My Favorite Place on Earth

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Recently the Credit Union started a campaign for vacation loans, using the phrase “dream vacation”. Using that as inspiration, I wanted to write about travelling.

There are places in every country that can surprise the traveler and the native alike. A hidden spot, area, or even a region that is different from what a person would expect to find, and that place sticks in their memories thereafter.

For me that place is Asturias, one of the Northern provinces in Spain. You see, when people who are not from there think of Spain, what images come to mind? The beach traveler will, of course, know that Spain sports the highest number of blue flag beaches in the world, and they have kilometers and kilometers of them. The culture traveler will know Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, Seville, Cordoba and the endless list of monuments and museums located in these millennial cities.

Don Quijote's giants...

Or Castile, the rolling plains of cereals, vines, and olives whose monotony is broken by old adobe towns with their churches with campanarios, the thousand bell towers that are adapted sequel of the minarets of old. And if you’re lucky, you will get to see a windmill, yes one of the same ones that wandering knight mistook for giants.

The religious traveler will know Spain, needless to say, for the route to Santiago, one of Christianity’s most popular pilgrimages to date. And the outdoors-oriented traveler knows Spain for the hundreds of hikes, climbs, and of course that crazy Caminito del Rey that made world headlines a few years back as the scariest hike, ever. (I am sorry to inform you that because of the negative celebrity of the video in question, the government forked out the cash to fix the path and now it’s only mildly vertiginous as compared to the old you’ve-got-to-be-crazy-to-try-it route. Yes, for those whose curiosity I’ve piqued, here it is).

But between the Pyrenees and the city of Santiago lies the green Spain. A land of oaks and beeches, ferns, of mountains that were old already when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and the thousands of valleys that lie among them. In the heart of this green Spain you will find the mountains of Asturias, the place about which I want to tell you today. It’s my favorite place on this Earth.

In the summer, when you wake up, most of these small valley towns are shrouded in fog, or so it seems. After breakfast, you can climb up to the top of the hills, till you find the sunshine; and you can look behind, down into the valley where the town lies, hidden, until the sun warms the fog enough to get it moving. It will rise to meet you, envelop you, and then pass you by on its way up to the sky, where it evaporates, making you wonder if you’d just imagined it; and leaving you on a quiet green hillside, just you, the blackbirds and the dewy ferns and blackberry bushes.

And as you travel you get to the meet the people, austere-looking yet very warm and friendly the moment you speak with them; if you befriend a random cowherd he will sit down and tell you about the land, its stories and myths, and you might leave him with a request to put the picture of him with his cow Canela on his Facebook page, and with a free bag of fresh off the tree hazelnuts that he shared with you from his zurrón.

If you keep going you will come to the town of Cangas de Onís, the heart of the cider land in Spain.

The Roman bridge at Cangas de Onís

It’s the old capital of the kingdom of Asturias, and the center of the apple cider region. If you do nothing else there, at least stop and have a glass of cider, known as a culín de sidra, freshly poured from the bottle using a pouring method that’s an art form in itself. The cider here is natural, un-carbonated and elaborated using centuries-old organic methods; yep, organic for centuries. If you want, you can then walk down the road to the new bridge and stand there watching the kids jump into the river from ropes in front of the old Roman bridge. It may seem boring, but it’s an extremely gratifying thing to do on a nice summer afternoon. And if you want to stay in town for the night, ask around, there used to be an old water mill that had been remade into a Bed & Breakfast. I slept there years ago, in a room atop the water wheel, with the windows open, and it was the best sleep of my life. If not, you can check in at another really cool place, the Parador, a 1200 year-old monastery turned into a hotel.

Asturias is a place to hike, with spectacular results. You hike your way up and down the hills for hours, and you can run into all sorts of things: a stream of water that comes straight out of the rock, a trickle of mineral water, so fresh and cold that, it hurts your teeth; or a small stone pedestal next to a worn stone bench, in the middle of nowhere in a small path in the woods.

The vieira, symbol of the pilgrimage
to Santiago de Compostela

Closer inspection will reveal a vieira at the foot of the pedestal, telling you that you’re on a marked spot of the Camino de Santiago, and that someone placed both stone and pedestal to guide pilgrims and give them a brief resting spot along the way.

But the modern-day traveler cannot hike in Asturias for too long, as the hills take so much time to cross, unless you go there specifically to hike, in which case it’s paradise. But if you have a car, I would suggest that you go to Covadonga, a place full of history.

Covadonga

It was there that the first battle of the Reconquista was fought in the year 722, the place where the moors stopped advancing and their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, where the Christians stood their ground, in a cave, and from there they pushed the Saracen attackers back, using only guerilla tactics. There is an old Asturian saying that goes “Asturias is Spain, the rest is just conquered land”. They’re a proud people.

In Covadonga nowadays you can find a wonderful monastery inside the cave, overlooking the waters, and nearby are the three lakes that are the other attraction of this area. At over 1,100 meters above sea level, they are glacial lakes of crystal-clear water, so clear that if you are crazy enough to dive into them –I did- you can open your eyes and watch the ‘fishies’ swim by you.

One of the Covadonga lakes (I admit,
I have no idea which!)

If nothing else, you can set a picnic by the water and watch the horses graze. It’s a very quiet and contemplative place.

And if you want to get your truly culture fix, there are two churches that are a must-see, Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo. Both of these churches were consecrated in the same year, 848. It must have been a good year for churches, because these two are so sturdy they look likely to never crumble. They are gems of Romanesque art, with a lot of history in them, and a very worthy sight.

San Miguel de Lillo

This is it. I could tell you a whole lot more about Asturias, this is the place that I have loved all my life; the things that I have seen and done there, they stuck with me and I will always remember them in wonder. I hope that one of you will feel inspired enough to go there, and tell me all about it.


But… do you have a place like this, a small corner of the world that is a source of joy, good memories, and wonder to you? Would don’t you tell us about it? Send me an email and, if possible, in under 1500 words share information about a place that you visited that is particularly dear to you (along with pictures, if you like), and I will try to share it with others here on the blog. You can write to me in English or Spanish, and I will translate for you into the other language. Don’t be shy!