Around Asturias in gin and tonics.

A few weeks ago I had the company of my lovely Mum for the weekend and I thought she would appreciate a blog post about her!

Firstly, I think it’s very important to note that our hotel – WAS AWESOME. I booked us into the “Spaceship” (AKA Calatrava) which is a huge building in the middle of Oviedo; part hotel, part shopping centre and part office building. Our room was very, very, very high up, giving us amazing views of the mountains out of the floor to ceiling windows.

AND! We had flashing lights above the bed…

Mum wasn’t just celebrating her (belated) birthday that weekend but also the happy news that she would never have to study archives again, having just passed her diploma. Me being the very good and alcohol obsessed daughter that I am (they brought me up well!) bought her a bottle of bubbly to celebrate with – this was much appreciated. 

We spent most of the weekend alternating between eating, drinking and shopping. Visited the Bellas Artes Gallery in Oviedo which I had only recently discovered existed! On the Sunday of Mum’s visit we took a trip to Gijón and were rewarded with some very sunny weather, interspersed with the inevitable rain showers. After a bus tour and walking around for maybe a little bit too long we managed to get ourselves a gin and some food. You have to love any barman who when you ask for two gin and tonics replies, “What gin would you like?” gesturing to the array behind him. 

Look Dad, we both have glasses the size of our heads!!

I’m finding it more and more difficult to realise why I don’t want to go home!

Llanes

I feel my trip to Llanes should also be mentioned. Llanes is about an hour and a half to the East of Oviedo at the coast and I had been told on several occasions that it was a must see. So, Kerensa, Libby and myself took off one Sunday to explore.
It was beautiful! We were incredibly lucky to have sunny weather.

I had made it clear already that with a weekend of flying coming up the next week I was definitely in need of going to Mass, so to avoid missing time in Llanes I went there instead. To all my fellow Catholics; there should be a system of some kind to find out Mass times anywhere in the world! It took me hours to even find out the name of the Church, and short of Google Street viewing the square it was in and zooming in to the point at which I could read the Mass times hanging outside; I was a little bit lost! Mass ended up being really fun, and I’m not just saying that! The other two came as well! It was a children’s Mass and because it was the beginning of May and Mother’s Day in Spain there were lots of, “Who’s special day is it?” MARIA!! Not to mention that as the sermon was basically directed at the kids I found it really easy to understand – which makes a change!!

These huge blocks were part of an art project to make the port look more attractive and although some of them just look a bit like graffiti from afar there were others that were really beautifully painted.

Inside the village there were metal plates along all of the roads which we later found out were all words from a poem about Llanes. 

During the day we (well two of us) had a nice menu del día and Kerensa once again found herself at the mercy of un-vegetarian-friendly Spanish cuisine. Luckily ice cream and cakes were bought later. The whole place was beautiful and I’m really annoyed that I won’t get a chance to go back again because:
DUM DUM DUM! I only have a month left in Oviedo.
PANIC STATIONS.

Viaje con los finlandeses

Even though it’s been a good few weeks since I went there I want to show off some more pictures of the pretty places I’ve visited! At school we had an exchange group from Finland visiting and I was invited to go with them on their tour of Asturias. This included the prehistoric caves in Ribadesella; of which I have no photos because they try and protect the caves from any damage. All the visits have a limited time in which to walk around and a limited number of people who can be in each group, because even our breathing was damaging the cave paintings. The paths through the caves were only lit as we passed through and then put out again; obviously the Spanish are not exactly the most Health and Safety friendly people in the world but in this case it was clear why they hadn’t built a safe path through or lit the floor well so that people could walk through – they were fiercely protective of the paintings; to the point that when one of the students tried to take a photo inside, he was only not reported to the police because he was foreign!

After the caves we travelled to Covadonga, which is a really important area for the Asturians. It’s a shrine to Mary who is said to have appeared to King Pelayo during the Moors attack on Asturias and told him how he could beat them, and as Asturias was the only part of Spain never to fall to the Moorish invasion it’s quite important!

Apart from the Cathedral there’s also a boarding school for children who are very talented musicians – where the conductor of my choir went!

The shrine itself is a fount inside the cave, the legend is that if you drink from the water there you’ll be married to the person of your choice within the year. Despite Rosa’s best efforts it was a little bit too slippy to venture along. Gutted. Introducing my Spanish mother and my Mum was probably the worst idea ever as Rosa is now under-taking it as her personal mission to find me “un novio!” She’s also recently brought this mission to the ears of all the women at choir. This can only end badly…

Blog from Barcelona coming very soon. As soon as I pick the exact silly thing Kerensa said to use as the title.... there were just so many...