Asturias

I like days like this……………..I’ve had a lovely day…………pottering.

The body is a marvellous thing and over the last few weeks I’ve probably put mine through a bit more than the average 53 year old. So I decided last night not to set my alarm because today was going to be a relaxing day. I decided to wake up when my body decided it was time to wake up………………and that was 9:30am 🤭 I did feel a little lazy, but my body must have needed it as that was literally the first eye open time. And sometimes I think it’s good to just let things take their natural course. To have a day when you just let it evolve and do all the nice things that you like to do in your own time. First stop after breakfast was the allotment…………and look what I got…………..yes, it’s red fruit time…….. I love this small variety of strawberry, they are so sweet!

So then I had the dilemma of what to do with it all. I’ve given lots of it away (neighbours love me at this time of year), some has been kept back for jam making tomorrow evening, and today I’ve been doing one of my other favourite things …….. baking, as I have both boys back now and they eat a lot! Today’s bakes were a coffee walnut loaf cake and then to use the fruit up, a summer fruit pavlova with vanilla Chantilly cream. And just to prove that sometimes even I have a kitchen fail I’ve included a picture of the pavlova which collapsed somewhat! 😂

Then I’ve been for a little 10k trot around the block as I wanted to eat my baked goods so thought I’d better earn it! Then I’ve read for a while. This evening I’ve sat and typed my blog in peace and quiet while eating Pavlova as the boys have gone to the pub to watch the England match. But by all accounts, from what keeps popping up on my phone, in my opinion their time would have been much better spent staying in eating Pavlova! 😂😂 I can confirm it tasted better better than it looked in its collapsed state…….perfectly crunchy on the outside which soft, spongy marshmallow like meringue on the inside, the sweetness of the cream contrasting just perfectly with the sharpness of the fruit. 😍

So I’m going to tell you all about my trip to Asturias northern Spain. It was outstandingly beautiful………I loved it and can’t wait to go back.

I’ll tell you all about what I got up to and what I think are the things you should not miss whilst you are there.

I’ll tell you about it in two parts, because it was a bit of a two part holiday and there is so much to tell you. Asturias is home to the Picos de Europa mountain range and I spent four days adventuring there. I appreciate that adventuring in the mountains is not everyone’s idea of a holiday but it really does deserve a post all of its own so I’ll tell you about that separately.

In this first post I’ll share with you the northern coast of Asturias and what the must sees are if you want a more leisurely visit and some gentle walks, relaxation time, food and beach visits. I’ll apologise now for the length of the post but it’s just beautiful, the perfect place for me and I really did not want to come home, I could have stayed there for ever!

The closest airport to Asturias is Oviedo, but it’s quite a small airport and if you are flying from the UK, London Gatwick is the only place where you can get a direct flight from at the moment. That’s not convenient for me as it’s a 5 hour drive away so I flew to Bilbao from Manchester. You can get a flight to Bilbao from a number of UK airports and the drive time to Asturias is only two hours on some really good, quiet motorways.

I hired a car at the airport, a little Renault Clio, and it was perfect. I would not recommend anything bigger if you are wanting to visit the mountains, but yet you probably don’t want anything smaller in engine size as that might struggle with some of the gradients in the Picos.

It was a lovely drive from the airport, with the sea in sight for a lot of the way. I find driving in Spain quite a pleasure. It’s not like Portugal, Italy or Greece where the standard of driving can leave a lot to be desired and it can be quite a nerve wrecking experience. It was a really early morning flight and I would have arrived at my destination well before the check in time so I broke the two hour drive up by calling for some brunch and a little look around the pretty little coastal town of San Vincente de la Barquera.

San Vincente de la Barquera is actually in Cantabria and not Asturias. It is a lovely town to stop in en-route. It has a pretty old town, a charming harbour full of brightly coloured bobbing boats, a panoramic setting on the river and some fantastic restaurants specialising mainly in seafood. The estuary is spanned by the Maza bridge with its 28 arches and atop the hill sits the castle and the church of Santa Maria de los Angeles.

It was a lovely place to have a little leg stretch, a beer in the sunshine and sample some Padron peppers, chiorizo in cider and a lovely salad. Well, you might as well start as you mean to go on! 😝

Oh, and you have to have a photo taken in the little boat………so cute. Lunch was walked off with a stroll to the castle at the top of the hill to admire the old town and views over the estuary. I spotted my first Camino signs which always make me smile, and it was the perfect place to get into that relaxed holiday mindset. I was already getting a good feel for the place………..when you get that comfortable feeling and think, “Ah, I feel like I’m going to like it here”. Everyone was really happy and friendly.

It was only a half an hour drive from there to the town where I had decided to base myself for the 9 days………….Llanes. Now, I simply fell in love with Llanes, I adored it. It is a working fishing town and it is really busy and bustling all the time. It has an old town, medieval town walls, churches, restaurants, bars, the prettiest harbour, a busy market, just the best Confitería (cake shop) and lots of ice cream shops! There was nothing to not like about it…………….it was like being deposited in the middle of all my favourite things!😍

The town has an outstandingly beautiful setting. Not only does it have its own three gorgeous beaches of fine golden sand, if you walk a little further out of town in either direction you stumble across the most spectacular beaches ever. They are a little bit like the small coves in Cornwall with the advantage of the food and weather being better and there being no British people. 😂 And there is so much space on them.

I had booked an apartment through one of the major apartment booking portals and it very much exceeded my expectations. It was on the third floor of a small apartment block which overlooked the entrance to the harbour. It was out of the way of the main harbour, tucked away and really quiet, but had a fantastic sea view. It would have slept four, so there was lots of room for me and it was really well equipped. It felt like a home away from home rather than a holiday let, as the gentleman who owns it, quite obviously lives there when he’s not working away so it had lots of personal touches including a turntable and fantastic vinyl record collection which you were free to use! It looked like he was a child of the 70’s like me so there were some classics to choose from and plenty of opportunity for a little living room disco!

It had a chaise longue style sofa in the living room window which overlooked the renovated stone fishing sheds. I love to people watch and watch the world go by and spent so much time with the windows wide open just watching the fishing boats come in and out in the morning and evening, with all the fishermen sat outside mending their nets during the day. It was the perfect book reading and people watching spot in the sunshine.

For breakfast I had the same thing every morning…………………….CAKE!!!!! At home I never have cake for breakfast, it’s just not an English thing. I either have yoghurt and granola with fruit, or plain porridge with honey. However, when I’m in Spain or Italy I have cake! Not the same cake each day, but a different one every morning. I get out of bed, have a little stretch, sometimes a little run if I get up feeling energetic, and trot to the cake shop……..as it has to be a fresh cake. Llanes quite simply has one of the best cake shops I have ever been in, and I am most embarrassed to say that by the time I departed I was well known in it!🤣It’s called the Confitería Vega and you must go if in Llanes. My favourite was the Bomba de Crema which I can only describe as like a split, icing sugared, very light, brioche type roll filled with custard. But I also liked the lemon meringues, nut and caramel tarts, almond croissants, icing covered swirls, custard tarts, chocolate Cubos de la Memoria and chocolate cherries……………………………I tried them all!!!🤣

There’s a lovely cafe around the corner too, in the main square, where you can get an excellent coffee and watch the world go by when you’ve indulged in your cake!

My first day was spent in Llanes, wandering, because when I arrive somewhere I like to have a really good look around and just relax a little. I was also tired from travelling as I’d literally finished work and then left for the airport six hours later as I like to maximise my time away. It was a bit of an overcast day but dry.

The first thing you notice on the breakwater are hundreds of brightly painted concrete blocks. They are a permanent art installation on both sides of the harbour entrance, but obviously serve a purpose as a breakwater. Los Cubos de la Memoria (The Cubes of Memory) were completed in 2006 and are a must see in the town.

All three of the town’s beaches are worth noting: El Sablon, Puertu Chicu and Toro. They are all different. El Sablon is the busiest town beach with all the amenities close by. Puertu Chicu is a little hidden and full of locals but it disappears at high tide. I think my favourite was Toro, just because of its natural setting and the unusual rock formations all along the beach which make it really sheltered and provide a perfect back rest if you are a beach book reader like me.

On the other side of the town from Toro beach is the access to the cliff top promenade. This is a long grassed walkway along the top of the cliff. It has the most outstanding view of the town down below and is lined with benches for you to sit and rest, and telescopes for you to take a look out to sea. On a weekend and on a sunny evening all the town seemed to be up here stretching their legs. A very friendly and convivial meeting spot. It’s also perfect for that early morning or late evening jog for anyone that likes a little run like me.

By the time I’d done all the above I was hungry and tired again. Llanes has some fantastic seafood and I love squid so my fist day was finished off with a lovely plate of Calamares a la Romana (Squid) followed by a little Vermut in the harbour which made me all sleepy and ready for my comfy bed.

In terms of places to eat and bars there are just so many to choose from in Llanes and the surrounding area. There are numerous Siderias where you will get the traditional Asturian dishes and cider, then there are tapas restaurants, pizzas……..you name it and it will be there. When I fancied a change I even found an excellent Mexican to satisfy my need for a Tequila cocktail because when you are on holiday you just have to have a cocktail don’t you?!😂

The following day I was ready for a bit of an explore. The good thing about being based in Llanes is that it has a little train station. But it’s not just any old railway line. They call it the FEVE and it’s a little narrow guage railway line which runs all along most of the Northern coast of Spain. The train only comes a couple of times a day and it’s extremely slow! It chugs along, hooting at every road crossing, and goes from small village to small village all along the coast. Some stations it stops at as a matter of course, and others, in small villages, you have to request it to stop. It is so scenic as you trundle along through the villages and fields of animals, with intermittent glimpses of the sea.

The railway line follows closely the route of the Camino del Norte and I love to walk so I had a little plan to get on the morning train to a small village called Pendueles around 15km from Llanes, pick up the Camino path and walk all the way back to Llanes on the Camino. So off I went with the orange rucksack to catch the little train. Pendueles is a request stop so I made sure to tell the conductor when I got on that I wanted it to stop there.

It was a sleepy little village but it had that all important little village café in which to get that café con leche before starting to walk.

This must have been my slowest walk ever! It took me all morning to walk around 5 miles. Not that it was difficult, anyone could have walked it. It was just so beautiful! I just had to keep stopping, taking photographs and just absorbing my surroundings. Spring is surely a beautiful time to visit…………..so very green, lots of wildlife and so many beautiful flowers……………..just like the world is waking back up after hibernating for winter.

I just wandered along following the yellow arrows, through fields and woods and the path kept leading me from one beautiful beach to another. And when I say beautiful I don’t just mean a little bit beautiful but outstandingly beautiful. Turquoise sea, golden sand, big blue skies, fluffy clouds, the sound of the waves on the rocks and absolutely no-one on some of them. They were deserted………….it was stunning. So the book kept coming out and I just had to keep stopping. But there was no rush, I was on holiday and that’s what holidays are for!

I then accidently discovered my best find of the day. I was hungry so looked on my phone to see where I might be able to get some food. As if by luck, around 1km off the path was a village called Vidiago. It was 1pm by now, but it said there was a place called Sidreria Casa El Rubiu that was open. I walked through the very pretty but quiet village to reach the other side where I could see a number of cars parked and I could hear lots on conviviality going on. Well this really was my best find of the day. I was warmly welcomed and sat in a lovely flower filled courtyard and taken through the menu. I said I wanted to try something local but I was hungry so the waiter suggested I might like to try a small Cachopo. He explained it was two thin fillets of veal fried in breadcrumbs, but sandwiched between the two pieces of veal are cheese and dried cured meat of your choice. He said his choice would be with Cecina (a dried, smoked, cured beef from around Leon), and Cabrales cheese (a cheese local to the area of Asturias). So that’s what I ordered and where my love affair with Cachopo began…………………it is delicious! It came with potatoes and peppers and filled the hungry hole in my tummy. I was also informed that if I wasn’t driving I had to have it with cider as a Sidreria is a ‘cider house’ so that’s the menu…………………cider and traditional cooking.

However, I have to inform you that I poured half my cider on the patio!😂 And it was not by choice. In these parts they pour the cider into the glass from a great height and just a few mouthfuls worth at a time. They drink that bit and then pour a bit more into the glass. This is because it creates effervescence and foam which helps to release the cider’s aromas and taste. So I had a little lesson, was poured my first few mouthfuls, and was then left on my own to practice! It did not go too well but I reckon I drunk about half of the bottle and shared the other half with the floor but by the end of the meal my technique had improved significantly! And I have to say that by the end of the week I’d drunk that much cider I’d got it off to a fine art.😆

So I bid them a farewell around 3pm and carried on my way. The afternoon involved more flowers, more beaches, animals and coffee stops. I also discovered the ‘Bufones de Arenillas’! These natural rock formations sounded fantastic but you would have to come on a stormy day to see them at their best. Basically water comes rushing under the sea cliff and escapes up through the holes with the water pressure shooting the water up in a 20 metre high column. The photos of it on the information board looked fantastic but it was a calm day so on that particular day you could only hear the thunderous roar of the water but there was not enough pressure to force it through the hole. The noise was still impressive though.

I rolled into Llanes at around 8pm just as the sun was falling in the sky and just had time for a little nightcap (alcoholic drink) before retiring for the night as I had deserved it after all that walking!

The following day it was dull and overcast, the perfect day for a city visit so I drove to the city of Oviedo, just over an hour away from Llanes. It’s a really nice, compact city and you can definitely see the main sights in a day. If you make your way to the tourist information office in the old town they will arm you with a map and show you the main sights to visit.

It has the lovely cathedral of San Salvador in the Plaza de la Catedral that is worth a look at. Around the corner is another lovely square called the Plaza del Fonton. It is a lovely old, arcaded square with a number of cafes and restaurants and is also where the market is held on certain days. It has lots of lovely old buildings with flower filled window boxes. It is really pretty and a good spot for a coffee.

One thing I did notice about Ovideo was the abundance of statue castings in the streets. There are so many dotted all over the city. There’s one of La Gitana or ‘Gypsy Woman’, one of ‘La Bella Lola’ sat on a bench in Plaza Del Fonton, La Pescadera in one square and one of the Milkmaid in another. There’s also a statue of Woody Allen and I could not quite work out why Oviedo would have a statue to him. Anyway, it turns out he fell in love with Oviedo and set part of his film Vicky Christina Barcelona there.

There’s also a lovely park on the edge of the city which is worth having a walk around. It’s called the Campo de San Francisco. There is a band stand, more statues, lots of lovely planting and it’s just generally a lovely peaceful place. It also has a much loved and visited statue sat on a bench……………that of Mafalda. She is a well known 6 year old little girl cartoon character from an Argentine comic strip……………..have a little look and sit with her……she’s cute!

So that was my little whirlwind tour of Oviedo. It did not even take a day so on the way back I called at another fishing town, Ribadesella. It’s ok there and I can imagine it gets very busy in summer as it has a lovely beach………….but I did not like it as much as Llanes. It seemed to lack that buzz and atmosphere, but maybe it was because the weather was dull and everyone was inside.

I did however, spot an interesting monument of two men in a canoe. The Sella river enters the sea at Ribadesella and apparently a very popular pastime it to descend the river right from the roman bridge in Cangas de Onis in the mountains, 20km away, to Ribadesella. In fact it’s that popular it is an annual international canoeing event and the statue is there on the winners promenade to mark and celebrate the fastest descents of the Sella river.

Four lovely days in the Picos de Europa mountains followed which I’ll do a separate post on, as there is so much to tell you about the Picos, and mountains are either your thing or they are not, so I’ll not bore you with my mountain adventures now.

After my three days walking and exploring the Picos de Europa I decided to have a little running adventure. But when I say running I mean more of a jog………that way I could cover more miles than walking but not tire myself out. I decided to catch the FEVE in the other direction, west, and get off at a village 16 miles away called Nueva. Then the plan was to jog back the 16 miles to Llanes, taking all day with regular stops.

It was another beautiful day and the 16 miles west of Llanes is just as pretty as the 16 miles East. There were more cows, beautiful beaches, big cloudy skies, cool rock formations………….

………………then some scuplture, more pretty flowers and a very good lunch stop in Niembru at ‘La Parrilla del Cuera’ where they made me a delicious tuna salad.

On leaving Niembru you come to a really pretty estuary and on an outlet sits the very photogenic church of Parroquia Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. Then there were more beautiful beaches and donkeys.😍 Fortunately I did not get lost. I was following the Camino in reverse so there were no signs going in my direction. But it was quite straightforward………..just up and down winding lanes which ran close to the sea. There were more cows and I discovered a unique talent I have for talking to sheep………I baaaa ……….and they all baaaaa back………..it’s the little things that amuse me! 😂

Then I came to a fantastic spot to watch the waves crashing on the rocks………………I could have sat here for hours as I just love that sound.

I started to get a glimpse of Llanes ahead of me, sat on the clifftop. It was not before time as I was starting to get a little weary. It was nice to see Llanes from a different angle though. A birds eye view of the town tucked behind Playa de Sablon.

Just time then for a quick shower and change of clothes ready for a little wander around town and a well earned beer!

Just one day left to enjoy and I suddenly realised I’d come on holiday, and although I’d had a big mental rest, I’d not really had much of a physical rest other than first thing in the morning and the evening, as there was so much to see and do. So I made it in my way to have a rest day in Llanes. The day started as it always does……………with cake!

It was a lovely sunny day so I sat on a cliff top bench, using my beach towel as a cushion, for a few hours to read my book.

Then it was coffee time in the square because I can’t sit for more than a few hours without moving. 😆

I spent the afternoon on my favourite beach……..Toro……….reading my book and watching the contrasting storm clouds roll across the mountains, whilst I sat in the glorious sunshine on the beach.

Then every beach visit has to be enhanced with a cool beer and a packet of Lays!

All that was left to see of Llanes was a little walk up to the hill top castle like church of Ermita Virgen de la Guía to watch the sunset on a fantastic week away. Oh…….I just had time to slip in another Vermut!

I left for Bilbao the following morning for my afternoon flight and this time I broke up the journey in Santillana del Mar. I was only there for two hours but this was such a pretty medieval town for a walk around and a coffee in the square if you are ever in the area. There is some pre-historic art in some caves nearby but I did not have time to look so that will have to be something for next time.

So that’s Asturias for you……………..well this little corner of Asturias anyway.

It’s outstandingly beautiful and I just have to come back this summer during my month in Spain and surrounding areas. I’m going to do some walking but I also have this little plan to ride a little bit more of the FEVE and just stop at random places along the route to see some more little coastal towns and go with the flow. I also need to come back for cheese!!! I fitted as much Cabrales into my carry on as possible but I’ve eaten it already! I just love cheese and in Northern Spain and Basque country you can get fantastic cheese. In fact that very British supermarket with an M and an S in the title have now become aware of the gorgeousness of Basque cheese and have started stocking a DOP Ossau Iraty French Basque cheese and it’s really nice if you want to taste what I’m talking about. I came back with a large quantity of Idiazabal from Bilbao last summer, with it all bulging out of the top of my rucksack.😂 So the objective this summer will be to travel a light as possible so I can export as much cheese as possible from Northern Spain and Basque Country for my own consumption! You’ll smell me before you see me at Bilbao airport!😆

Anyway, my summer is fast approaching, when I leave the country for over a month and don’t have much time to write. I’m going to some familiar places, some new places and am really excited about making some more exciting memories and learning some new things to tell you about.

There will be some time in Crete too, a lot of time in Spain including a very well known festival and a Camino. And then a really exciting short trip to Chamonix Mont Blanc in the last week of August where something very exciting is happening (it’s a secret) which I will be able to tell you about in September. I’ll be back later in the summer or in September, if not before, so watch this space and have fun.