Asturias
The rain in Spain falls mainly in the north, which keeps it lush, green and blessedly free of tourists. Delight in the empty beaches, delicious cheeses and ciderhouses of Asturias, one of Spain's four 'autonomous communities' facing north into the Cantabrian Sea along with Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque country. The region is vibrantly urban in parts, but profoundly rural in others. It is maritime, but also mountainous - utterly distinctive, but oddly hard to pin down.
WHERE TO STAY IN ASTURIAS
ARTEHOTEL
Ballota, Cudillero, Asturias (00 34 985 598 111; www.artehotel.net). A curious example of what can happen when you put urban minimalism in a rural context. This is not high design, but 'domestic modern', breezily put together with affordable materials in black, white and primary colours. Everything is brand new. Not to everyone's taste, maybe, but certainly refreshing.
CASONA DE BUSTIELLO
Carretera Infiesto-Villaviciosa km16, Piloña, Asturias (00 34 985 710 445; www.hotelcasonadebustiello.com). Rambling country house in a splendid rural setting on an 11-hectare finca, with stables, a conservatory for cold, bright days, and nine guest rooms. £
CASONA DE LA PACA
El Pito, Cudillero, Asturias (00 34 985 591 303). A splendid casa de Indianos (see Villa La Argentina below for an explanation) from 1877, set in a garden of camellias and magnolias. Chintzy, comfortable, English-style decoration.
CASONA DE SAN ANDRES
San Andrés, Bárcena del Monasterio, Tineo, Asturias (00 34 985 804 071; www.sanandreshotel.com). Clean-lined, renovated farmhouse that's dog-friendly, family-friendly and refreshingly unpretentious. Owner Iris Garcia is your super-helpful host.
EL BABU
Carrales, Caravia, Asturias (00 34 985 853 272; www.elbabu.com). Between the Sueve mountains and the coast, this stone village house was brought radically up to date by its owners and architect Ricardo Lajara. The design is clever and chic, using neutral colours and modern materials, from RSJs to lime-and-mortar rendering.
LA POSADA DE BABEL
La Preda, Llanes, Asturias (00 34 985 402 525; www.laposadadebabel.com). Few rural hotels in Spain are more daringly contemporary than this. The design scheme is original and fascinating, and it works superbly in its rural context. Two suites and 10 rooms are housed in four highly individual buildings.
LA RECTORAL
Taramundi, Asturias (00 34 985 646 760; www.larectoral.com). The village of Taramundi, hard by the Galician border in a lush sylvan setting, was an early pioneer of rural tourism and is now almost entirely given over to it. La Rectoral is its most comfortable hotel, housed in what was once the rectory.
M HOTEL
Comandante Vallespín, Oviedo, Asturias (00 34 985 274 060; www.librettohotel.com). The hotel to stay at in Oviedo was until recently the Reconquista, a grand old pile done out in suffocating 19th-century style. The M Hotel and is sister establishment, the Libretto, have brought a breath of fresh air to a city as yet unused to contemporary style. M occupies a round tower-block a little way outside the old city, with rooms cleverly incorporated and thus unusually shaped. Decor is quirkily post-modern, with a touch of brothel kitsch in the zebra-skin alcove behind the beds. £££
NH PALACIO DE FERRERA
9 Plaza de España, Avilés, Asturias (00 34 985 129 080; www.nh-hotels.com). This restored 17th-century palace, on the main square in Avilés, makes a wonderful base for a visit to this rather under-appreciated city. ££
PALACIO DE PRELO
Prelo, Boal, Asturias (00 34 985 620 718; www.palaciodeprelo.com). This modest 'palace' in a remote hamlet in western Asturias, lay in ruins until Antonio Gomez Mendoza, an economist and Oxford don, transformed it into a small, luxury hotel. He has seamlessly combined rustic and modern, using local chestnut wood for the ceilings and multi-coloured slate for the floors, and lovingly preserving parts of the original house, such as the extraordinary chapel. The surroundings are beautiful, the silence deep. £££
TORRE DE VILLADEMOROS
Cadavedo, Valdés, Asturias (00 34 985 645 264; www.torrevillademoros.com). Sea breezes provide the air-conditioning at this former farmhouse with a medieval stone tower on the flat coastal shelf known as the 'Rasa Costera'. The interior design fearlessly combines the original stone with concrete columns, bright colours and plate-glass windows. Rooms are on the small side. £
VILLA LA ARGENTINA
Villar de Luarca, Asturias (00 34 985 640 102; www.villalaargentina.com). The Indianos were immigrants from Asturias who returned from the Americas with vast fortunes and built extravagant, colonial-style casas. Several are now hotels; this one, built in 1899, makes for a charming place to stay and is competitively priced. £
VILLA ROSARIO
6 Dionisio Ruisánchez, Ribadesella, Asturias (00 34 985 860 090; www.hotelvillarosario.com). This stunning casa de Indianos, an Art Nouveau masterpiece on the seafront at Santa Marina beach, dominates the surroundings with its delicious façade in Mediterranean blue. The first-floor suite is vast. £
WHERE TO EAT OUT IN ASTURIAS
CIDER HOUSES
CASA MUNIZ 16 La Lila, Oviedo, Asturias (00 34 985 203 259). Long-established sidrería just off Gascona (Oviedo's main cider drag). A little pricey but good, with plenty of atmosphere and free pinchos (snacks) handed round the tables.
EL TITI Basoreu, Nava, Asturias (00 34 985 716 711). This sidrería, run by Vicente 'Titi' Lafuente, sits in rolling countryside with views over apple and pear orchards and the mountains of Peña Mayor. Not far away is Nava, the cider capital of Asturias.
LA ZAMORANA Hermanos, 38-40 Felgueroso, Gijón, Asturias (00 34 985 380 632). Gijón's most prestigious cider house and seafood bar.
SIDRERIA EL PLANETA Tránsito de las Ballenas, Gijón, Asturias (00 34 985 346 508). There are excellent fish dishes, including an impeccable besugo a la espalda (whole fish split down the middle and baked in the oven), at this classic sidrería with panoramic views of Gijón harbour.
SIDRERIA TININ 18 M Caso de la Villa, Ribadesella, Asturias (00 34 985 861 261). Tinin is one of several sidrerías around the port of Ribadesella specialising in seafood raciones washed down with cider.
TIERRA ASTUR 1 Gascona, Oviedo, Asturias (00 34 985 20 05 02; www.tierra-astur.com). On Gascona, this sidrería is run by the reliable Crivencar group and is pleasantly decorated in rustic style. A small shop near the entrance sells Asturian products. Crivencar also has a bigger shop up by the central market.
RESTAURANTS
CASA GERARDO Carretera, Prendes, Asturias (00 34 985 588 7797; www.casa-gerardo.com). Both the arroz con leche and the fabada asturiana, twin pillars of the local repertoire, reach a pitch of perfection at Casa Gerardo. These days, however, under Pedro Morán and his son Marcos, this renowned restaurant is as well known for inventive modern cooking as for traditional Asturian staples.
CASA MARCIAL 10 La Salgar, Arriondas, Asturias (00 34 985 840 991; www.casamarcial.com). Chef Nacho Manzano holds court in what was once the family home, in a bucolic setting outside Arriondas. Manzano's reinterpreted traditional cuisine has won him two Michelin stars: maize tortillas with onion confit, egg, cream and Cabrales cheese, and his crunchy pancetta with fabada vinaigrette and raw vegetables are definitely worth trying.
EL ROMPEOLAS El Puerto, Tazones, Asturias (00 34 985 860 287). Famous for its delicious fritos de pixin (deep-fried monkfish), locally landed andaricas (crabs) and oven-baked fish.
GALLERY ART & FOOD 118 Carretera de la Costa, Gijón, Asturias (00 34 985 196 666). This new place - a combination of art space, contemporary restaurant and trendy watering-hole - has revolutionised the food scene in Gijón.
RESTAURANTE SIDRERIA JORGE Calle del Muelle, Asturias (00 34 985 648 211). Super-fresh fish and shellfish, just off the boat, are the best reasons to come here. Caldeirada, a mixed fish stew (originating in Portugal), is typical of the cuisine around Navia, as is venera, a kind of almond tart.
WHAT TO SEE IN ASTURIAS
BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS
ANCIENT SITE OF CASTRO DE COANA Coaña, Asturias. Driving inland from Navia on the AS-12, this neolithic site looms on a hilltop above the road, outside the town of Coaña. Castros (fortified villages) are two-a-penny in Asturias, but this one, with its honeycomb arrangement of circular stone huts, is impressive.
CHURCH OF SAN JULIAN DE LOS PRADOS, OVIEDO Oviedo, Asturias. It was once surrounded by meadows; now a motorway access road screams by. The interior of this ancient church (dating from the late eight century) is magical. San Julian is famous for its murals, which are geometrical and richly coloured.
CHURCH OF SAN SALVADOR DE VALDEDIOS Valdediós, Asturias. El Conventín ('The Little Convent'), as it's known locally, is a well-preserved late-ninth-century church in the lovely village of Valdediós, a few miles outside Villaviciosa.
PALACE OF SANTA MARIA DEL NARANCO, OVIEDO Monte Naranco, Oviedo, Asturias. This pre-Romanesque building, in a hillside pasture of Monte Naranco above Oviedo, is an exquisite little palace in pinkish stone, built for Asturian King Ramiro I in the mid-ninth century, and converted to a church in the 12th century. The entire corpus of Asturian pre-Romanesque architecture has now been declared a World Heritage site.
RURAL HOUSES AT BRANA DE LA PRONACAL, SOMIEDO Parque Natural de Somiedo, Asturias. Brañas were the communities of stone shacks which were inhabited by shepherds during their long stays in the high pastures in summer. This braña, in the heart of the Parque Natural de Somiedo, is one of the biggest and best-preserved in Asturias, and is still partly in use. It is reached on foot from the village of Villar de Vildas.
MUSEUMS
FUNDACION ARCHIVO DE INDIANOS: MUSEO DE LA EMIGRACION, COLOMBRES Quinta Guadalupe, Colombres, Asturias (www.archivodeindianos.es). Asturias' museum about the phenomenon of local emigration to Cuba, Argentina and Mexico is housed in the Quinta Guadalupe, built by Iñigo Noriega Laso when he returned from Mexico a rich man in 1906. A collection of documents and objects, as well as the house itself, throw light on this fascinating subject. The quinta's gardens are among the finest in the region.
MUSEO DE LA SIDRA - THE CIDER MUSEUM Plaza Principe de Asturias, Nava, Asturias (www.museodelasidra.com). Drive out to the orchards and the rolling hills between Nava, the capital town of 'La Comarca de la Sidra' (Cider County), and Villaviciosa.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES
CIMADEVILLA Gijón, Asturias. Gijón's old town, once the fishing quarter, still has loads of atmosphere and some great cider houses.
CUDILLERO Cudillero, Asturias. This attractive harbour town has something of a Mediterranean look when the sun is on it, picking out the colours of the brightly painted façades. The town has its own dialect, pixueto, shown off once a year on 29 June at the fiesta of San Pedro.
LASTRES Lastres, Asturias. Just when you thought the authentic working fishing village was a thing of the past, you come across Lastres: a real gem, bursting with salty charm.
LUARCA Luarca, Asturias. For many, Luarca is the most pleasant and genuine of all Asturian coastal villages. The village still depends largely on fishing to survive, and tourism has not yet made much of an impact. Mesón de la Mar on the harbourside does good seafood tapas.
PUERTO DE VEGA Puerto de Vega, Asturias. A perfect little fishing port midway between Navia and Luarca, reminiscent of the harbour villages on Cornwall's coast, only without the trippers.
TAZONES Tazones, Asturias. Little white houses with coloured balconies crowd up the cliffside, stone pathways rising steeply among them. Just 15 minutes' drive from Gijón on the new motorway, Tazones is in danger of becoming a victim of its own picturesqueness.
THINGS TO DO IN ASTURIAS
BEACHES
PLAYA DEL AGUILAR
East of Cudillero, Asturias. This splendid beach is reached by a narrow road which winds down through eucalyptus woods. Summer weekends see it fill up with families from nearby Avilés.
PLAYA DEL BARAYO
Near Sabugo, Asturias. The beach forms part of a natural park in Valdés, which includes a river estuary inhabited by otters. A path from the clifftop leads through forests and fields down to a superb stretch of sand. Few visitors bother to make the half-hour trek, which is why you should.
PLAYA DEL SILENCIO
Near Cudillero, Asturias. This aptly named beach (one of Spain's most beautiful) near Cudillero is remarkable not so much for the sand-and-stone beach itself, as for its impressive surrounding landscape of rock formations, cliffs and meadows. The bay encloses a circle of calm water for snorkelling.
PLAYA DE POO
Between Ribadesella and Llanes, Asturias. Popular with families, this is one of a string of pretty beaches between Ribadesella and Llanes. It follows the narrow mouth of an estuary, the rising tide transforming the energetic breakers into a peaceful lagoon. Various restaurants serve seafood and Asturian specialities.
PLAYA DE TORIMBIA
Niembro, Asturias. A spectacular, sweeping arc of sand, reached on foot from a clifftop car park, close to Niembro, west of Llanes. A small chiringuito above the beach sells drinks and snacks. Torimbia is known as Asturias' main nudist beach.
PLAYA DE VEGA
La Vega, Asturias. Reached through a narrow gorge with lush vegetation harbouring rare species, plant and amphibian. The village of La Vega is charming, the wide beach and dunes well preserved, and a few decent restaurants complete the picture.
DAY TRIPS
FEVE TRAIN
(www.feve.es). This narrow-gauge train creeps along the coast from Santander to Gijón and back, stopping at every tiny station along the way. Don't be in a hurry: the service runs just once or twice a day, depending on the season.
WHEN TO GO TO ASTURIAS
Summers are warm, with plenty of sunshine, though cooler, cloudier and wetter than elsewhere in Spain. Autumns and winters tend to be fairly wet and cloudy, hit by depressions from the Atlantic. The best month to go is July.
THE BEST WAY TO GET AROUND ASTURIAS
BY TRAIN Asturias and Santander is on Spain's national train grid - RENFE (www.renfe.es) trains run from many parts of the country and stop in Oviedo and Gijón.
BY BUS When travelling from one part of Asturias to another, or from Spain's interior to the province, check the regional bus company ALSA's schedules (www.alsa.es).
TRAVEL TIPS FOR ASTURIAS
CLASSIC ASTURIANO DISHES
Fabada - the signature dish of Asturias: a powerful stew of fabas (big white beans) with smoked chorizo, ham, morcilla and bacon.
Cabrales - Asturias has no fewer than 43 cheese products, making it undoubtedly the cheese capital of Spain. Cabrales, a powerful cow's-milk blue cheese, is a worthy rival to both Stilton and Roquefort, and possibly finer than either.
Empanada - shallow covered pie with a thick crust and various fillings such as tuna, minced meat or sardines.
Fritos de pixin - deep-fried monkfish chunks.
Torto de maiz - small maize-flour tortilla, often fried until it puffs up.
Pote - take-no-prisoners stew, typical of western Asturias, containing potato, cabbage, mixed meats and sausages.
Lacón - sweet-cured ham from the shoulder.
Chorizo a la sidra - chorizo in cider.
Arroz con leche - creamy rice pudding: the Asturiano dessert.
Casadielles - puff-pastry sweetmeats with walnut stuffing.
CIDERHOUSE RULES
Cider consumption in Asturias requires the drinker to observe three certain rules:
1. Sidra natural (natural, still cider) must always be served escanciada. The verb 'escanciar' means to tip the cider from the bottle into the glass from as great a height as possible, so that it splashes on the side of the glass (always thin and flat-bottomed) and becomes cloudy and oxygenated. The waiter will do this for you, or you can try it yourself. (No one will mind, except you, if most of the cider ends up on the floor.)
2. Once poured, the glassful must be downed in one. The oxygenating effect of escanciada only lasts a few seconds, after which the cider is thought to 'die'.
3. It is considered polite to leave a little cider in the bottom of the glass, to be thrown either on the floor or into a receptacle provided. This practice dates from the days when the glass was often shared between drinkers: the remaining liquid would be rinsed around the glass and thrown away before passing it on.
PLACES TO STAY
LES PRÉS D’EUGÉNIE, LANDES – SPA REVIEW
A spoiling, counter-intuitive diet from a legendary chef
Remember that famous scene in When Harry Met Sally? This is the spa world’s version of it. Sitting in the elegant restaurant of this renowned hotel while the twinkly-eyed chef-patron Michel Guérard – 86 years young, as slim as Fred Astaire and as energetic as a toddler – works the room, the only thing to do is turn to the waiter and say: ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’ Fortunately, that’s possible and not one single mouthful will feel like a hardship. Guérard has held three Michelin stars at this Gascony hideaway for a phenomenal 42 years. And while the inspectors and foodies never get past the full-fat foie-gras experience, he sticks to his cuisine minceur slimming programme, with calorie-controlled dishes that he has been refining since the 1970s in consultation with doctors and dieticians. His campaigning zeal is every bit as honed as his culinary talents and he is on a mission to prove that healthy food does not require any compromise on taste. There is simply nowhere better to shed a few pounds in style.
The hotel is a quintessential French estate with buildings spread over manicured gardens, fountains punctuating the stone paths, the swimming pool and tennis court hidden behind hedges. There are 33 bedrooms in the 19th-century villa and a dozen more divided between an 18th-century auberge and a 17th-century convent. All are decorated with a light country look, daintily carved dark wood furniture, toile de Jouy fabrics and vases of fresh flowers. It’s a civilised start. Breakfast is served in bed: coffee, grapefruit juice, muesli, breads and jams, all adding up to less than 300 calories. Treatments are taken in a Hansel and Gretel-style farmhouse surrounded by herbaceous borders. Here guests pull on smart dressing gowns of waffled cotton that button up to the neck, and sip delicious herbal teas fireside before wallowing in scented baths, sweating it out in steam rooms and submitting to body-sculpting hydro-jet massages so painful they feel like a crowd-dispersing water cannon.
Oviedo and Gijon are real night-owl cities. Thanks to its large student population, Oviedo has a lively after-dark scene, centred around Calle Mon and the narrow streets surrounding it. This is where there are more than 100 spots to drink and chill, many of them with live music. Most bars stay open until 3am on weeknights and are open as late as 5.30am on weekends. Dance clubs are open until 5.30am or even as “late” as 7am.
In Oviedo, you will find plenty of sidrerias (cider bars) along Calle Gascona, where many people start and finish the evening with a visit to a club in between. El Rosal is the heart of the younger nightlife scene, while the El Cristo area is full of more sophisticated spots attracting a more mature audience.
Hope this helped !!!
