Madrid & the Principality of Asturias


On 5/24 I took a short flight from Nice to Madrid and then rode the metro an hour into the center of Madrid where I thought I had booked a room at The Hotel Gaudi on Grand Via. My five-night reservation, however, had been lost in cyberspace and I found I could only stay one night as the hotel was sold out starting tomorrow. This is my first time in Spain so I went for a walk around the old portion of the city, bought a guidebook, ate dinner and returned to my room to plan what I can do in Madrid for the next five days. On the 25^th, I ate breakfast and then set out to find a new hotel. The tourist information center did not open until 10:00 AM, so I wandered around, checking out various hotels, until I found one where I could stay until Sunday. I returned to the Gaudi, packed and moved over to The Hotel Liabeny near the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol. At 9:30 AM, a car bomb exploded in Madrid. I did not see or hear the explosion, but it was all over the news. The location was about 3 KM north of where I was in the northwest section of the city. Responsibility for the bombing was claimed by ETA, the militant arm of the Basque Separatist Movement who provided police with a 45 minute warning enabling them to clear the area so no one was seriously injured or killed. The main train station in Madrid which was the focal point of the ten bombs which killed 191 people last year is about one kilometer from the center of town. In the afternoon, I walked down to the botanical gardens where I spent an hour. I had learned from my guidebook that this year is the 400^th anniversary of the first printing of Cervantes ‘Don Quixote’ and since I had never read it, I bought an English copy that I could read while traveling in Spain. I spent the evening reading and watching Liverpool beat Milan in the Champions League football final which was played in Istanbul. Thursday morning I walked down to The Royal Palace. I had hoped to visit the gardens, but they did not open until 9:00 AM and I was too early. Instead I bought a ticket for the MadridVision bus tour of the city. One ticket is good for all three routes, but somehow between the first and second routes, I lost my ticket and was not excited enough about the trip to buy a second ticket. Instead I walked most of the routes of the other two tours using the map as my guide. On Friday 5/27 I ate breakfast and then walked up to Parque del Retiro, purportedly the most beautiful park in Madrid. I walked around the park for two hours and although the book stalls were not yet open, I could tell that it looked like a very popular place.

The Fiesta de San Isidro, which runs for about a month commencing in mid-May, is in full swing. One of the most coveted tickets in the city right now is for the daily bullfights which take place each evening at the Plaza de Torres. Top matadors from all over the world come to Madrid during the festival to take their turn before sold-out crowds tormenting and torturing the bull. Each bullfight lasts for about twenty minutes before the bull succumbs and is ceremonially dragged out of the ring. Tickets are hard to come by, but since this is the greatest bull-fighting venue in the world, I decided to pay three times the face value to get a seat.

Tonight’s performance was a special event featuring six bull with matadors mounted on horses. Most of the show was the incredible horsemanship displayed by the matador in getting as close to the bull as possible without getting gored. The crowd was very atheistic although it is clearly a one-sided affair. Another first timer sitting next to me left halfway through the event explaining that she had had enough. The show was over at 9:15 PM and I was surprised to see that it was still daylight when I got back to the hotel at 10:00 PM.

I had heard that the Prado Museum was one of the best in Europe so Saturday I headed there for the day. The museum features a concentration of European artists including Goya, El Greco, Rembrandt, Ruben and many others with whom I was unfamiliar. The museum was quite crowded but the English audio guide kept m interested until mid-afternoon. In the evening I walked next door to have dinner at a steakhouse and then returned to read more ‘Don Quixote’.

Sunday I checked-out of my hotel and rode the metro out to the airport. My flight to the Principality of Asturias on Spain’s northern coast was at 12:20 PM. The one-hour flight was uneventful; however, when I arrived it was raining. Erik Perez, the MTSobek guide whom I had met in Patagonia three years ago, and who has lived in Asturias his whole life, met me at the airport along with the two other members of our group. Carolyn Rubenstein and Lori Schaefer are both from Marin, MA.

We drove 45 minutes out towards Canges de Onis, stopped for lunch at a local establishment, and then checked into The Parador Hotel. The Parador chain of four and five star hotels, is owned by the Spanish Government, and are located in or near national parks and other historic locations throughout the country. Most are in historic buildings which have been updated with first class amenities. The Parador de Canges de Onis was once a monastery.


We met again Monday morning for breakfast and then Erik and his assistant guide, Fernando picked us up at 9:00 AM. We drove about 20 KM into the Picos de Europa National Park where we parked and started our first hike at 9:30 AM. There was a slight drizzle and the low cloud cover prevented us from seeing the scenery. We hiked up to a Refugio where we had coffee, and then continued up until about 1:30 PM when we stopped at another hut for a snack. The weather had not improved so we decided to start down. When we reached the first hut again we had lunch, and then arrived back to the car at 4:15 PM, a total distance of 15 KM. Erik and I returned to the hotel while Fernando took Carolyn and Lori shopping. We had another great dinner at the hotel Monday night.	Tuesday after breakfast we checked-out of the Parador and drove 45 minutes to the southern side of the Picos Massif where we started hiking in the small town of Soto de Sajambre. Erik and Fernando accompanied us while Alberto, another of Erik’s assistants, drove the bulk of our luggage around to meet us at Posada de Valdeon where we will spend the night. Today’s hike is outside Asturias in the Provincia de Leon. We did not start hiking until 10:50 AM. We climbed a graded roadway for a couple hours before the trail got steeper just before stopping for lunch at a col. The hike down the other side took us below the spectacular 2500 meter cliffs of Cornion before coming to a dirt road which we followed for two hours to Posada de Valdeon where we checked into the Hotel Cumbres Valdeon. After a shower, I walked into the sleepy village, and then returned to read for awhile before we met for dinner at 8:30 PM.


On our third day of hiking, Fernando drove us 7 KM down the gorge of the Cares River where we started hiking near the village of Cordinanes. The river descends north between the western and central massifs of The Picos. The trail, known as La Garganta Cares, is carved out of the side of the cliff in most places and has become one of the most popular hikes in Europe. It was originally built 75 years ago as the maintenance trail for the aqueduct which runs above the river 12 KM to the hydroelectric plant in Puente Poncebos. It took us two hours to reach Poncebos where we stopped for lunch. In the afternoon we started climbing up a different gorge, created by the Rio Bulnes to the picturesque village of Bulnes. After a break, we continued up to the Collado Pandebano, over the ridge and down to the road where Fernando was waiting with the car to take us to our hotel in Sortee. We checked into the Hotel Casa Cipriano, and were able to rest for a couple hours before dinner at 8:30 PM. Thursday we ate breakfast, checked out of the Casa Cipriano, and then took the car up to the point where we stopped hiking yesterday. At 9:15 AM we began a three-hour ascent up towards the sheer cliffs of Naranjo de Bulnes. Known locally as ‘El Picu’, the 8200 foot spire is a favorite of rock climbers all over Europe. Erik’s principal occupation is guiding climbers up this mountain and he has stood on the summit over 200 times. Fernando has been there 90 times.

This morning’s hike was the most strenuous thus far. Lori gave us a scare when she slipped on a loose rock and came very close to plunging down the canyon. Both Erik and Fernando reacted very quickly to prevent her from falling more than a few feet. We reached the Vega de Urriello at 12:15 PM and had lunch at the large mountain hut situated at the foot of El Picu. There were two climbers inching their way up the cliff and appeared as dots against the rock face.

After lunch we donned our gaiters and continued up through snowfields towards Horcados Rojos, our high point of the day at 7590 feet. We passed through a caldera-type basin which had snow on its steep sides. Hiking without crampons made me very nervous, but the most difficult part came when we roped-up to scramble up a 600 foot section. There were fixed cables available, but some sections were still frozen in the snow.

We reached the top just before 4:00 PM and started the 1 1/2 hour descent down the other side. We had actually planned to stay at the Refugio at Aliva Meadows for the next two nights, but the water supply at the Refugio is still frozen so we will descend on the Teleferique cable car to Fuente De and stay at the four-star Parador Hotel instead. Fernando said good-bye to us as he has other commitments tomorrow.

Friday we did a short but steep climb from the parking lot of the Parador Hotel up towards Pena Remona. We started at 9:50 AM and ascended through the switchbacks for 2 1/2 hours climbing 3300 feet to a meadow where I was able to refill my water bottle. After a short rest, we started retracing our steps, stopping half-way down for lunch. Clouds have obscured our view most of the day, but we can occasionally make out the cable car of the teleferique appearing or disappearing into the cloud banks. We got back at 3:00 PM, showered and drove to the town of Potes, 20 KM east where we shopped for awhile before dinner.

Erik’s wife Lavinia joined us for dinner tonight. She brought us each a copy of the June 2005 issue of Grandes Espacios, the Spanish equivalent of America’s Outdoor Magazine. This month’s issue is all about The Picos de Europa and impressively features Fernando on the cover, with additional photos of Erik and Alberto in the articles. The article describes Erik as the Picos oldest working guide.

Saturday was our last day and although we had planned a short hike, it was raining in the morning so we cancelled the hike and took the car to the coast instead. With the extra time, we were able to visit a couple of Asturias’ archeological wonders; the ‘El Pindal’ and ‘Tito Bustillo’ caves. Both caves contain drawings of horses, deer, mammoths and symbols dating from 16,000 years ago.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant and then checked into The Grand Hotel de Sella in Ribadesella. The hotel is on the beach and is very popular as noted by the two weddings which were taking place simultaneously this Saturday. For our final night together we had a traditional Spanish dinner, seated in the dining room between the two wedding parties, where we were able to thank Erik for a wonderful week.

Sunday I flew back to Nice where I will be for a few days before going to America for five weeks.