After heading up and down four mountain passes today, traveling 70km of heart attack- inducing Cantabrian territory, we just now learned that many Tour de France teams come here to train. We were warned several times about the terrain - first, by Tony, our friend in Barcelona-and later, by Fernando, the security guard outside Altimira cave, who thought us crazy for taking on the Picos de Europa. Today was hard! But the greatest motivation in getting up and over the mountains was our early morning visit to Santo Toribio de Liebana, the monastery above Potes that shelters the largest remaining piece of the True Cross. Many pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela stop here to see the Cross, now encased in gold, as they head west to visit the remains of the first martyred apostle. When the monk pulled the cross from its shrine and allowed us to kiss the glass covering the 2000-year old (carbon-dated) wood, I thought of the countless others who have visited this sacred space. The visit, of course, made it extremely difficult to complain about the mountains we had to climb today. We were also blessed with an overcast day, finally arriving here in the town of Teran around 6pm. A dinner of Asturian stew and bread and rice-milk postre, followed by a walk past the abandoned, stone school house (rather melancholy in the dark of night), we are now more than ready to crash. So many photos to share but will have to wait until we have access to a laptop.
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