mountains
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Alpine Weekender
Thursday “Not here, you need to be at the North Terminal”. I really should have checked my boarding pass before I joined the huge queue to drop off my bike bag. Thirty minutes later I’ve dropped my bag at the right terminal and find my way to the departure gate for Geneva. A few hours after…
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Vuelta de Los Picos // Dia 5 // Riaño to Oviedo
We wake up to a very different view out of the window to yesterday. Cloud hides the tips of the mountains all around us, just the lower slopes sliding into the lake are visible, their reflections bouncing back at them from the silver mirror like surface. The world is still and quiet. It’s a shame…
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Vuelta de Los Picos // Dia 4 // Riaño to Cain de Valdeón to Riaño
We wake up to sunlight streaming through the apartment windows. It is an absolutely glorious morning, but on opening a window we realise it is really very cold. Then we remember that we’re up above 1000 metres. We put on all of the layers to pop out to get coffee back at the hotel bar,…
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Vuelta de Los Picos // Dia 1 // Asturias airport to Cangas de Onis
As our flight descends over the Atlantic Ocean towards the Spanish coast our quarry is clearly visible from the window, the Picos de Europa piercing distant cloud. Three limestone massifs covering the corners of Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León, the Picos are the highest point of the Cordillera Cantábrica, the mountain range that runs…
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I turn left at the bottom of the road…
…and I start to climb and climb and climb. From the river’s edge to meet the rising sun. Out of the shadows, layer upon layer of blue-green hills stretch away and morph into the sky. Out of the valley and onto the plateau, the horizon jagged like the torn edge of a piece of paper.…




