My sister gave me this book several years back called 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Since she gave me this book I only go to places where I can cross things off in this book. The book along with the advice of Chef Jose Andres (courtesy of one of Bourdain’s final episodes of Parts Unknown😞) led me to Lagos de Covadonga in Picos de Europa. Picos de Europa was one of Spain’s first national parks (go national parks!!). It was established in 1918 and is pretty cool, so that’s where most of today was spent. The drive up was similarto Machu Picchu in the “what the hell, this bus isgoing to fall off a cliff” way. The difference is thisone was during the day, so I could see the edge,and instead of the stray alpaca, the road was blocked by a cow, then some goats, a bull and some sheep. This place is beautiful!!!
Also up there is Covadonga . It’s believed that this is where La Reconquista started... (and then took almost 700 years to get back...😬)
There’s a beautiful cathedral there that kind of reminded me of the castle in Schwangau, Germany (maninly due to its setting).
Then.... CHEESE CAVE. Asturias makes like 40-something different types of cheese. They are know for their blue cheese Cabrales, which is stored in caves (in the mountainside) to help the penicillin grow (I had such strong blue cheese I think I’m cured of everything). I got to learn the history of cheese in the area (OMG, maybe I’ll teach next years class based on the history/geography of food!!!!) and the process for making chess, then I had cheese!! The cheese caves were cold, but lovely because Iwas sweating from hiking! Driving through the mountains was really great too!
As a result of spending so much time in Picos de Europa, I arrived late to my next capital city and region of Spain (and the last one I needed to randomly be able to say “I’ve been to all the regions on mainland Spain”), Santander, Cantabria. So I screwed up and should have planned another day here, but I’ll do it next time😊. It’s a beautiful city, but tomorrow I have more important things to do in Cantabria!!!
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