We skipped the mountains and decided to go north along the coast. Besides the German guy's recommendation, first hand views of the seemingly always bad high mountain weather was the decisive factor. On the coast, constantly changing and very windy weather was manageable but navigating the high mountains would be less pleasant especially if we had limited views for the hardship of going there. Finally, Sonia wanted to do the coast and there would be many more mountains to climb when later doing the Alps and Pyrenees...