Let’s Visit Westeros....

Let’s start off with Pais Vasco and the Basque language and it’s exorbitant use of: z, k, x.  Cool, if we’re looking at monosyllabic words, but whenyou name a place Gaztelugatxe (which was oddly in word prediction in my phone...) I’m not even going to try and pronounce it. Gaztelugatxe is where I went today.  It’s the location for Dragonstone in Game of Thrones (thank CGI for the castle). It was absolutely beautiful,  but every time I hike to a church/monastery  on a hill it makes me wonder if they really wanted parishioners.... why isit such a hike?!? So. Many. Stairs. You had to hike down to get to the base, then hike up to the church...

Next stop, lighthouse where you could see Gaztelugatxe.

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Next stop was on to Gernika. I know a little of the context for Picasso’s Guernica and had the chance to see it with my dad a few years back in Madrid, but I didn’t really know all of the details. I knew when, why and who bombed the city. What I didn’t know was that the the Biscayan Assembly (the seat of government) and the Gernika tree outside (where people had been meeting since the 1500’s ) survived the bombing.  The tree died in the 1980’s, but scientist had saved acorns from the tree and had a new one ready to go.  Standing in Gernika near the tree and imaging theee quarters of the buildings destroyed, with the remaining damaged was a little overwhelming.  However, definitely going to try and see the painting at the end of the summer when I’m in Madrid. 

Remains of the tree that survived the bombing.

Paleolithic Caves and Such

Today was awesome. I got to spend a good portion of the day inside of caves with Paleolithic paintings in El Castillo and El Pendo. El Castillo is kown for its negative painting handprints and the worlds oldest recorded rock art ... 40,000 years old! No photos allowed, so I drew some for you..

Entrance to El Castillo 

Entrance to the Altamira cave:

I would basically have been the Michelangelo of the Paleolithic art scene!! Took a brief trip to Camillas to check out the sea.

Ended up in the town of Bermeo in Pais Vasco for tomorrow’s adventures!!

Picos de Europa and Santander (the city, not the bank...)

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!!!

Day in Gijón

Today was spent wandering around Gijón and spending some time at the beach. The weather cleared up for a bit today and there was actual sun! 

I started off by going to see the Roman thermal baths. They were discovered in 1903 and the archeological site was actually created under the plaza which they were buried under.  Gijón was northern most city on the Via Plata of the Roman Empire and was a major trading port along the Cantabrian Sea.

I had my first bit of jamon and real Coca Cola today, so that made me happy.  Finally I had this sweet called a Pelayo (after the first King of Asturias - who, according to legend defeated the Muslims as they took over the rest of Spain). It’s marzipan with apple filling. (It tastes like apple pie wrapped in a half baked sugar cookie.). I walked out of the bakery and popped it in my mouth and immediately went in and bought another. Sooooooo delicious!

Cudillero and Gijón

Road trip! This morning I rented a (way too fancyfor me Mercedes) car to head to the coast of Asturias. First stop, top of the mountain for a great view of Oviedo and to see some old churches. Fog cut short the view from the top, but was still able to get a good view!  The driving today was a mix of the northern part of the PCH with the random small towns of the Amalfi Coast...

Next I headed up to the fishing city of Cudillero where I had some good chiperones. 

After that I head to Playa de Silencio.  The road to get there was a little iffy, and I bottomed out the pretty car. Thankfully safety dad taught me well and with the guidance of strangers I got out of that situation😬

Finally I made my way to Gijón.  Had some chorizo a la sidra and took a quick walk around part of town.  Now time for sleep (slowly adjusting to time change...)

Oviedo

Argh!!! Wrote a whole post and then it disappeared. So, short version: I’m in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias (the area home to my favorite Spanish chef!). This is rumored to have been the one area of Spain that was not conquered by the Muslims. There’s no sign of a heatwave up here. After some walking around I had fabana ast (pork and bean stew) and it was delicious. Now time for bed, the jet lag has caught up!! 

It's been awhile...

So, since I last wrote about my summer travels (my California road trip), I've actually been to Spain three times.  Here I am going for the fourth trip to España.  This time I'm heading to northern Spain for a week, then off to French side of the Pyrenees to start El Camino Santiago.  It's roughly 500 miles across northern Spain into Santiago de Compostela.  Last summer I did the Portuguese Camino to Santiago, but that was 77 miles, so this is a tad bit more.   The goal is to try and post each day I;m gone (about 51 days), but depending on how tired I am, it may be every other day, with lots of pictures though!
Those who know me well know there will be lots and lot of pictures of food, especially jamon!   I'm excited for a nice long trip and adventure!!!!