 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
Asturias, that little bit different
We offer walking, cycling and touring holidays in Asturias. A key – and highly praised – ingredient of them all is the accommodation. Our hand-picked hotels of character tend to be small and intimate, priding themselves on the great attention to detail in the décor, the quality of the regional cuisine and, most importantly, the high level of personal service. From the Picos to the Sea (grade 2-3 walk) |
|
||
If southern Spain, the ‘classic’ face of the country most often depicted in photographs, is the chalk of the simile, then northern Spain is very definitely the cheese. Swap the olive groves of the south for apple orchards, the whitewashed villages for hamlets of weathered stone, the flocks of sheep for herds of dairy cows, and the expanses of sparse vegetation on ochre-coloured soil for thick carpets of grass, and you have a more accurate picture of the north – there is certainly no irony behind the name La España Verde (‘Green Spain’).
Asturias, right in the heart of Green Spain, is no exception. Other than the great natural beauty of the lush green landscapes (this is a region that more than lives up to its tourist board’s slogan of ‘paraíso natural’ – ‘nature’s paradise’), what strikes the first-time visitor is the proximity of the jagged limestone mountains to the sea. So close to the Atlantic are they that in the great era of exploration they served as an excellent navigational reference to sailors on their homeward journey, who called them the Picos de Europa (‘Peaks of Europe’). Riddled with deep gorges and so wild that the remotest areas are home to a small number of bears, they are seemingly omnipresent, providing a spectacular backdrop to the timeless stone villages, verdant meadows, broad valleys and the rugged coastline whose sandy bays and tiny coves become ever more dramatic – and quiet – the further west you travel. Many British visitors draw parallels between the landscapes of Asturias and those of Wales, and the similarities do not end there: Asturias has a vibrant Celtic culture (local folk music often features the gaita, or bagpipe); the heir to the Spanish throne is known as the Príncipe de Asturias, just as the next in line in Britain is the Prince of Wales; and the national dress of the two is quite similar.
Visit the region and most Asturians will tell you that you are discovering ‘real’ Spain – not only because, despite its recognition as an excellent region for walking and cycling, it remains much less visited than other, more southerly parts of Spain, but because it was the only province never to have been conquered by the Moors, whose influence on southern architecture, cuisine and even agriculture endures to this day. Indeed, it was from Asturias – and more specifically Covadonga, where there is now a shrine – that King Pelayo launched the Christian reconquest of Spain in 718. Covadonga and its lakes are considered one the ‘must-sees’ if you are exploring with a car, as are the rare examples of 9th-century pre-Romanesque churches, a more concrete reminder that Asturias was the birthplace of Christian Spain; the Garganta Divina, a 1,000-metre deep gorge in the Picos; and charming fishing villages such as Llanes and Cudillero. The wealth of different sights in a relatively small area is astonishing.
The variety in the landscape is matched only by that of the cuisine. The mountains provide game such as deer and wild boar, while the Atlantic supplies an abundance of fish and seafood: sardines, tuna, crab, lobster, xaragu… Beans (fabes) are common, and are a staple ingredient of the traditional Asturian dish fabada (pork, sausage and bean stew) as well as fabes con almejas (beans with clams). The range of cheeses is extraordinary – the official Asturias website lists a staggering twenty-four types – encompassing varieties made from cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk. Some are soft; others, hard. Some are smoked or fermented, others are very mild-tasting. One of the most well-known is Cabrales, a strong sheep’s milk blue cheese that is matured in caves. Another important element of Asturian gastronomy is its cider (sidra), around which a tradition has been built relating to its consumption. Waiters hold the bottle above their heads and pour an inch or so into a pint-sized glass held at thigh level so as to oxygenate it. Without putting the glass down on the table (this would let the cider settle again), you drink it all in one go, leaving a little so that you can swill it round the glass and tip it onto the sawdust to ‘clean’ the glass before passing it on to the next person in your party. It’s just another quirk that makes Asturias that little bit different…