Asturias - Day 1

This weekend was made possible by a Christmas present from Bebo and Gary, thanks guys. On Friday evening, we packed up and headed out of cold and rainy Madrid for Asturias, a region in the north western part of Spain famous for its cheeses, milk, honey, cider, and other foods. Along the way, we had sun, ice, snow, rain, clouds, and any other kind of weather you can imagine just on our ride from Madrid to Llanes. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach in the part of Asturias called Llanes. We spent Saturday riding through back mountain roads and checking out the Picos de Europa, one of the taller mountain ranges in Spain. The weather was perfect, around 50, and we found lots of good food and had a good time with our two friends who came along. In one small town called Covadonga, we found a waterfall type setting that was turned into a memorial to some virgin in the catholic faith and the story goes that if you are a girl and drink from the water, you will become pregnant. If you are a man and drink from the water, you will have a boy first. There are a couple of lakes further into the mountains that we could not visit because the road had been cut off due to the bad snow. We had lunch in a lovely little cafe in a small town called Arenas and the owner served us delicious lamb, steak, and salmon. He later showed us his cash register that was made in Ohio, back when the US actually made stuff. In Llanes, we spent the evening visiting some of the cider shops, where the Asturians have perfected the art of pouring cider from over the head down into a cup held below their waste at a side angle without looking at what they are doing. The food was good as we were all excited to try the famous Asturian dish Fabada, a mix of large white beans, sausage, blood sausage, cured ham chunks, and a wonderfully greasy stew base. Our Saturday was well spent and the beautiful weather made it all the better as everyone back in Madrid suffered through nasty rain all day. Enjoy the pictures, we certainly enjoyed the process of taking them.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

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