Asturias
ASTURIAS 
Asturias is a place that I can only explain as magical. It is the land of fairy tales where the gnomes live, the fairies enchant, the witches stew their brews, and wolves howl in the night. When we entered Asturias it was like crossing into a new world (ok yeah I was a little sick because of the switchbacks but hey I loved being in the mountains). It was so hard to believe that we were still in Spain because we were surrounded by mountains covered in snow, and below fields of green farms separated by short little “walls” of stones. Men walked along the small, hilly, cobblestone streets dressed in slacks, vests, coats, berets, wooden canes, and wooden clogs (I loved these things look at the picture!)
Actually I love this picture because this man was on the side of the road and on the last day we found that we didn’t have a picture of the clogs so when we were driving and saw this man we pulled over and Pedro asked if we could take his picture (All of us were a little embarrassed and the man I really think thought we were joking- I owe Pedro now).
Asturias was inhabited by the Celts a long time ago and since it is surrounded on one side by mountains and the other by the ocean, Asturias is pretty isolated and extremely different from Spain. It is more similar to France with amazing cheese, a great deal of free roaming livestock, and people come from all over the world to climb its peaks and hike around the villages. Everyone takes care to not be out at night because they have woods and wolves actually do howl at the moon at nights.
So we drove 8.5 hours to Asturias and arrived in Asturias to our hotel in Somiedo around 5pm. We had to make few stops because we all know how I am in a car too long. So here is a pic of a cute town we stopped to see on the way, and a great picture of Pedro about to throw a snowball at me (you can't see the pictures of the snowballs I threw at him because he was so soaked that the pictures aren't that great.)
Our first night was in Valle de Lago (which means valley of the Lake), more on that later. First let me explain what happened, we stopped at the next night’s hotel to tell the lady we were in town and everything was ok (it was on the way). Then we continued to the hotel in Valle de Lago. Well our guess is that the lady from the first hotel (I call her a host mom because she scolded guests when they got a little later, and was “the mother” to everyone that came in.) Anyways when we got to the second hotel (in the next two pictures) we were met by some ladies that were waiting for us.
They were cheery to see us and very helpful, almost too helpful. We later decided that they had been called by the last hotel lady to be ready to see me, the foreigner which was ok. This hotel was so cute and I fell in love with the rooms immediately. I have some pictures of mine- isn’t it just so country and big! Mine had a big bed too!
Dinner was in the restaurant in the hotel because it was easy and most importantly because as soon as we got our stuff into the rooms it started to snow. We dined nice (Pedro insists upon this) so we had a three course meal with soup, grilled pork with French fries, and for dessert I got a borrachines (fried balls of bread in a strong wine sauce) and Pedro got the amazing cheese cake (homemade). We ended up sharing them because I adored the cheesecake. The part that I liked the most was that the horses ended up running by the window, AKA the center of the village (there were about 40 houses) and then ran by again after being scared away.
3rd of April
We ate in the restaurant of the hotel again. We had what I call the “typical” Spanish breakfast (it really is) of toast, juice, croissants, coffee (for Pedro) and cola cao (for me). And then we got ready for a hike in the snow up to the lake.
It was made by a glacier that melted and (with the help of a wall manmade) there is now a lake surrounded on three sides by peaks. A really beautiful lake and the hike up is pretty nice too. The snow was more refreshing then cold- thanks to the boots I borrowed my feet were warm until the walk back when the snow was melting and I was stepping in lakes. 
That evening we drove down the mountain to Pola de Somiedo (We took this picture of a town called Urria on the way)
. Oh also this picture is of the group of horses that crossed the road before us. One actually was crossing and stopped in the middle of the road- I swear he looked at us- and relieved himself and then slowly moved to the other side. You can imagine that I was laughing histerically at this. When we were leaving this spot this paint in the picture saw me and began walking over to the car to greet me so I took his picture. 
In Pola de Somiedo we went to the tourist office which had an exhibition of geology, cultural Anthropology and really good explanations of the wildlife and life in general in Someido. It was really good. It was getting late so we went to a bar close by, with a restaurant in back for dinner. This is the night we tried a plate of cheeses (Asturias is known for its strong cheeses) and a couple bowls of fabada ( a soup that was served in the pot to us-I like that- and is composed of beans that are really strong and if you eat too much it could be a long bathroom visit. It is typical for Asturias also). Last was Cachopo an escalope (my dictionary says that is the English word for it but I don't know it so lets just say meat) with a sauce of cheese, jamon, and tomate (it was really good but I was pretty much out of space from the soup before).
Then we got to the next hotel (yeah we got there around 12 and the landlady was not happy and made that clear to us- she had little trust in us because we were under the age of 40 and the year before she had had kids stand her up kind of cruel on her part but we understood). I was wiped out so I fell asleep in my bed when my head touched the pillow.
4th of April
I awoke to the sunlight that entered my window and got up to see the green pastures around us with the horses, the river almost right next to the hotel, and the beautiful mountains towering above. The hotel was more like a bed and breakfast and we were fed in the front room with nice china, warm smiles, and questions of how our day went etc. We left that day to go to Cudillero.
This town was really busy today of all days. While we were driving into the town Pedro noticed the Spanish flags outside the apartments had black ribbons pinned to them and said “well I guess someone must of have died or something bad happened” (in Spanish “creo que un persona ha muerto o ha pasado algo) I laughed so hard! And then proceeded to tell him that it was black Friday- he got embaressed and said oh I guess that is probably it- I teased him all day.
Now I think this town is really pretty and you can decide from the pictures what you think.
We got here on a day when a lot of people came to enjoy their free day so it was “touristy”. We climbed the mountain and went up on top where there were more houses and farms.
It was really pretty walking the roads looking at the ocean and the green landscape. I took a picture of the typical storage containers for grain in Asturias called a horreo.
Two examples here. Ok a herreo is important because they are on four legs that hold the house off the ground. then on each of these is a flat rock that makes it so rats (unless they can deny gravity) can´t climb up into the grain. Interesting huh?
We left his city for lunch because I complained I didn’t want to eat with all the tourists, poor Pedro had to drive to another city on a hungry stomach. But we got to the city of Tineo around 3 or 4 to go to a bar called Vanesa and they served us the “typical plain sandwich” as Pedro calls it. It had cheese, ham, and sandwich bread all toasted. I liked this fast cheap meal- Pedro didn’t complain.
We explored Tineo and went through its town mercadillo (very small), and went to lookouts where we saw the houses below this town positioned on a mountain. We had some great discussions about life during Franco’s time sitting on a rock wall looking out over the countryside with a park nearby with the giggles of kids as they played on the jungle gyms and the swings.
We left this town to go to Salas where we walked the city- went to the tourist office which was in the tower of an ancient castle and the rest is now a hotel. We walked around the city and then decided to eat at the hotel in the castle a really nice dinner of food I will not forget soon.
We had our first plate was octopus, pulpo, with mushrooms. Then Pedro got a plate of javelin meat with chestnuts and mushrooms (really good I like javelin meat it is like roast beef not really tough and the flavor was nice.) I had deer meat with a sauce of some kind of berry called arandanos- I tried to look it up but there isn’t a definition for it. Then for desert a volan de chocolate con helado which was a warm brownie (cupcake) and a scoop of ice cream. It was an interesting meal.
We called the hotel in advance to say we would be later then usual getting back which both of us hated doing as it made us feel like we had another mom to check into. (which we kind of did).
We got back to the hotel around 1:30 and crashed.
5th
The last day in the bed and breakfast which is kind of sad because the breakfasts are amazing and they really give us a lot of bread, cookies, honey, and a warm dish of eggs or something else warm, but yeah no more of the nosy mom! Here are some pictures of me writing in the journal about our trip.
We set off to the capital of Asturias Olveido. (Here are just a ton of pictures until I have time to actually sit down and write about exactly what we did and ate) Hope you like. -Lauren
Asturias is a place that I can only explain as magical. It is the land of fairy tales where the gnomes live, the fairies enchant, the witches stew their brews, and wolves howl in the night. When we entered Asturias it was like crossing into a new world (ok yeah I was a little sick because of the switchbacks but hey I loved being in the mountains). It was so hard to believe that we were still in Spain because we were surrounded by mountains covered in snow, and below fields of green farms separated by short little “walls” of stones. Men walked along the small, hilly, cobblestone streets dressed in slacks, vests, coats, berets, wooden canes, and wooden clogs (I loved these things look at the picture!)
Actually I love this picture because this man was on the side of the road and on the last day we found that we didn’t have a picture of the clogs so when we were driving and saw this man we pulled over and Pedro asked if we could take his picture (All of us were a little embarrassed and the man I really think thought we were joking- I owe Pedro now).Asturias was inhabited by the Celts a long time ago and since it is surrounded on one side by mountains and the other by the ocean, Asturias is pretty isolated and extremely different from Spain. It is more similar to France with amazing cheese, a great deal of free roaming livestock, and people come from all over the world to climb its peaks and hike around the villages. Everyone takes care to not be out at night because they have woods and wolves actually do howl at the moon at nights.
So we drove 8.5 hours to Asturias and arrived in Asturias to our hotel in Somiedo around 5pm. We had to make few stops because we all know how I am in a car too long. So here is a pic of a cute town we stopped to see on the way, and a great picture of Pedro about to throw a snowball at me (you can't see the pictures of the snowballs I threw at him because he was so soaked that the pictures aren't that great.)
Our first night was in Valle de Lago (which means valley of the Lake), more on that later. First let me explain what happened, we stopped at the next night’s hotel to tell the lady we were in town and everything was ok (it was on the way). Then we continued to the hotel in Valle de Lago. Well our guess is that the lady from the first hotel (I call her a host mom because she scolded guests when they got a little later, and was “the mother” to everyone that came in.) Anyways when we got to the second hotel (in the next two pictures) we were met by some ladies that were waiting for us.
They were cheery to see us and very helpful, almost too helpful. We later decided that they had been called by the last hotel lady to be ready to see me, the foreigner which was ok. This hotel was so cute and I fell in love with the rooms immediately. I have some pictures of mine- isn’t it just so country and big! Mine had a big bed too!
Dinner was in the restaurant in the hotel because it was easy and most importantly because as soon as we got our stuff into the rooms it started to snow. We dined nice (Pedro insists upon this) so we had a three course meal with soup, grilled pork with French fries, and for dessert I got a borrachines (fried balls of bread in a strong wine sauce) and Pedro got the amazing cheese cake (homemade). We ended up sharing them because I adored the cheesecake. The part that I liked the most was that the horses ended up running by the window, AKA the center of the village (there were about 40 houses) and then ran by again after being scared away.
3rd of April
We ate in the restaurant of the hotel again. We had what I call the “typical” Spanish breakfast (it really is) of toast, juice, croissants, coffee (for Pedro) and cola cao (for me). And then we got ready for a hike in the snow up to the lake.
It was made by a glacier that melted and (with the help of a wall manmade) there is now a lake surrounded on three sides by peaks. A really beautiful lake and the hike up is pretty nice too. The snow was more refreshing then cold- thanks to the boots I borrowed my feet were warm until the walk back when the snow was melting and I was stepping in lakes. 
That evening we drove down the mountain to Pola de Somiedo (We took this picture of a town called Urria on the way)
. Oh also this picture is of the group of horses that crossed the road before us. One actually was crossing and stopped in the middle of the road- I swear he looked at us- and relieved himself and then slowly moved to the other side. You can imagine that I was laughing histerically at this. When we were leaving this spot this paint in the picture saw me and began walking over to the car to greet me so I took his picture. 
In Pola de Somiedo we went to the tourist office which had an exhibition of geology, cultural Anthropology and really good explanations of the wildlife and life in general in Someido. It was really good. It was getting late so we went to a bar close by, with a restaurant in back for dinner. This is the night we tried a plate of cheeses (Asturias is known for its strong cheeses) and a couple bowls of fabada ( a soup that was served in the pot to us-I like that- and is composed of beans that are really strong and if you eat too much it could be a long bathroom visit. It is typical for Asturias also). Last was Cachopo an escalope (my dictionary says that is the English word for it but I don't know it so lets just say meat) with a sauce of cheese, jamon, and tomate (it was really good but I was pretty much out of space from the soup before).
Then we got to the next hotel (yeah we got there around 12 and the landlady was not happy and made that clear to us- she had little trust in us because we were under the age of 40 and the year before she had had kids stand her up kind of cruel on her part but we understood). I was wiped out so I fell asleep in my bed when my head touched the pillow.
4th of April
I awoke to the sunlight that entered my window and got up to see the green pastures around us with the horses, the river almost right next to the hotel, and the beautiful mountains towering above. The hotel was more like a bed and breakfast and we were fed in the front room with nice china, warm smiles, and questions of how our day went etc. We left that day to go to Cudillero.
This town was really busy today of all days. While we were driving into the town Pedro noticed the Spanish flags outside the apartments had black ribbons pinned to them and said “well I guess someone must of have died or something bad happened” (in Spanish “creo que un persona ha muerto o ha pasado algo) I laughed so hard! And then proceeded to tell him that it was black Friday- he got embaressed and said oh I guess that is probably it- I teased him all day.
Now I think this town is really pretty and you can decide from the pictures what you think.
We got here on a day when a lot of people came to enjoy their free day so it was “touristy”. We climbed the mountain and went up on top where there were more houses and farms.
It was really pretty walking the roads looking at the ocean and the green landscape. I took a picture of the typical storage containers for grain in Asturias called a horreo.
Two examples here. Ok a herreo is important because they are on four legs that hold the house off the ground. then on each of these is a flat rock that makes it so rats (unless they can deny gravity) can´t climb up into the grain. Interesting huh?We left his city for lunch because I complained I didn’t want to eat with all the tourists, poor Pedro had to drive to another city on a hungry stomach. But we got to the city of Tineo around 3 or 4 to go to a bar called Vanesa and they served us the “typical plain sandwich” as Pedro calls it. It had cheese, ham, and sandwich bread all toasted. I liked this fast cheap meal- Pedro didn’t complain.
We explored Tineo and went through its town mercadillo (very small), and went to lookouts where we saw the houses below this town positioned on a mountain. We had some great discussions about life during Franco’s time sitting on a rock wall looking out over the countryside with a park nearby with the giggles of kids as they played on the jungle gyms and the swings.
We left this town to go to Salas where we walked the city- went to the tourist office which was in the tower of an ancient castle and the rest is now a hotel. We walked around the city and then decided to eat at the hotel in the castle a really nice dinner of food I will not forget soon.
We had our first plate was octopus, pulpo, with mushrooms. Then Pedro got a plate of javelin meat with chestnuts and mushrooms (really good I like javelin meat it is like roast beef not really tough and the flavor was nice.) I had deer meat with a sauce of some kind of berry called arandanos- I tried to look it up but there isn’t a definition for it. Then for desert a volan de chocolate con helado which was a warm brownie (cupcake) and a scoop of ice cream. It was an interesting meal.We called the hotel in advance to say we would be later then usual getting back which both of us hated doing as it made us feel like we had another mom to check into. (which we kind of did).
We got back to the hotel around 1:30 and crashed.
5th
The last day in the bed and breakfast which is kind of sad because the breakfasts are amazing and they really give us a lot of bread, cookies, honey, and a warm dish of eggs or something else warm, but yeah no more of the nosy mom! Here are some pictures of me writing in the journal about our trip.
We set off to the capital of Asturias Olveido. (Here are just a ton of pictures until I have time to actually sit down and write about exactly what we did and ate) Hope you like. -Lauren
posted by Lauren Westling @ 4:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home