Asturias: The Land of Cheese (and other beautiful things)

winjaffe Haziran 16, 2022

I have been attempting to begin an Asturias post for a month now and just haven't found the motivation to finish it. As you can imagine, I am incredibly busy sitting in the sun, doing dishes because my roommates suck at it and teaching the youth English. All kidding aside (not about the dishes), my time in Madrid is flying by! I return home in less than a month! I have to savor and blog everything!!!

Earlier in May, we had a long break to celebrate Dos and Tres de Mayo, which from what I understand is a holiday that the Spanish celebrate when Napoleon invades Spain and they lose. However, Spain puts up a good fight and they celebrate putting up a good fight. Nevertheless, now we get a few days off. We had been talking about going up North for months because so many people tell us its one of the best regions of Spain. Since we had such a great time in La Rioja, Pais Vasco and Aragon, we decided on a road trip northward! Lovely Cosette, Carly, Jane and I hopped into a cute Honda and were on our way to the rainy, scenic region of Asturias.

Asturias is a region in the north that is famous for its natural scenery. Historically, it has always been a bit isolated because of its mountains. During the Moorish conquest in the 700s, the Moors were never able to defeat the Asturian forces and thus began the "reconquista." Granted, it took more than 700 years for the Spanish to kick out the Moors completely, but many of the region's symbols and legends stem from the first battles against them. They are also famous for their cuisine! Goat cheese, cow cheese (regular cheese?), fabada (a bean dish) and their seafood is famous throughout Spain.

But I am getting ahead of myself! One of the beauties of road tripping is the ability to take a few stops in between. Our first stop was León, defacto capital of Castilla y León, an autonomous region north of Madrid. León is one of the oldest cities in Spain, ebbing and flowing from times of prosperity and hardship throughout Spain's diverse history. More recently, its a popular stop of the Camino de Santiago and its huge processions during Semana Santa. Interesting tidbit! Leon has its own super endangered language, Leonese that only people in the mountains around the city speak. They are also famous for their MEATS and their tapas which we indulged in, of course. I think my personal highlight of León was meeting a group of old ladies pals from France. They were doing the Camino (which is one of my dreams) all together. They started the Camino in France a few years ago, and every year for a week they return to do a portion until they finish.

One bar is famous for a free croqueta with every drink order. We had to try each flavor!

"Homemade" Vermouth

The cathedral is León was pretty cool. It had beautiful stained glass windows and wasn't too big. It was also VERY old.

Main plaza building.

After León, we headed to Oviedo, the capital of autonomous region, Asturias! We made it! Oviedo is a cute little city known for its history as the center of Asturian life when the kingdom was founded. They dealt with many sacks from the Khalifa during the Moorish period in Spain, but overall was an Asturian stronghold and has a lot of pride being Asturiano! Another weird fact is that Woody Allen loved Oviedo and filmed a few of his films here. There is a statue of him in one of the main parks as well. Yikes!

Funky bar we stumbled upon one night. I had an amazing toast with pate! (not pictured)

People dancing a big circle!

Cathedral de San Salvador

After spending the afternoon in Oviedo, we raced up to Gijón. Gijón is a city on the coast of Asturias. We got lucky arriving there with some good weather, but it shifted quickly and weren't able to see much of the city. Nonetheless, we had one of the best meals of the trip in Gijón and enjoyed typical Asturian cuisine!

Shoreline of Gijón before the weather shifted

A serving of Fabada for ONE person....Fabada is a typical bean stew of the region, so delicious!!

I got the Fabada of clams but I forgot the name

That's not even half of it! Just kidding we are getting closer. After Gijón, we drove to our cabin in the woods Airbnb in a village of maybe 15 people called Cien. It was hidden in the mountains and our Airbnb host had to meet us so we could follow her up the dirt road to our place. The house was so cool! We were practically camping because of the firewood heater and the lack of wifi, but with the amenities of a house, television and appliances. This was our base camp as we explored the surrounding region in the Picos de Europa National Park.

Posing with the chickens in our front yard

Our neighbors! No lie, these guys were about 20 feet in front of our Airbnb.

Ba Ram Ewe!! Has anyone ever seen Babe?

For next two days, we drove up the mountains of National Park. Some drives were a bit (VERY) scary but the views were incredible. A little city mouse like me was totally out of her element, but by the end of the trip, I was ready to move out here and raise sheep and chickens! We also visited nearby town Congas de Onis, famous for its old buildings, old bridges and overall old stuff. It was a cute little town and served as our homebase for supplies like hiking gear (just kidding) and goat cheese.

"Get me the DUCK off this mountain"

OK but take a photo first

My personal highlight was trying all the local cheeses :)

Guess why they built a little chapel in this cave? You guessed it! Someone saw a Virgin!

FINALLY, we finished our big trip with one final dinner in Burgos, in the Castilla y La Mancha region in Spain. We only spent a few hours in Burgos but I can already tell I really like it! They are famous for their Morcilla (blood sausage) which I can attest lives up to its expectation.