Ribadesella

Ribadesella is a small market town on the Costa Verde built around the estuary of the River Sella. It's most famous in Asturias, and probably the rest of Spain for all I know, for the competitive descent of the river by canoe every August; a time when the town becomes packed with locals and tourists alike and a festive atmosphere takes control of the town.

We'd visited the town once before, last year while we were camping further east on the coast, to visit the impressive Cueva de Tito Bustillo: a system of caves housing paleolithic paintings named after the caver who discovered them. Following our subterranean adventures we'd then had a walk around the town centre and along the beach in somewhat windy and cloudy weather, decided that Ribadesella was a nice enough town, and returned to our campsite.

After our second visit to the town during this year's summer holiday at Vega, Ribadesella has gone up in my estimation. The historic centre of this market town is full of gorgeous old buildings and the beach is lined with colourful villas that I would love to explore. Admittedly, we visited out of season - Ribadesella is one of the main resorts along this stretch of coast and the outskirts of town are filled with vile holiday flats, but at the beginning of September I found the town to be friendly, unpretentious and rather beautiful. It doesn't die come September like so many holiday towns, but rather it seemed that the locals reclaim it and life goes on as normal until the tourists hit the town the following season.

View from the car park - low tide in the estuary

The beach at Ribadesella

Somebody let me at them! Wonderful, wonderful buildings.

Wednesday is market day in Ribadesella, as we were to discover. The market stalls included the traditional as well as the more modern, imported-from-Asia, items unfortunately found in most small-towns around here nowadays.

Cheese stall selling locally made produce

Matt bought a smoked cheese, made in Llanes - the next large town along the coast to the east, and declared it delicious upon tasting.

Even had it not been market day, I still would've enjoyed our wander around the town. I must've been too busy trying to keep warm in the cold wind during my previous vist as this time all sorts of decorative gems caught my eye:

One in a series of tiled murals along the esturary walk, showing scenes in the history of Ribadesella.

Painted tiles on a gift shop facade

How to make posting a letter more fun

After walking around the town we made our way up the hill to the east of the beach, overlooking the beach and town.

We then made our way back down to the town for lunch. On the way we happened across a very handsome and friendly gentleman and I stopped to flirt for a while.

Even Matt was tempted to take him home. But when he jumped down as we were leaving, lay down on the sunny path and happily started to clean himself, without giving us a second glance, we decided that he mustn't have a bad life where he was and decided to leave him in Ribadesella.

A splendid three-course lunch followed my little flirtation. As veggie options do not abound in Asturias, I normally hate going out for lunch. However, we found a wonderful old tavern that was willing to do me a salad and egg and chips - my usual lunchtime fare - and I was very impressed by the multi-ingredient salad that came to begin with and also with the main course that followed: home-made chips and egg fried so that the yolk was just starting to turn solid around the edges but was still runny in the centre - perfection. After many, many lunches involving the same dishes, I am now an expert critic and this was the best lunch I've had since I've been here. Matt praised his seafood paella, followed by an equally tasty grilled sea bass (apparently). The set menu also included a bottle of red wine, water and desert. Matt opted for the creme caramel (a Spanish staple, but this was a posh home-made version) and I had blackcurrant cheesecake, which is one of my all-time favourites. Deserts are normally the weakest point of Spanish lunchtime menus, but on this occasion they were more than up to scratch.

After another brief wander around the town to walk lunch down, we headed sleepily back to the car with the idea of having a siesta when we returned to the tent.

Boat graveyard in the Sella esturary

I carried on snapping until the last minute, giving Ribadesella the accolade of favourite town on the Asturian coast while I did.

Pre-holiday adventures

OK, so I sort of lied in my last post. Before I tell you all about my 'holiday' holiday, this post is all about my 'friends visiting' holiday just before, which was as much fun, though for different reasons. Matt was not at all sure what to expect when I announced that four of my girlfriends were coming for a flying visit, but I think he enjoyed himself too.

We were all convinced Dawn was cursed - last time she came it started raining as soon as she arrived and things followed a similar pattern on this occasion. However, everyone seemed to be determined to make the most of our terrace and we spent the first evening and following afternoon outside with our beer/cava jackets on.

Who needs a coat when you have cava?

Modelling the latest headgear.

The first of many (as I'm sure you guessed).

How to keep warm and drink in style at the same time.

I may have to beg forgiveness for posting those photos at a later date, so moving quickly on...

The third day of the visit dawned bright and sunny, Asturias was at its best and I was ready to show off the region to my friends. However, once we made our way up to the Peña Mayor the clouds reappeared so we quickly scoffed a picnic lunch and hid in a bar in Pola De Laviana, a town up the valley, while we waited for the weather to make up its mind.

This is where we ended up after:

Ladines is a traditional Asturian village in Redes Park. It's probably my favourite village there.


Admiring the view

Cheeky kitten on an horreo

After a wander round the village we stopped at another bar (can anyone see a pattern developing?) to enjoy the full sun and were joined by two enthusiastic young cats who proceed to show off. The lighter-coloured one sat on my lap once they'd worn each other out and purred contentedly. Depsite much encouragement from Dawn I managed to resist taking her home - Matt and our three would not have thanked me for it.

Also on the bar's terrace was this glorious sunflower.

In true Spanish style, we left Ladines and headed to a cafe for more goodies - cakes this time. I give English lessons to the cafe's owner, who sometimes gives me a package of edible treats after our Friday lesson, much to Matt's delight.



As if that wasn't enough we then headed home for more beer/cava before we went out for a very piggy meal at a local restaurant. It was a rather decadent few days but I see my friends so little I feel I have a good enough excuse for all that indulging.

Next up, my beach-camping holiday. Unless the cats beat me to it - they're been tagged by Lorenzo and inspired by Plumpy. I can't say what will come first.

Visitors

Before I start, I'd like to make it clear that I'm normally very good at remembering to make sure I have a functioning camera on me. However, this last week when Sue and Simon were visiting, my brain became all fluffy in the camera department which meant that on one occasion I forgot to take spare batteries with me, just when it needed them. And then when we went camping I forgot to take it with me altogether. Explanation given, here's my account of the last week:

I always look forward to visits and was not disappointed by this one. Sue arrived at the airport (only forty minutes late) and we made it back to El Entrego just before Simon's train arrived at the station. Good timing. It didn't seem obvious that he'd been out the night before until about five am and in fact Sue was the one slacking by the time we'd had our dinner, although it wasn't late by the time were all tucked up in bed.

On the Sunday we went for a long walk on the land above the house - we normally do one of two routes when we're up there, but this time Matt decided to combine them into one long one. This was a slight shock to our system and an even bigger one to Simon's - I kept promising that this was going to be the last 'up bit' we did and then Matt changed the route again and there was more 'up'. Sorry Simon!




Sue and Simon on our Sunday 'stroll', with the Peña Mayor in the distance.











For a change the next day we decided to go and see the bears and do the nearby cycle route. Sue was most excited by this prospect and wanted to know if they were 'as big as Gentle Ben'. However, due to significant alcohol consumption and lots of mountain air the previous day we stumbled out of bed too late to make the bears and opted instead for another walk.

This time we went up into the Parque Natural de Redes, a national park just up the valley from us which encompases over 370 square kilometres of woodland, meadows, mountains, lakes and streams, along with traditional Asturian villages. We chose a route which started from a village high up in the park, Tarna, and which led to a waterfall. On the leaflet we'd been given in the tourist office, the route was described as easy and taking three and a half hours. Ha! It was a climb from the start, past verdant, and tree-filled meadows. We found a flat-ish flower-covered meadow with stunning views to stop in for lunch and then valiantly resumed the hike. The two lightest members of our party, Matt and Sue, also with the longest legs strode ahead while Simon and I trundled along behind.

The next part of the walk passed through an old beech forest - where, to be fair, it did flatten out and we were able to catch our breath, fortunately, as we had rather full bellies from lunch - which so reminded me of Klimt's paintings that I thought he could've done them there - dappled light falling down through green leaves onto the earth below. It was incredibly peaceful. I could've stopped then and there and spent the afternoon relaxing beneath the tree tops.


Seeing as I forgot the batteries you'll have to make do with Klimt.


Instead, we carried on and made our way out of the forest, down a slope to unspoiled meadows and, at last the waterfall in the distance. As we slowly got nearer, we had to ford the stream from the waterfall several times - I was pleased I had my trusty hiking stick with me - and then made our way up the slope to observe the cascade from higher up. Easy? No way, but by now my legs had finally warmed up and got into the swing of things so I climbed on ahead up the slope with Matt. Reaching the top was wonderful and made the hike up there worthwhile. There were views of the surrounding mountains, and the waterfall itself, which fell from a height of 1,800 metres (we must've been at about 1,600). The spray cooled us down as we stood at it's side comtemplating the rush of glacial water falling past us. (It's here where I curse myself yet again for forgetting fresh batteries for the camera. If Sue sends me her pictures I shall post them for you.)

After two days of long walks - never mind three and a half hours, the last one took at least five - we had a day of rest on the Tuesday- with mango and cava cocktails in the evening - and then headed to Vega beach on Wednesday to do a spot of camping. So busy was I rushing around to get everything ready so we could camp in comfort that, yes, I forgot the camera.


Enjoying cava and mango cocktails.


Vega campsite is our favourite on the Costa Verde - it's small, friendly, well-run and all the pitches are separated by hedges making it private too. The owner himself is from El Entrego so they're particulalry friendly with us, even though we only go for the odd night in the summer when we have free time. They know me there as la inglesa de El Entrego (the Englishwoman from El Entrego). So, as a reward for two tiring walks we took two lazy days on the beach, reading, jumping waves, playing Scrabble (in English and Spanish), and eating and drinking to our heart's content. The sea at Vega can be very surfy and I have a memorable image of Sue, Simon and me, in a line, jumping waves, all desperately holding onto our bikini bottoms/swimming trunks as each rather large wave approached and we whooped with delight. The sunsets are also particularly spectacular at Vega - the sun sets over the sea - and we spent one evening contemplating the sun as it disappeared below the water, and then, in the dying light, Sue happily contemplated the surfers in their tight wetsuits.


By the time we got back on Friday afternoon we were all to tired to do much more than unpack and have a nice cup of tea with some biscuits. Matt dashed off to his guitar lesson and the rest of us settled down on the sofa for a few episodes of Sex and the City which Sue had kindly brought me as a present. A perfect ending to a enjoyable, but tiring, week (I think it was the Bacardis on the Thursday night camping followed by hot chocolate with brandy that really did for me). I'm spending today recovering.

Birthday weekend

I had a full, but happy birthday weekend. I managed to escape from work at 6.30 on Friday to meet my Mum, Keith, her partner, and Matt and we went straight to the house my mum has in a hamlet near here for the weekend.

We had a tasty dinner of home grown broad beans and new potatoes, with a herb omelette made with fresh, free-range eggs from our neighbour, washed down with some very quaffable red wine that they'd brought from France.

Saturday morning we went up the Peña Mayor, and it was cloudy, again. I keep saying that the next time I do it, it'll be with clear skies but I haven't made it yet. We only did part of the walk as the meadows were covered with 'viscious' horned cows - my mum has a slight bovine-taurine phobia since she was chased by a bull years ago - so we turned back once the cows became too numerous, mum looking over her shoulder just to make sure we weren't being followed by the beasts. To be fair, there were so many cow bells ringing it did sound as though we were carefully being stalked and surrounded. The effect was heightened by the birds circling low, overhead - I think they were of the same type we saw last time, eagles or possibly vultures we think; we've been speaking to people in the know and you get griffon and Egyptian vultures in the area, as well as golden, short-toed and booted eagles.


Horse and foal on the Peña Mayor - the meadows were full of horses and their young.



A nosy calf - this my mother could handle - no horns yet!



One cow too many - this was when we had to turn back.

Anyway, we eventually made our escape down the mountain, unharmed, you'll be pleased to know, and completed our Saturday with a piggy lunch at the local bar near the house, where Keith was invited to join in with the locals chess game - he politely declined saying to us he'd never known a game of chess to be so loud - and we went back to the house for a relaxing afternoon on the terrace.


The hamlet taken on our way back from lunch.


We awoke on the Sunday to bright sun - perfect for the Peña Mayor if only we hadn't already been up there the day before. So we decided to go to the beach and spent the afternoon at Vega. I had been looking forward to a doze in the sun but we spent it jumping waves, walking along the beach and finding unusual stones - the geology of the area is quite interesting, even for someone like me who normally takes little interest in that sort of thing - and there are all types of rocks and stones on the beach in as many colours as you can imagine with lots of blue-green coppery shades mixed with deep red sandstone and seams of white marble in jet-black rock.

When we finally made it back home after dropping mum and Keith off at her house for their last night we were too tired to do much celebrating. We poshed up a simple pasta dinner with a bottle of something sparkling, then watched James and the Giant Peach on DVD before going to bed.


A birthday tipple.


I'd left the boxes of books in the kitchen to be dealt with on Monday morning and I've just about got them all squeezed into the office now. Unpacking them was great, I kept discovering books I'd forgotten about and would squeal or "ooh" and "ahh" with glee whenever I came across one. I now also have a good stock of new books from Amazon that should keep me going for a fair while too.




Elbi investigating my books - she had to be removed when the nibbling started.

A Bears' Picnic

As promised in my last post here is what we got up to last Sunday while Dawn and Rich were visiting. We went to see bears. To be more specific, two Cantabrian brown bears named Paca and Tola.

These two bears were found 18 years ago after their mother had illegally been shot and killed by hunters. As a threatened species, and because they were too young to survive on their own they had to be hand-reared and could then not be released back into the wild as they were too used to humans, and hunters were still a very real threat. Instead, a five-hectare enclosure was built for them - in their natural habitat, the same area that other brown bears are to be found, in the Proaza area. This is in the mountains to the west of where we live, about an hour's drive away. There's also a walking/cycling route along the valley that passes by the enclosure (I've read accounts of the bears following walkers on the other side of the fence), we intend to take the bikes next time we visit and make a day if it. By last Sunday, I had been wanting to visit for a long time and we all rather excited when we arrived.

Every day at twelve the bears are fed by the warden who looks after them and people can watch. We arrived just before twelve to find the two of them tirelessly pacing back and forth, waiting for food. The warden arrived and opened their feeding enclosure into which they eagerly scurried. What amazed me most was how they ate their food. I was expecting them to chomp down and scoff everything quickly, but no. They took apples and pears from the hand of the warden with the greatest care, opened oranges up with their claws and gently scraped the flesh out, then meticulously shelled peanuts before popping them into their mouths.

It really was wonderful to watch. After about half an hour most people left, but we stayed transfixed by two creatures that looked very cuddly and cute, although we could sense the power behind those padded paws and the damage they could do. At the end, one of the bears refused to leave; she wanted more food but they always refuse to give them too much in order to force them to look for other sources and keep their diet as natural and varied as possible. Because she was so stubborn the warden got out a hose pipe with a water pistol on the end and gave her a good hosing down, although she decided that this was an excellent moment for a drink too.

I was very impressed with the way the warden 'presented' the bears. As they had only recently come out of hibernation they were over 40 kilos lighter, and much smaller, than they would have been in the autumn and did almost look like giant teddy bears. However, he made it clear that they were still wild animals and deserved to be treated with respect and caution. He never entered their feeding enclosure and always fed them through the bars. I normally don't hold with keeping wild animals captive, but in this case think an excellent solution was found with what to do with two bear cubs. The bears live in the most natural habitat as possible and at the same time the public are educated about them - there's a centre down the road dedicated to informing visitors about the Cantabrian Brown Bear, which has free entry, (neither do you have to pay to see the bears). According to the warden, numbers of the Cantabrian Brown Bear, which had dwindled to a dangerously low level, have now risen to a safer 170. Although this still seems a frighteningly low figure to me I find it comforting to know that the same children whose ancestors would've have hunted this animal are now being taught to respect it.

Oviedo and the latest on Woody Allen

Yesterday was Matt's mum's last full day here and we decided on a trip to Oviedo to round off her visit. Oviedo is the regional capital of Asturias, and a highly-pleasant city to walk around. It has a lovely old town, where you'll find the excellent Museo de Bellas Artes or Fine Art Museum, which has free entry. There are works inside by Dali, Picasso, Goya and many more. The museum itself is situated in two gorgeous, well-maintained buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Despite the magnificence of the museum, I was very upset to find that my favourite painting (by a Catalan artist, Hermen Anglada Camarasa) had been put into storage for an indefinite period in order to show other paintings in the collection - I made my disappointment known, though I doubt this will influence their decision as to when to take it out again. One of my other favourite paintings there is by an Asturian painter, Evaristo Valle, who usually puts a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour into his paintings. It's entitled "Adam and Eve" - the picture is of a bookmark I bought, I hope you can make out Eve's stilettos and the wonderful expression on her face! (Adam isn't on the bookmark but in the picture he's standing facing Eve and hiding a whole bunch of apples behind his back.)

Another reason I enjoy visiting Oviedo is the many statues that are dotted around the city. It's always fun when you come across one you haven't seen before, especially when of it's a giant, rounded bottom.

Another of my favourites is this one. I think the baby's great.

Also, in the old town are numerous bars where you can stop for a rest and a drink. This is a common part of Spanish culture that I enjoy indulging in and yesterday was no different. (Although, this pastime has been threatened since the arrival of the euro in Spain which has caused prices to increase dramatically. In a recent TV interview by 100 chosen people the Spanish President, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, made a bit of a fool of himself when asked if he knew how much a coffee cost nowadays in an average bar, his confident answer - 80 cents - was about 50% short of the mark).

Matt's Mum and I having a rest.

After the trip to the museum, a coffee/water (for me) break, a wander round the indoor and outdoor markets and pre-prandial visit to another bar (for a beer), it was time for lunch. Lunch in Spain is the big meal of the day, so we made our way through a three-course meal, bread and wine and wobbled out of the restaurant over an hour later.

A plant and flower stall at the outdoor market.

After this we visited the foodhall of the Corte Ingles, a large department store. We always visit the supermarket section when we're in Oviedo as it's possible to find foodstuffs there that aren't sold elsewhere. My discovery of Haloumi cheese in the 'gourmet' foodhall last summer made my entire year. It's also the place to go for oats, Colman's mustard powder, Marmite and other British delicacies we've forgotten to ask friends to bring when they visit.

No trip to Oviedo would be complete without a visit to Woody Allen. I'm pleased to report that the city council has still not replaced the half of his glasses that disappeared over a year ago. I'm still trying to figure out just how they were removed as the remaining half looks melted. On his last visit to the city (about twelve months ago), he noticed the vandalism but stated he was sure the glasses would be repaired very quickly, hee, hee. I wonder when he's coming back.

Aparently he's a big fan of the city - the rather sickening quote on the plaque below the statue reads "Oviedo is a delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, agreeable, peaceful, pedestrianised city. It's as if it didn't belong to this world, as if is didn't exist...Oviedo is like a fairytale". (I'm translating from Spanish here so can't promise it's exactly what he said.) Ugh, you can see why they commisoned a statue of him, they apparently thought he'd earned it with all that brown-nosing. Still, now that the glasses are half-missing it makes a visit to Oviedo even more enjoyable.

A day at the beach and the rest of the week

We've had Matt's mum staying with us this last week, and yesterday, with the idea of showing her some of what Asturias has to offer, we went to our favourite beach at Vega.

Unfortunately, much of the Costa Verde, as the Asturian coastline is known, is becoming highly developed. However, due to the presence of some interesting geological formations, the land directly behind this beach is a protected area. This makes it very hard for even the most determined developer to get his dirty paws on it, no matter how many brown paper envelopes he produces. I'm keeping my finger crossed it remains this way because the beach is wonderfully unspoilt and, even at the height of summer, relatively quiet. The village of Vega is also very lovely as it's mostly traditional stone houses, many of them with walled gardens. If I ever come by a vast amount of money, this is where I would choose to own a house.

We passed several relaxing hours on the beach. I wasn't quite brave enough to go in the water - it was only the 21st April after all, and the water at Vega is never very inviting, even in September when it's been warming all summer. After that we hopped into the car and drove west along the coast to Llastres. Matt and I had driven through the village one cold, wet day in December when we first arrived in Asturias. We found the place much more to our liking yesterday. It's a Cornwallesque village, built on cliffs overlooking a harbour, and again, full of traditional houses. We had a beer in a bar overlooking the port while we drank up the view. I was tempted to change my 'ideal house location' to Llastres, but in the end decided Vega had the edge due to the large, peaceful beach and not being packed in summer. Still, were it to be offered, a house in Llastres would do me fine.

Above Llastres, looking towards the Picos de Europa.





Matt and I looking none too pleased to be photographed.




Houses overlooking the harbour.


Also this week we've made it up to the land above the house for a quick walk before I had to have lunch and dash off to work. We normally only go on days when I'm not working, but it was so relaxing I shall make a point of getting up there more often on work days. Despite it being hectic at the Academia this last week - the sun has made the students more boisterous - the weather has put me in an excellent mood, as can be evinced by my springing out of bed at a vaguely decent hour.




Taken from our terrace this week. Early morning (for us anyway) cloud in the valley.




On our morning walk.


A slow worm, seen on the way back from our walk.


A recent sunset. Since the clocks have gone forward I can sometimes get back home from work in time to enjoy them.