Sep 26, 2011

Well we decided against another ABC tour and gave the cathedral a miss and instead headed off up the coast to explore some of the local villages and what a treat our day was. The motorway was full of big sweeping corners as was yesterday and the scenery was green and hilly or mountainous with random scatterings of villages seemingly everywhere we looked.

The first stop was in Comillas which was a beautiful old village remarkably well maintained given the age and we had lunch there after we toured through the Anton Gaudi designed house (El Caprichio de Gaudi) which was one of his first designs and it was beautiful, functional and quirky as we found his other houses we had visited in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Love this man’s work!



The Gaudi House – Yum!

From here we headed along the coast to the village of San Vicente de la Barquera where again we explored the ancient part of town occupying the high ground on a peninsula complete with a fortress, ruins of a hospital and what remains of a massive fortress and church. Incredible sight. There were several municipal buildings up there including a library and a couple of different police units (local and municipal….don’t know the difference).



The building at the top of the walkway from the lower village in San Vicente de la Barquera

From here Ken suggested we go a short distance to Potes which the hotel reception had said was worth a look and they were right but what they hadn’t said was that the journey to get there was unbelievably spectacular!

Soon after we left the coast we travelled through a little farmland then began winding our way up through canyon walls along the Deya River and let me tell you this would have to be one of the Great Motorbike Rides of the World!

The views were spectacular with soaring rock faces ever-changing in colour shape and form and each time we thought ‘it can’t get better than this’ it did! It felt like we were moving from one great cathedral to another for the whole journey and when the ever-changing rock views seemed exhausting we would ride through a beautiful leafy avenue and gain our breath. The trip was also interrupted with many little villages on the way most of which were impeccably maintained and clinging to the edge of the river or the canyon’s edge.

All in all a great afternoon and the town of Potes was just spectacular as well. What a treat. Mind you Ken has a little ground to gain with his estimation of what is actually a short distance but the endorphins we absorbed throughout the ride let him off the hook somewhat…not that we will let him know that of course. Ha ha.



A street scene in Potes complete with bikes on the footpath which led to conversations with a German girl who loved them and a Spanish family who were all excited about a daughter who wants to go to Australia and yes that is some of the Pyrenees Mountains in the background we had ridden through

Bits and Bobs:

Got a lot of toots and waves and thumbs up from passing motorists again the last few days on the road. I’m glad we put the sign on.