We were going to complete this trip in an anticlockwise direction, which would have meant following the coast westwards from Bilbao, travelling first through the Picos de Europa and arriving in Asturias early in the holiday. However the weather wasn’t promising when we arrived in Spain and so we headed south. This meant that the Picos were going to be last on the itinerary and as we would be making a fairly fast bid for Bilbao, it would be a snatched view only. From our final camp at Luarca, it would be a four hour journey on the motorway and the latest ferry check in was 16:30 so we felt there was time to detour to get a glimpse of the mountains. Asturias is beautifully situated where the mountains meet the sea. The houses look alpine and the villages are scattered amongst the meadows and fields. Just a few kilometres inland, the ground rises steeply and we headed off the motorway and up the first suitable road, to see what views we could glimpse. This is typical of the scenery ...