Bleak Asturias and not just the weather

After the unsettled weather we had in Picos de Europa, we decided to change the scene and headed off to the coast and for a nice seafood meal.

The destination, Gijon a city in the county of Asturias and only two hours away from the mountains.

We got there quite late, it was pouring with rain, therefore, it took us ages to find the aire. According to the map, it was meant to be easy to find, just drive all the way along the coast, the car park was just in front of one of the beaches. We passed it a couple of times but eventually found it. It was already 21.00. Too tired and too stressed. We couldn’t be arsed to go out.

We settled in, cuddled up in Dora’s leaving room, listening to the rain. It was like being in a tent, where the rain always sounds harder than it actually is.

It was also quite blustery. Dora, being big and tall, gets quite unstable with the wind. In these situations, we put her stabilizers down, which are folded underneath her belly. Not that night, though. Neither of us was willing to go outside. We will just have to put up with the movement all night. We closed the blinds down and watched a DVD.

The rain hasn’t stopped all night and continues the next morning, now, accompanied by blustery winds. The wind fiercely provokes high and powerful waves.

What to do in a day like this trapped in Dora? There is not so much you can do in a two square metres of space before going nuts. We had some breakfast and caught up with the blog. But after two hours, we had to get out of that van.

One option, as we have never been in Gijon, maybe doing some sightseeing?. Really? walking around the city in the rain? Not sure. Lets go to the tourist information office anyways. It sounds like it may be a museums day.

Driving along the promenade towards the office the wind becomes stronger. People have even dared to go for a walk along the beach with their useless umbrellas. It seems they may take off at any moment, in a Mary Poppins’ style.

The guy at the tourist information office, quite enthusiastically, has given us lots of museums and sites to visit. I bet he hasn’t had many customers today. Keen on seeing more of the province, we also ask him to recommend us nice places to go outside Gijon. That sounds more appealing, actually. Maybe the look of the sea would cheer us up.

Why were we so apathetic that day? Maybe the weather has put us off, or we were still tired of a rather long trek along the Rio Cares, or maybe it was just simply one of those days. Not always is it fun when you travel.

In any case, we don’t really want to do sightseeing in Gijon so lets drive along the west coast. The strong winds persists, the powerful waves are getting higher by the minute, the relentless rain continues. We pass the first village. Not of any interest to walk around. Lets go to the next one.

Just a ten kilometres drive and here comes the next village and another one. Not impressed. The more we drive, the more convinced we are that Asturias is not precisely the prettiest county we have seen so far. Even the coastline doesn’t strike us as beautiful.

Suddenly we have a terrible thought. Do you become immune to new places when you travel? We hope not. We wouldn’t like to become accustomed to miss all the new experiences that travelling adds to people’s lives.

After stopping for lunch, we decided to turn round and drive east along the coast. Perhaps, the landscape is different on this side. Not really. But our mood is lifted up by a nice idea. Why don’t we go out for a local meal tonight?

At 17.30 it was getting dark. At this point we have come across a cute little harbour village, Tazones, where there are plenty of local bars and restaurants doing local seafood. In addition, there was a good car park where we can park Dora. We stayed there for the night.

We chill out for a couple of hours before we go out. Still raining hard. We will skip the walk around to choose the best restaurant and simply go across the road to the nearest bar. The streets are flooded, there is water everywhere.

We enter the bar. The owners sit there, watching TV, they look pretty bored. “Can we sit anywhere?” “Sure, no problem for space tonight”.

The waitress approached to our table and stood there, looking at us . What was she waiting for? I have to ask for the menu. Is it not obvious that we want to eat?

After going through the numerous choices that  the menu has to offer, we called her to order our food. It was then when she said she had only had one dish available, hake. It would have been nice to have known beforehand. OK. Lets go for tapas as this seems to be all available.

So traditional ham croquetas. Sorry, by the time we realised we had eaten most of them.

Fried ‘boquerones’ (type of sardines)

Fried ‘chipirones’ (small calamares). One of Gary’s favourite dishes.

We accompanied our meal with a bit of bread and wine of the house. All together, dinner came up to €50. Yes, excessive. The last meal out, in France, cost us €64.00 and it consisted of a starter and two main courses more sophisticated and elaborate, plus a dessert. The French meal was definitely better value for money. Anyway, we ate well, too much. Satisfied, we went to bed.

We awoke to a dry morning. A relief, we may be able to get out of Dora for a stroll today. Gradually, the skies start to brighten, so did our moods. We smile and joke with each other, heading east along the coast.

The plan for today, looking for ‘bufones’ a very interesting natural phenomenon, particularly dramatic at this time of the year. It was highly recommended by the tourist officer in Gijon. ‘Bufones’ are holes in the ground, normally located a few metres from the cliff side, so we bloody have to find them.

We continue to drive through villages of Ribadesella and LLanes in search of the ‘bufones’ . These villages still don’t inspire us to get out of Dora and walk around. It is still cold and drizzling. We blame the weather .

We are finding to comment on the villages of this area. There is nothing spectacular about them. They look messy and untidy.

Interestingly, they look modern. As per the age of their houses, they seem to have been built fifty or sixty years ago.

Of course not. But what it is more likely to have happened is that the old houses have all been renovated and painted in bright colours, contrasting with the green landscape.

This is a construction we haven’t seen before. A type of store, used decades ago to store grain.

A few days before, we were looking for queso de cabrales, a blue cheese that Gary likes and it comes from the area of cabrales, north of Picos de Europa. We found some in a butcher in the village of Arenas de Cabrales. It was there where the shop assistant also recommended the three milk cheese (‘queso de tres leches’ – cow, sheep and goats -) also from the region of Prias in Asturias. We tried it and we loved it (sorry no photo of it, it went too quick).

Coincidently, we are now getting closer to area of Pria. So, we are hoping to find both the ‘bufones’ and the cheese. However, I don’t have much faith of finding the latter. It is lunchtime, supermarkets will be closed for four hours.

In the village of Villanueva de Prias, we find a big sign directing us to the ‘playa de los bufones’. We have found them!!

Excitedly, like children, we parked Dora and walk towards the beach. On the way, two dogs start following us. I am not very fond of dogs, I will ignore them, they will get bored in the end. They don’t. They get more and more annoying. They continuously walk in between our legs, once I stepped on the legs of one of them. I couldn’t avoid it, but I didn’t feel any sympathy either. Stupid dogs!.

Gary plays with them. There is no way they will go away from us like this. They seem to have found new owners

We continue to go down to the beach. A nice and quite beach to enjoy in summer. No signs of the ‘bufones’ yet. What will they be like?

There it is. The first one!

At high tide, the sea water rushes underground, pushed by the power of the sea, finds its way fiercely through these holes, creating a swirl of water and noise. If you are too close, you can get a nice shower. I think this will be the highlight of Asturias.

Very noisy .

Now spilling some water. Not much, as it was quite far away from the sea.

This is the video we have put together to show you the experience. The stupid dog still with us. Gary threatened to put him in to one of the ‘bufones’. He never did.

Lots of fun and happy to have seen this strange feature of nature.

Time to go back to the car. We have a long drive to Covadonga, a famous place for its sanctuary and lovely views of the lakes at the top.

The sky is pretty clear. We hope it will hold like this tomorrow so we can get a good view of the lakes.

We ended the day having a ‘sidra’ (cider), in the only bar open in Covadonga. Cider is very famous in Asturias. Light, fresh and slightly bitter in flavour. I have also recommended it to Gary because of the way they pour it into the glass.

The left hand holds the glass as far down as possible. The right hand holds the bottle, as far up. The purpose, to create a bit of fizziness and strength to the drink. The skill, to get as much liquid into the glass as possible.

SM