Venturing North: Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria

Santiago de Compostela

Our roadtrip began in the lovely, quaint town of Santiago de Compostela in the Northwest corner of Spain. Also known as the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela is home to a BEAUTIFUL cathedral that has given this tiny town a place on the map as it is known all over the world as the ending point of the infamous Catholic pilgrammage route called the 'Way of St. James' or 'Camino de Santiago'. Aside from these tiny bits of knowledge, we landed in Galicia's capital with absolutely no expectations which may be part of the reason that it turned out to be our favorite stop of the trip.

After dropping off luggage in our perfectly quaint Bed and Breakfast in the center of town we wandered off into the night to capture some pictures of the breathtaking cathedral and fulfill our cravings with an enormous plate of tapas (for the same price in Madrid you would be lucky to get 1/4 the amount of food) and wine. By the end of the night we had come to a couple of conclusions: 1) We highly underestimated this lively little town and 2) We attract crazy people. Or highly intoxicated...it was hard to differentiate. FOR EXAMPLE...a highly intoxicated bum (who may have also been crazy) decided to sit next to our table while slurring nonsense to us and giving the finger to everyone who walked by. After about a half hour of witnessing this we decided to finish up our food and get ready to leave. Seeing that we were finished, crazy bum lady asked if we were going to eat our last piece of bread. 'No, here', we said in sweet little angelic voices while handing her the bread. She said thank you and Maria and I looked at each other, proud to have done what we both thought was somewhat of a 'good deed'. Minutes later, she chucks the piece of bread (she had quite the arm) at innocent groups of passerbyers. It was all we could do not to burst out laughing, but we refrained for fear of being strangled. Luckily, no one was critically injured during this process and I think she was unsatisfied with her aim and the fact that no one had noticed her destructive behavior, so a minute or two later she gets up in a rage and angrily stomps on the same piece of bread. And so begins our epic journey in the North of Spain.

The next morning we got an early start so we could see the city in daylight before heading out to pick up our car that we rented for the weekend. We made a pitstop in a cute little cafe and enjoyed delicious pastries and a traditional almond 'Santiago cake'. Seeing the cathedral during the day was just as beautiful but the best part by far was being able to see hikers stumble into the 'finish line' of what is estimated to be a 30-day journey (or 900km) beginning in France, going through the Pyrenees, and finishing at the cathedral. We saw tons of  'Camino de Santiago' signs as well as hikers throughout the trip indicating that we were driving along the route as we conquered the coastline of Northern Spain (does it still count as a spiritual journey if we drove through the camino in a car..?;)).

We headed to the train station to begin Part II of our journey...driving a car in Espana! After assuring that we paid for FULL-insurance we spent a good twenty minutes figuring out the navigation system in the car (we named it Raquel) as well as figuring out the TomTom one of our teacher's had lent to us ('Mandy' was the designated name that came with the 'USA' selection). So with some help from Mandy and Raquel we eventually headed out towards our first destination called Playa de Catedrales (Cathedral Beach). Aside from an unnecessary amount of roundabouts we quickly discovered that driving on the highways in Spain is quite comparable to driving back home.

Playa de Catedrales

Our misty journey to Playa de Catedrales confirmed all that we had heard about the North: lots of grey skies, some rain here and there, and an infinite amount of beautiful GREEN landscape as a result. Our time spent on this infamous beach was short-lived due to windy and chilly weather conditions but it was beautiful nonethelsss!

At our second destination of the day you will find us marveling at the Asturian countryside via a private hour-long horseback riding adventure while simultaneously falling in love with a dog named Beethoven. Our native-to-Madrid horseback riding instructors summed it up nicely: 'You definitely won't find this beauty of nature back in Madrid but Asturias is only good for visiting...it's boring to live here'. From the number of cow-to-people ratio we had witnessed so far, I'm sure we could have guessed that...but the beauty of Northern Spain sure is worth the visit!!!

From our horseback riding adventure we drove another fifteen minutes to the first (but certainly not the last) tiny port town we encountered on the trip. Luarca was a quaint little village and the unique Victorian-antique-ish style Bed and Breakfast was home to our second night's stay. After getting settled into our lovely little room we set out to visit the city of Oviedo where we tried reaaaaally hard to act interested in the tourist sights but we were starving and the hour-long drive turned out to be more for the sake of a delicious four-course Italian meal than anything else. C'est la vie!

The next day we set out relatively early after a European breakfast of croissants and coffee at our Victorian-style hotel. Our first stop was in another port town called Gijòn where we wandered around for over an hour taking in sights of the port, the beach, a local Sunday market, and rows upon rows of Sidreria restaurants. It should be noted that Sidreria restaurants in the north are known for their 'Sidra', an alcoholic cider made in the Asturian region that I don't recommend drinking if not purely for the reason that you can say that you did. It's strange bitter taste doesn't leave you begging for more (or not me, at least) but we were determined to have authentic sidra in Asturias, poured by an authentic-Asturian waiter himself.

'Authentic' sidra pour

There is a 'special pour' that sidra consumers typically do in order to aerate the cider and improve the taste. BUT. Somehow, out of all of the Sidrerias in Gijòn, we chose the ONE restaurant that cheats out on the sidra experience and hands you a bottle with a tiny apparatus on the top to aerate it FOR you (lame!). We attempted to replicate our idea of an 'authentic' Austurian sidreria experience and pretend like we knew how to pour it while also trying to force ourselves to enjoy the taste. Since northern Spain is also known for their meat, the steak-and-fries combo meal following the sidra was so delicious that it came close to making up for the Sidreria let down as a whole;).

Anyways, feeling overall satified with our meal and the city of Gijòn we headed back to our PRIME parking spot near the port only to find a FAT parking ticket adorning our window. Rather than disclosing the price of our ridiculous fine I will assure you that we are INNOCENT and it was an honest mistake;). But really. We drove around in search of the police station for far too long in an attempt to explain ourselves and play the 'dumb tourist' card to no avail. Sigh. We finally got the heck out of Gijòn and even with the minor mishaps we experienced while we were there, it was still one of our favorites cities that we visited over the course of the weekend.

Our next stop brought us to Playa de la Griega which is just one small portion of a stretch of beaches in Asturias where you can find actual dinosaur footprints! While we hiked the short trail leading up to what looked like 'Little Foot' prints (Land Before Time, anyone?!), the surrounding landscape actually somewhat resembled Jurassic Park (I'm sure my raptor imitations made the entire experience that much more authentic to everyone around us as well.;)). 

From dinosaur-land we drove aimlessly towards Cantabria's 'Picos de Europa' a beautiful, rugged mountain range that was presumably the first sight of Euope spotted by ships coming from the Americas back in the day (hence it's name, the Peaks of Europe). While following very random and infrequent signs towards the Picos de Europa National Park we got lost on the windy roads and simply enjoyed the surrounding views as we drove through the mountains without a care in the world.

From the Picos we made one last pit stop in another cute little port town called Llanes before heading to the tiny village of Santiallana del Mar where we would spend our last night of the trip. Santiallana del Mar is a part of the autonomous region of Cantabria and is also known to many as the most beautiful village not only in Catabria but in Spain. 'A town frozen in time' is how one of the teacher's at our school described it best. Santiallana truly seems to be frozen in time with it's medevial architecture and it's claim- to-fame Altamira Caves where you can find the oldest cave paintings in the world.

After touring around the tiny village the following day we headed to Santander to conclude the final leg of our epic weekend adventure. Aside from a near-death experience and a small spill on Maria's shirt we successfully filled our gas tank, returned our dear rental car (hasta luego, Raquel!) and headed into the heart of Santander for half a day of exploring and much of this time dedicated to napping on the beach while sumultaneously acquiring less than ideal tan lines (well...burn lines). Sigh...life is rough;). If I could sum up the weekend in a single word it would be...spontaneous! We had a blast driving around somewhat aimlessly at times and seeing various parts of the North of Spain as we pleased!:)

Hastaaa luego!

...pictures to come soon:)...

Next stop: another 'vacation away from a vacation' to the island of Mallorca!!:)