Arenas de Cabrales, in the Picos de Europa

Back to the mountains we went, to the Picos de Europa National park, because Tanya and Immy hadn't been there yet. Our destination was the cheese-themed village of Arena de Cabrales, which has a cheese monument, a museum of cheeses, some cheese cellars, and of course many shops selling cheeses of many sorts, but mostly goaty.

The main attraction for me was the promise of some old homesteads. We found these on the side streets, with many old enclosures still in use alongside houses, though only CleanSteve found any animals apart from  a few hens.  Immy saw a badger drinking beer, but it was on a bar sign. I was terribly excited to be back in the mountain air, with dramatic views of peaks from all angles.

After a delightful lunch in the shaded garden of a venerable hotel, in the terrace below a large chalet, we took the road towards a funicular railway that was to take us to Bulnes, one of the most isolated villages in Spain. I've nothing to compare it to, except maybe a Cretan mountain village. There is no road, just footpaths, but many walkers were in evidence.

The railway took us up about 500 metres through a mountain tunnel, and we walked around the narrow streets of the village, where there is a chapel, a few bars and a hostel in season, and an icy mountain stream in which I bathed my feet. Bulnes is a flower- bedecked village of stone buildings, highly attractive, but the light was flat and the shots now look misty. I will try to put a shot of TML crossing a bridge in extras, to prove that we did meet up!

Afterwards we drove back to Comillas and spent our last evening together  in the bedroom of our M. Hulot's hotel, because the drinks are too strong at the bar! Scotland beat Spain in the women's football world cup, but fell short by one goal of getting through to the next round.