Instead of organizing common activities for its employees the company I work for decided to hand out 450€ to everyone for refreshment activities. Many of my colleagues used the money for various things in Finland (eating in expensive restaurants seemed to be a popular option) but I knew instantly what I wanted to do with the money. 450€ was just enough to cover pretty much all the expenses of a 4-day hiking trip in Spain :).

After a bit of negotiation the national park of Picos de Europa in northern Spain ended up being our destination. I've been to the Pyrenees before but apparently Picos de Europa isn't part of the Pyrenees and the mountains in Picos have a very distinct look to them. I had heard of some serious big wall climbs in the area before but had no idea what an amazing hiking destination it is as well!

We flew to Madrid and after a good while of queuing we managed to get our rental car and drove about four hours north to the village of Posada de Valdeón where we spent the first night. We arrived quite late in the night and didn't get much sleep before the relatively early start the next morning.