The Peaks of Europe are some of the most amazing, majestic and downright beautiful lumps of earth and rock that I have ever seen or been atop. They are located about an hour west of Santander. We finagled a car a few weeks back and drove over to see Pilar and check out the mountains. Before I get to story telling, here are the cold hard facts:
Location:
Site with more info: http://www.picoseuropa.net/
When Inaki told me the Peaks of Europe were a must see, I had my doubts. After all, we went to The Trees of Mystery on our honeymoon and it was not all it was cracked up to be, especially for $14. The names sounded similar to me and they both have gondola rides, so there you go. However, we forged ahead. We woke up early Saturday morning (11am), got out of the house to pick up cousin Nanes and friend Santi, and made the trek west.
We arrived around 3 and the park closed at 6, so we didn't have much time. Santi advised us that we should have camped there and arrived by 9am so we could spend the whole day in the mountains. Next time. We parked and got in line for the gondola to the top. You can hike it, but we didn't have time and it's really far! Here's what we saw while cruising up the wire:
When we got off the gondola at the top, the views were amazing. We found ourselves on the edges of cliffs and then down in mossy valleys, looking out at an endless sky and then up at crags so tall you couldn't see past them.
They had a special viewing deck that was made out of an iron cage so you could see what was below your feet. Inaki went out on it and I snapped the shot. I'm not a huge fan of heights.
Apparently, there are many, many trails that weave in between the peaks and take you through all the mountains. For this reason, we should have arrived earlier to take advantage of the $16 gondola ride. But, we did a 4 mile out and back to a hotel they have tucked back in one of the valleys.
The Spanish royal family used to cruise up the gondola and stay a few nights, basically in the "shire." Here's the chalet, not a bad vacation spot:
After our 2 mile stroll in, we hit the hotel and had some fried chorizo and bread with a beer while enjoying the view from the patio:
And that was about it. We hiked back out and got a few more shots on the way. I guess I'm a little blog-rusty and tired from a long week of forcing children to learn something they really don't want to in a language they don't really know :)
Back down the gondola and on to buy some goat cheese, have a drink in Potes and see the largest known chunk of Christ's cross in the world.
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