andy_g » Sat Sep 08, 2012 8:44 pm wrote:feck me, woof. i only just noticed that post of yours from 2 months back!! that's right where i live now... in gijon. not sure if you stopped off there or not. so where abouts did you go? how did your cider pouring technique come on? would have been a pleasure to share one with you.
I'd forgotten you'd moved from Barcelona up to Gijon otherwise I would have given you a shout.
Flew into Oviedo ,a nice enough town, stayed one night there before taking the narrow gauge railway (Feve) along the coast of Asturias and Galicia. Stopped off for a night or two at some little places here and there, principally Cudillero, Luarca and Viveiro. I was pleasantly surprised by how green northern Spain is, reminded me very much of Devon/Cornwall here in the UK.
Although not completely off the beaten track there were relatively few tourists (compared to the numbers you find in southern Spain) and consequently we struggled a bit with the language, very few people spoke English, even the woman staffing the tourist info centre in Oviedo spoke only Spanish and a bit of French. Ordering stuff in restaurants was also a challenge as again the majority only displayed their menu's in Spanish and we ended up eating some very surprising dishes, thankfully most of it very very good, I naturally tried the local cider but if truth be told I think it's an accquired taste
All in all we had a great time, the seafood was fantastic, the people were most hospitable and our Spanish improved with each passing day . You can keep your southern costas, Asturias is now deffo my favourite Spanish destination.