Joanna got about 2.5 hours of sleep last night after packing her bags and then waking up at 3am to catch an uber to the airport. I walked her downstairs to get this pic for the blog…I mean say goodbye to my wonderful wife who is cool with letting me stay in Spain for a week while I run around with my friends. 18 hours later she texts me that she’s back safe at home in our bed.
We had a pretty busy day today. I had to go pick up the rental car from Avis near the train station and then we had a 6-ish hour drive north to a town near Picos de Europa national park. When I was originally planning this leg of the trip, I spoke to Maria to find out if she had been there before. She scoffed at my comment that it was “only a 6 hour drive” She said “Typical Americans thinking that 6 hours is not a long time in the car!” I mean, it takes 13 hours to drive from Minneapolis to Denver and I’ve done that drive 3 times before. I guess here in Europe if you drive 6 hours anywhere you’ll end up in one or two different countries.
The only option that I had for the rental car was a manual transmission/stick shift car. Finally my time to shine! For those that don’t know, I’m still driving my first car which is a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer which I intentionally got a stick shift so I could learn how to drive one in case I was put in these kinds of situations.
I had originally booked an airbnb to the west of the park but Luke said he found some cooler places that we could check out so I cancelled our reservation and let him handle the plans for this week.
He knows that I like to be on top of every detail so he’s been a little squirly with what to expect.
Luke: Tomorrow we need to hike and we’ll stay in the mountains
Me: How far do we have to hike?
Luke: I dunno like a while?
My one request on our way north was to stop by Costco because I love seeing what they sell when I’m visiting a different country.
This one was about 20 minutes north of central Madrid. In addition to the $1.50 hot dogs and pop combo there was bbq chicken pizza, espresso, chicken strips, and french fries. I got the a slice of the bbq chicken and it was so good. Really wish we had this as an option at home. We scoured the store for snacks to take on our road trip. Whole legs of cured ham were only $70. I got a gallon of sangria for $4. You could say we were pretty well stocked for the next few days in the mountains.
I learned something new about Luke today which is that he really LOVES castles. I’m not sure how they planned it in 1080 AD to put the castle near a future site of a Costco but it was very convenient of them to do so. Unfortunately, the inside of the main fortress was closed during the prime siesta time of 2-4pm we were still able to wander the courtyard and say hi to the cats who were on guard. I think they were stuck in an eternal war with the pigeons who were also occupying the castle.
I drove the first 2/3rds of the trip which was probably the most boring. Felt like driving through southern Nebraska or South Dakota. Pretty flat, dry, nothing much to see. After a gasoline break, Luke took over. Soon after, we drove through a mountain pass and the road started winding and twisting more.
We’ll be spending a single night in this very small mountain town called Potes. It’s got a population of 1,350 and is west of the national park. We timed things pretty well where we arrived just before sunset. The area we’re hiking tomorrow is expected to get some rain showers so we managed to wash and dry a load of laundry at the laundromat in the center of town to have some clean clothes in case we get soaked. We checked into the place we’re staying for the night which Luke booked for $75 for the 3 of us. I only need a place to sleep, shower, and blog so I’m quite content with the arrangement. Really wish Joanna were here to share in the adventure but I guess I’ll have to have enough fun for the both of us.
