Galicia and Asturias, Spain (Aug/Sept 2009)
The Journey (29 Aug)
Urgh, 4:30am alarm for a 6:00am flight, Edinburgh to Paris, then a flight from Paris to Asturias airport. The CdG airport in Paris seems bigger and bigger every time go through there. First of all the plane lands then taxis for about 20 minutes to get to the stand, then you have to take a bus to get from arrival point to next departure point, even thought they’re both in terminal 2. Suddenly Heathrow isn’t looking quite so bad.
Best part of the journey was the chug-a-lug train from a small town (Muros de Nalan) near the airport to Ribadeo. This took 2 hours, hugging the imrpessive coastline most of the way. It’s a single track narrow-guage railway, so it’s not the quickest mover, but it was novel.
Ribadeo (29 Aug – 2 Sept)
We spent 4 nights in Ribadeo – quite a pleasant small town. Probably not really enough to do to keep you busy for 4 days but we were after a bit of quiet time as well. We spent a day wandering round the town, a day excusion along the coast to as Catredais and a day walking along the coast west of town. It was pretty hot (high 20’s each day) so we didn’t feel like doing any major excursions anyway.
Evenings were pleasantly warm and we had some good food, being near the coastline seafood is plentiful, especially pulpos (octopus cut into segments) and calamaris (squid cut into rings), which the locals really know how to prepare. One of the novel things in one restaraunt was the drinking of the house white wine from shallow ceramic cups – leading to plenty of spillage. Luckily it was very cheap.
We stayed in the Hotel Mediante which was clean and the staff were cheerful and frinedly, but we wouldn’t really recommend it because
- it fronts the main square and is very noisy, especially in August when the fun-fair is located in the main square
- it faces south so the front of the hotel gets the sun all day, meaning that the rooms are stifling hot
- we had paid a one-night deposit when booking but on leaving they tried to charge us for all 4 nights, no-one in the staff seemed able to find a record of what had been charged as their record-keeping seemed very rudimentary, this led to a pretty stressful 15 minute conversation until they were finally convinced that we’d already paid one night
One thing about the fun fair at the front of the hotel. Those of you who’ve been to Spain will know that they keep different hours from Britain. It’s an odd thing to be lying in your bed trying to get to sleep at midnight and being kept awake by the noise of children playing on playground swings etc.
A few photos from Ribadeo:
Building in Ribadeo
View of "as Catredais" from cliffs above
Traditional fishing boats at the marina at Ribadeo
Full photo album from Ribadeo on Galicia.
Oviedo (2 – 4 Sept)
Once we’d sorted out the mess at the hotel in Ribadeo we cought the little Feve train to Oviedo, a journey of about 130k that took nearly 4 hours, but it was a pleasant enough way to spend the day as the scenery is interesting enough.
On arrival in Oviedo we had a little trouble finding the Hotel Marcos because for some reason they tend not to put up street signs so it’s hard to figure out exactly where you are. Finally we got there, it’s a modern hotel, rooms are very stripey!
One of the things we were keen to do was to experience the Spanish Cider routine, where the cider is made to be poured from the bottle at a great height and drank quickly. So first night we hit a cider bar and ordered a bottle and some calmaris for a snack. We’d have to say it was a bit of a dissapointment, we prefer a drink one can sup whenever the need strikes, not having to wait for the waiter to come and pour some. The locals seemed to be enjoying it though, some tables had quite a few empty bottles on them. So the only downside was that it seemed impossible to get any other kind of cider (whereas in Ribadeo we had quite a few very nice ciders with lunch/dinner).
Other than that we ate well in Oviedo, plenty of well-priced tapas and “del Dia” menus and easily found red wine. The temperature was still pretty high so we did our exploring of the old town in the mornings and evenings and had a siesta mid-afternoon.
Oviedo is a very pleasant town for strolling round, most of the old town is pedestrianised, so not much traffic to worry about and plenty of interesting old buildings and good modern (small scale) statues.
A few phtos from Oviedo:
Cathedral at Oviedo
Morag looking forlorn with a friend in Oviedo
Night shot in Oviedo
In Oviedo
Full photo album from Oviedo.
Picos de Europa (4 – 11 Sept)
We caught the bus from Oviedo to the Astruias airport to arrive at about the same time as the Coast2Coast crew who were flying in from London Stansted at 2:45pm. We all met up at the airport and somehow managed to squeeze all 6 of us plus luggage into a rented Dodge Journey.
It was a tight squeeze but was less than 2 hours before our chauffer (Frank) delivered us safe and sound to our hotel, Posada del Valle which is conveniently located just to the north of the national park (near the village of Collia). Ourselves and the Majerniks had two rooms with the shared balcony that you can see at the front of the hotel. Frank and Sylvia had a room next door with excellent views over the hills. That first night after a long day’s travelling we ate in the hotel’s restaraunt, which serves excellent food source mostly from the organic farm which forms part of the hotel. After an excellent selection of self-serve salads and then onion soup, main course was either lamb meatballs or a vegetarian bean dish, followed by yummy desserts. Frank and Steve had some local beers (details to follow) while the rest of us had excellent Spanish wines (I can vouch for our rioja – Biurko – which was particularly nice and good value at just over €10).
Some views of and around the hotel from the week we were there:
It was usually misty in the mornings, this is the balcony we shared with "the magics"
The hotel chickens followed whoever they thought might be about to feed them....
View from hotel in the evening
Saturday 5th
We decided on a nearby walk to start us on our week’s walking holiday. We did the self-guided Pico Pienzu from the Fitó viewpoint. The viewpoint itself had pretty spectacular views but then you walk uphill (from about 580m to about 1160m) to get even more stunning views. I (Mal) found it a bit hot (nearing 30°c) so waited below the hardest final part of the walk while the others went on – first day of walking and I didn’t want to peak too early after all.
After the walk we had a bit of a job finding something to eat. We’d decided that the 4-course meal at the hotel was a bit pricey to have every day, and we were too late for lunch and too early for dinner. We tried finding an open restaraunt at some of the seaside towns but none were serving food, in the end we bought a selection of cheeses, ham (jamon), bread etc from a local shop and had a picnic at the harbour in one of the seaside towns.
Frank and Sylvia’s blog for this day
Some photies of ours from the day:
Just to prove we were there....
Picos mountain panorama with the peaks above the clouds
Mixing with the natives
Morag near the peak
Sunday 6th
Good breakfast at the hotel. It was due to be hot again today so it was decided to do a river walk with plenty of shade, the River Casaño
On the way to the starting point at La Molinos we stopped at the larger town of Cangas do Onis and happened upon the annual festival of the fisherman. We stood on the top of the Roman bridge in the middle of town and watched the local Gaita band play their bagpipes, watched some locals engage in a fly-casting cxompetition (distances of about 160m) and wandered round the village cheese market where a sample of the bluest blue cheese you’ve ever seen was bought.
The shady river walk turned out to be a very good idea because it was a very hot day. This was a nice walk, not too strenuous, along a river with the clearest water that you could find. On the return journey some feet were soaked in the cool water of the river and we were relieved to find that the blue cheese left in the car had not turned the car into a no-go zone.
That evening we ate on the balcony at the hotel, we’d had a big lunch so decided that a good picnic would do the job in the evening. With a selection of cheeses (including the blue), some chorizo pastries, hamd and cheese pastries we were pretty well catered for.
Frank and Sylvia’s blog for this day
Some photies of ours from the day:
Mal, Sylvia, Carol on Roman bridge at Cangas
Gaita band at Cangas
The hip band at Cangas
River walk
Friendly local
Cooling down
Relaxing in the evening
Monday 7th
We did a walk from a viewpoint at Les Abedules to a summit at Collado Viances, well most of us did. It was a very pleasant walk at first, up a track among trees and with nice views of farmland nearby and mountains beyond. After a while we came to a narrow path that traversed round the side of a steep hill, then it started to get very steep and difficult, and given the heat it was at this point that Mal decided enough was enough and headed backward a bit to a spot with plenty of shady trees (later nicknamed “sleepy hollow”, while the rest pressed on. A little before the summit Morag succumbed to the heat and rested in a shady spot while four went crazy on the summit. They said it was worht it but if you look at the photo of Frank on FnS blog you’ll see it was hard work.
Meanwhile, from below the ridge Mal was able to take a bit of video of the four on the summit, just after some ponies had come thundering down th path (thought I was goinf toget trampled in a stampede, OK there was only 10 of them, but they were noisy!).
Once we’d made it back to the car we headed straight back to Cangas and had pizza and cold drinks, followed by well-earned ice-cream.
Frank and Sylvia’s blog for this day
My go at the caption competition is “Carol passes judgement on Frank’s Steve Irwin impression”.
Some photies of ours from the day:
Under surveillance
The ridge line above the path
Beer and ice-cream after the walk
Tuesday 8th
Today was due to be very hot so we decided on a rest day. The long term travellers caught up on some washing. Frank, Morag and Steve zipped into nearby Arriondas for some errands and bought some Empanadas and other goodies that we ate under the shade of some trees in the garden of the hotel, with the chickens clearing up round our feet.
In the evening we drove into the seaside town of Ribadecella where Frank was on-the-ball and recognised a restaurant written up in the notes back at the hotel. We had a good feed of tapas: pulpo, calmaris, ham, grilled prawns, garlic chicken – all at very reasonable prices.
A photie from the day:
Picnic lunch at the hotel
Wednesday 9th
We set off early (7am) from the hotel to try to avoid the heat of the day on what promised to be a fairly long walk with little or no shade on the way. The scale of the gorge is unbelivable, both in it’s lenght and depth. It can be a bit unnerving at times walking along a trail with a few hundred feet sheer drop on one edge, but luckily the path is plenty wide enough. That didn’t help the 49 local men who died making the hydro-electric scheme that the path was originally intended to service.
The drive into the starting point of the gorge is spectacular in itself, the walk in was even better, despite a fairly steep climb at the start that had us all sweating. Afte that the path is fairly flat and the views stunning, early on the mist was still clinging to the higher points which looked quite eery.
After a picnic lunch on the way the team agreed that it was going to get pretty hot in the afternoonand that we’d seen enough, so we headed back. We were amazed at the number of people heading into the gorge as we headed out – it was getting really hot!
Dinner at Cangas that night after a refreshing shower. We found a tapas joint and had pretty much the same meal as the night before. Yum!
Frank and Sylvia’s blog for this day
Some photies of ours from the day:
Sylvia at Cares Gorge
Walking the path at Cares Gorge
Cares Gorge, Sylvia and Carol forging ahead
The path ahead, Cares Gorge
Thursday 10th
Another early start, we drove to Covadonga and then uphill to Lake Ercina where we were very lucky to get a parking spot in the wee car park, it was already bvery busy. Our walk started at the lake shore and took us into hills behind the lake, it wasn’t a strenuous walk, the hardest part being the rocky nature of the area meaning you had to do a bit of scrambling.
The path emerged from the hills near Lake Enol where Frank, Sylvia and Morag took a 1km deour to a nearby mirador (summit) while Steve, Carol and Mal took a leaisurely stroll toward Lake Enol to return to the car park.
Getting round Leake Enol involves walking across some “stepping stones” which was fun. At the other side of Lake Enol you meet “the human highway” (as it was dubbed by Carol) the stone built path leading from the lower car park up to Lake Ercina, it was pretty busy!
At the top of this highway was a summit giving superb views over the two lakes and the surrounding mountain range. From there we returned to the car park for a cold drink and about 30 minutes later the other three arrived.
On the way back to the hotel we had a brief stop in Covadonga to see the cathedral, built there to celebrate the first victory over the moors on Spanish soil on that spot.
That night we ate again at the hotel, another superb 4-course meal, and did a little packing in preparation for leaving tomorrow.
Frank and Sylvia’s blog for this day
Some of our photies from the day:
Lake Ercina
Lake Ercina
Six go crazy in the Picos
Frank on the stepping stones at Lake Enol
Lake Ercina
Friday 11th
We didn’t have to leave too early so we had time for breakfast at the hotel before the task of jamming luggage and people into the car (which Frank had dubbed “the behemoth” after guiding it round some particularly narrow roads).
Our final photographic offering:
Hardly "the Tardis", but it did the job (but not sure if Carol is smiling or grimacing, and I think Sylvia is suffering cramp in the back seat)
Full photo album from Picos de Europa.
First part of the trip was to drive into Oviedo to drop Steve and Carol at the bus stop for their onward journey to Salamanca and the rest of Spain and Portugal. Then back to Asturias airport to drop-off the behemoth and wait for flights, Frank and Sylvia for a flight to Stanstead in preparation for a journey to Italy the next day – see FnS Italy blog We were due to catch our flight back to Edinburgh at a similar time, eventually we arrived home about 10pm.