Posts Tagged ‘visitors’

Liz’s parents came over at the weekend for a brief visit, so we did the ‘introduction to Asturias’ weekend which goes something like this:

Dinner at a Sidreria (a cider house) where they could see the traditional cider pouring going on, and try some of the forty different cheeses from the region.

A walk up to the mountains for a dinner of Pote or Fabada followed by stewed kid.

A coastal walk with the walking group.

A few hours spent strolling round the city, having the odd beer, coffee, watching the pipers and going round the market.

Taking the sun on the terrace and watching the building work going on opposite.

They really enjoyed it, and will be back for more in June. I came down with something on Saturday night, Liz claimed it was visitor flu, and had to miss the walk on Sunday. I worked Monday and Tuesday but I’ve given in and taken today off.

You swim for months, minding your own business and where does it get you? Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias.

and that’s no bad thing. I’ve had my parents visiting for the week, and we had a fine time, once the weather cleared up. I think it whetted their appetite for Asturias.

It did mean we ate out a lot more than I usually do, which gave us the chance to try a few new places and to return to a few old ones.

I went to the Hotel Santa Cruz to reserve a room for my folks and the receptionist (owner I guess) started speaking in German, when that met with a blank stare she asked if I was English. Then she said I had a German face, which I didn’t really mind… I’m not sure what it means. The only German I know is Hans in the walking group and he looks like an emaciated Alan Rickman (also he’s been here since 1991 so he’s practically Asturian).

Then she was very clear about how closed the English were. We got to the point where I realised the best translation was reserved, rather than cold, closed, dificult or any of the other Spanish words she used. I agreed with her and said that, for example, an English person would never touch your arm while conversing (two strangers that is). Whereas here, any time someone says oye (listen), mira (look), hombre (mate) they tend to touch you to reinforce that they’re talking to you. If I were sticking to my culturally assigned role we’d end up with them chasing me round the room as I reestablished my personal space and they re-re-established a perfectly normal conversation.

I’m used to it now, but I never do it, I don’t think I can. I can practice all of the little conversational tics to replace ‘erm’ and ‘uh’ but I don’t see that I’ll ever reach out to someone and tap them on the arm as I say ‘well mate…’

La braña Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias.

Anne and Noel came for the weekend (if you’re reading this blog and you don’t know who they are; who are you?). It was great to see them and I think they had a good visit, it’s not that we had a checklist prepared but I could develop one for the weekend Asturias experience.

Drink Sidra, check; eat fabada, check; visit the mountains, check; visit the coast, check; eat something with chorizo in, check; eat fine seafood (in a place once visited by Woody Allen), check; drink Rioja and figure out it’s not all like the stuff we get in England, check; eat your breakfast in a bar, check; narrowly avoid collisions with boy racers on windy mountain roads, check; see how umbrella use is endemic, check;

To be honest I didn’t go to the coast with them because I was a little under the weather (and I had to work) but Anne came back with tales of Horreos (pronounced ‘orri-oss’; those square barns on four legs that dot the countryside), pipes and medusas (the spanish for jellyfish).

We did a couple of walks at the weekend. One was the Cares Gorge in the Picos de Europa (I had planned something higher but it was pretty cloudy and the forecast was for rain, I did not want to spend the whole day with zero visibility). It was pretty wet, although stunning, as ever. My book of walks and climbs in the Picos says that you should do the Cares Gorge no matter what the conditions are, because you’re guaranteed a good day out. It’s about 11km each way, with a stop for lunch in Caín that was definitely welcome at that point… well it let us go from sopping to merely wet before we set off back. I don’t have any photos because I looked at the forecast and left my camera in the flat (Anne blogs about it here). The other walk was up to a lake called El Lago del valle in the Somiedo national park. I had planned a longish walk from one of my guidebooks and the walking group folk had given me a colour copy of the area on a 1:30000 map. We set off a little late and did a slightly shorter version but it was still really enjoyable. After we negociated a few cows on the path (I’m always worried by cows, especially when they have calves with them, as these did. They always look like they’re just waiting for you to put a foot wrong) we ascended one side of a large valley to it’s head, where there was a big tarn. The tarn had been extended, it had some additional walls at the front. On our return route, along the other side of the valley, we saw old aqueducts collecting runoff water from further down the valley and distributing it to the tarn. The valley was full of brañas, thatched cabins that were (and by the looks of it in some cases, still are) used by vaqueros (that would be cowherders, or maybe cowboys) who used to come from the coast and spend the summer with their herds up in the high meadows.