Asturias
STAY La Posada del Ray in Llanes or choose a Rural Casa in villages throughout the region
JULIO
We successfully rented our little Volkswaken Golf in Bilbao and ended up paying premium to rent perhaps the only automatic car in Europe. Neither of us is that skilled at driving a manual transmission - yet another sign that we are spoiled in the US with our mostly automatic cars. I was actually quite stressed about driving in Europe. New traffic laws, drivers, roads etc. but I was tripping. Simply getting out of Bilbao to the freeway was a challenge since in Europe (especially in Spain) it is difficult to determine between a road and a sidewalk. Another curveball was that whenever you hit the brakes to come to a complete stop the engine would shut off completely while in drive mode. This was new to us. I asked a local attendant in bewildered Spanish, “Why does the car keep shutting off by itself,” he confidently replied, “It's an automatic!” Of course! I later figured out how to disable this gas preservation method.
Pendueles is a tiny little town on the Camino de Santiago consisting of one block with some guest houses, an AMAZING Sidreria (cider house) called Parrilla Sidreria el Chispero, and a few small restaurants. We stayed overnight on Halloween in an authentic village guesthouse which was unforgettable. We ventured out and walked to the cider house which proved delicious and was super charming. The service, cider and stew were awesome but the small town Asturian feel is the winner here. Feeling full and happy we went to bed early falling asleep to the Big Bang Theory in Spanish which is a riot. We have now found that BBT plays all over the world and just isn’t the same without Sheldon’s real voice - apparently this is an actual debated point.
I woke up early and peered out the window to the misty Asturian countryside. This province is filled with Celtic myth, Spanish history and mountains of green as far as the eye can see. It might be silly of me, but people seem more personable and authentic here. There is certainly a stoic, determined and balanced nature to the Northern Spaniard and the more time we spend here the more grateful I am to be half-Galician.
From Pendueles, we started down the coast to the magical fishing village of Ribadesella. It has what most Northern coastal towns have: ancient Celtic cave paintings, rocky sea cliffs, a cobblestone old town and a colorful history. What made this most interesting was its connections with Cuba (my other half). Many Asturians left from Ribadesella and set off for Cuba. Many returned successful and brought the pastel colonial houses of the Cuban countryside to Asturias. These historical houses are Ribadesellan landmarks and dot the misty coastline as glowing beacons of a land once sought after for opportunity. The beach walk called Ermita de la Guia in Ribadesella is lovely and we walked out to the cliffs and watched the Atlantic pound the rocky coastline rife with Percebes, aka goose barnacles. Simply a charming and magical town.
Driving through Asturias on the A-8 highway from town to town was just so lovely and the road conditions were excellent. Our little Volkswagen penetrating through foggy banks and stopping to admire the glorious gray beaches, surfers and rock formations was storybook. Everything we did in the North just felt like magic - enchanting around every corner.
I thought after Ribadesella nothing could be more charming but Llanes truly takes the cake as my favorite Asturian old town. It was quite a busy long weekend in the region and we were blessed to find good parking and set off on foot to explore the town. Charming shops, cider houses, markets and cafes were around every winding corner along with a memorable art installation called Los Cubos de la Memoria near the fishing pier with a classic light house and tiny fishing boats teetering through the incoming surf. We sat and just admired the colors and pace of life. Fresh seafood is law in these parts and it's a shame we were not more adventurous for the majority of eateries serve the freshest of shrimps, clams, oysters, percebes and the many other spoils of the ocean. We reveled in a nearby Sideria and then explored nearby shops and markets.
One thing we noticed about Asturias, and especially as we got closer to Galicia, is that the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds just feels thinner. As we got closer I felt like I was communicating more closely with my deceased father and relatives among other unseen forces. The event which followed was even more other-worldly.
As were checking out a local market we noticed a fabulous older grand dame Asturian lady wrapped up in head-to-toe fur watching us as we shopped. She began rattling off in her thick Asturian accent how we must try a Tarta de Queso or local cheesecake. The lady checking us out looked at her as if she were crazy and rolled her eyes at me as if this was an everyday occurrence. As she began to speak to us in Spanish, I noticed that she looked frighteningly similar to Christina’s recently deceased grandmother including the fact that she comes from a long line of furriers and the long coat was an everyday elegant calling card.
She locked on to Christina and began to speak to her is if they were closely related. Having some experience in the matter, it became clear to me that she perhaps had some form of dementia but it seemed as if she were open to receive a message from the other world and as they hugged and both began to well up with tears it became obvious that there was more happening than what met the eye. Christina described it as an electric shock going through her body as they embraced and as they left each other she cried intensely and described how every sensation she felt was innately exactly like her grandmother. A powerful finish to a magical day in Llanes.
