Ghent, Brussels, Bruges and more food!!

Now that I have given you all of the information I possibly can on Antwerp--or I guess, detailed all the food that I ate--I'm going to do it for every other city we visited in Belgium! Yay!! Luckily Belgium is small and has a great train system, so it's fairly easy to travel around inside the country. We spent one day in each Ghent, Brussels, and Bruges.

Ghent

This was my favorite city behind Antwerp. It has a rich history but it's not over touristy like other cities in Belgium. (cough, cough, Bruges!) There is a little walk around the historical center which encompasses most of the scenic points.

To the end of the Earth and back

Back before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world and proved that world was in fact round, people thought that the world was flat. They made pilgrimages out to the end of the earth, and when they arrived, they would burn all of their clothes to signify a new beginning. To this day pilgrims still struggle out to this spot to gaze over the sea in the same place where hundreds of pilgrims have stood for hundreds of years.

Last weekend, I went to the End of the Earth, or in Gallego, Fisterre, or in Spanish, Finisterre. (It comes from Latin: Finis-terrae) It's the westernmost cape in Galicia that was thought for hundreds of years to be the end of the Earth. (Galicia an autonomous community in Spain that is right above Portugal.)

Day hike in the Picos de Europa- Ruta del Cares

 A few weekends ago, with a beautiful day ahead of us and no plans, Héctor, a friend, and I decided to go hiking. We decided to do the Ruta del Cares, which is one of the most popular hiking trails in the Picos de Europa.  It's no surprise; the views are breathtaking the whole way- the path is cut into the side of a canyon with a sheer drop on one side and the mountain on the other. At the bottom of the canyon flows the Cares River (Río Cares). 

The Lakes of Covadonga

Ever since moving to Asturias I have wanted to go visit the famous Covadonga because it played a very important part in Spanish history. (Quick language lesson- Covadonga comes from two words, cueva-cave and hondo-deep meaning "deep cave") Legend has it (loosely told) that in the year 722, Don Pelayo was living in the Asturian mountains with his army when the Moors came for them. In the cave now known as Covadonga, the virgin then showed herself to Pelayo and told him that she would protect him and he would win the war. When the Moors came, their arrows bounced off the mountains and Pelayo and his army were able to overcome them. The winning of this battle began the reconquest of Spain, and Don Pelayo is known as the First King of Spain.