Friday, May 25 - to Cangas de Onís

Clear blue sky this morning, but we had a long ways to go so couldn’t dawdle and set off north through Zamora. We took some back roads to look for the elusive Bustard and found some blinds set up for birders by some ponds. Saw European Coot, Stilts and Avocets. Drove into a tiny abandoned village with a crumbling church and many round adobe buildings with tile roofs and small holes all over the sides. We discovered they were pigeon coops in various states of collapse but still full of pigeons flying in and out. We found a wonderful new bird hide built in the style of the coops with two spotting scopes inside to look at the birds on the nearby lake. The hide is open in the morning and afternoon and closed for siesta, which seemed amazing, as there was no sign of life around! Got two life birds: Rock Sparrow and beautiful Northern Lapwing.

North of León we got onto a very fast toll road that cut along a beautiful valley and into the smooth gray limestone Cordillera Cantábria Mountains, and through several tunnels, the longest of which was over 4 km. Large cumulus and sunshine! Stopped at a rest stop for bocadillos, great baguettes with ham and cheese for RRZ and with two huge wedges of room temp eggs and potatoes for me, all served by spiffy waiters in black tie.

We drove north toward the Bay of Biscay through towns with a more French aspect, different flowers, no poppies. We have definitely left more typical Spain behind. We arrived at another Parador in Cangas de Onís at the foot of the Picos de Europa, supposed to be one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in Spain. The Parador is in a 12^th century monastery beside a roaring river with the clanging of cowbells on the other side. We took a short hike along the river and saw several new wildflowers. Got back at 7 and hooked onto to the wi-fi at last.

There have been torrential rains south of Madrid and nasty photos of flooding on TV. The stationary low sitting off Portugal has moved on land and that may signal a change in the weather although the prediction on the computer is for more rain over much of Spain for the next TEN days. Good dinner: bowl of yellow squash cream with a pool of green pea puree in the middle with streaks of sea urchin roe across the top and toasted marshmallow and ice cream for dessert.