A Quick Visit to Grado
About 30 kilometers due west of Oviedo is the small town of Grado, home to about 7000 people.
Ribadesella
We were first introduced to this small seaside village during the madness of the Descenso del Sella, when over 300,000 revelers use an annual boat race as an excuse to party. With so much going on, we had no chance to see the town, and so went back.
Santa Cristina de Lena
"Pre-Romanesque" is a confusing architectural term. The style didn't appear until centuries after the Romans, so it's not exactly pre-Roman at all. Instead, the term refers to buildings which pre-date the Romanesque architecture of medieval times, named so because of its rounded Roman arches.
Gijón’s Universidad Laboral
The largest building in Spain is found in Gijón. About three miles outside the city center, the massive Universidad Laboral gobbles up 66 acres of land. Built between 1946 and 1956, the Laboral is an astounding memorial to the grandiloquence and megalomania of the Franco era.
El Lago del Valle in Somiedo
During our recent day trip to Somiedo, we found ourselves with time for a long walk. After parking our car in Valle del Lago, we hiked to Lago del Valle. Now that's some clever toponymy.
Visiting the Somiedo Natural Park
We chose an excellent day to visit the Somiedo National Park, found a couple hours south of Oviedo. The sun was bright and the weather warm. With a refreshing breeze coming from the north, it was a perfect early-autumn day, putting us in great spirits and bringing out the most beautiful aspects of the park.
Villaviciosa – Capital of the Cider Region
Welcome to Villaviciosa, the Vicious Village, where nightmares are reality and your screaming only makes the villagers thirstier for blood!
Avilés – The Third City of Asturias
The three main cities of Asturias form an almost equidistant triangle, all within a half hour another. Oviedo, the capital, is in the center of Asturias. A short drive northeast brings you to Gijón, the biggest city. Go the same distance northwest, and you'll end in Avilés.
La Sidrería de El Gaitero
It didn't take much time for us to develop an appreciation for cider, the favorite drink of Asturias. In the few weeks, we put down a fair share of bottles and improved at escanciando: the tricky art of pouring cider. So, it was soon time to visit a sidrería and see how the drink is produced.
Day Trip to Cudillero
Asturianu is the indigenous language of Asturias, though there aren't many people who speak it anymore. And Pixuetu is a dialect of Asturianu spoken only in Cudillero, a tiny village on the Cantabrian coast, distinuished by its use of Nordic words. Its no wonder that parents around the world are in a rush to teach their children Pixueto, since it's totally going to be the next Chinese.
Day Trip to Gijón
Everything I'd read about Gijón, the largest city in Asturias, described it as "industrial" or "working-class", so we arrived fearing that it'd be boring. But we needn't have worried: Gijón is beautiful, full of students, lively bars and charming plazas.
Senda del Oso – Path of the Bear
The villages of Tuñón and Entrago, found south of Oviedo, are connected by the Senda del Oso, a popular trail running through the valley carved by the Trubia River. Formerly a track for mining trains, the trail has been converted for recreational use and has a lot to recommend it: rapids, tunnels, cliffs, fountains, villages and, yes, bears.
