up on our trip in a series of posts. We saw a lot, so hopefully my captions will be accurate.

From Portugal we traveled through Northern Spain. Everywhere you go, people are hiking the Camino de Santiago also known as The Way of St James. It is a pilgrimage route that ends in Galice, Spain at the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great. The route from Leon to Galice is flat, traveling through towns with large and very ornate cathedrals built for the pilgrims. 

We also visited Picos de Europa National Park. The mountain scenery was fabulous. One of my best memories is at Lake Ercina in the evening with more than 100 cow bells ringing as the cows were grazing. 

Leon Cathedral

Cathedral of Astorga Spain

Bishop's Palace

Inside the Bishop's Palace

Young storks waiting for lunch.

On the road to Picos de Europa. The mountain scenery was a welcome sight from the flats around Leon.

 Picos de Europa National Park

    

  Trail through an old mining area.

Lake Ercina - Cows wearing bells were everywhere.

The goats are amazing how they are able to walk on the vertical rock slopes.

Trail in the Poncebos area of the park.

Goats people watching.

Another trail in the Poncebos area of the park.

Fuente De tram. If you look closely, you can see it going up into the clouds. We lucked out here. It had been raining hard all night. We didn't think we would ride the tram because the forecast was for continued rain, but the weather changed and very few people were there.

View at the top of the tram.

We took a hike from the top of the tram. The surrounding mountain views were beautiful. All rock and meadows full of wild flowers.

Looking down at the parking lot from the top of the tram. The Sprinter looks pretty small, but you can see it.

Spain

Sevilla, Spain - May 22nd

We went on a free history walking tour in Sevilla. The tour was great, the temperature was not. Lucky for us our guide always stopped in the shade to explain what we were looking at. We have found that free tours are excellent, usually the guide is a local university student. For this tour we had a college history professor.

View across the Guadalquivir River toward the center of Sevilla.

Giralda Bell Tower - part of Sevilla's cathedral

One of the entrances to the cathedral.

View of the cathedral.

 Buildings in Sevilla.

Plaza Nueva

It was so hot even the horse carriages parked in the shade.

 Streets in the Jewish Quarter.

Small courtyard in the Jewish Quarter.

Love the bougainvillea.

Fountain in Sevilla.

View of a narrow street.

Dinner in the scenic little Plaza de Dona Elvira.

View of the cathedral from Patio de Banderas.

Spain

The White Hill Towns of Andalucia Spain - May 17th - 21st

We visited five hill towns in the Andalucia region of Spain. The towns are perch on hill tops with great views of the surrounding countryside. The roads are narrow and twisty along steep mountain sides. A bit scary, but wow what a view.

Ronda, Spain - They were filming Berlin Station while we were there. They took over a lot of the old town. I can see why they chose the area, it is beautiful.

Ronda sits along the top of a canyon wall.

New Bridge was completed in 1793 and spans El Tajo ravine connecting the Moorish quarter with the El Mercadillo quarter.

Sights around the city.

 Bullring in Ronda. It is the birth place of modern bullfighting.

Hand painted flamenco fans.

Zahara de la Sierra with a Moorish castle ruins on the hilltop.

View from the Moorish castle tower.

View of the church roof in Zahara.

From Zahara we drove a narrow road that hair-pinned up to a pass and back down to the next town, Grazalema. You have to wonder why the road was built. It goes steeply up and back down a nearly vertical mountain, but the scenery is fabulous.

Grazalema town square.

Grazalema town well.

Grazalema home front yard - only room for a vertical garden.

Jerez, Spain - The old town was full of blooming jacaranda trees.

Colorful sherry barrels. Jerez is famous for two things - horses and sherry.

We arrived in Jerez during the Festival of Horses. There were horse drawn carriages and people riding horses everywhere.