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On Saturday we left Galicia to drive 212 kilometres east into Asturias. It was three hours of beautiful scenery, first mountains and then the coast of the Bay of Biscay. Our campsite is a few kilometres east of the old historic fishing port of Cudillero and the scenery is sensational. We thought it didn´t get any better than Galicia until we walked out of the campsite a few hundred metres down a winding country road and were met by a view that took our breath away; a series of sandy bays and sheer cliffs stretching into the distance and the waters of the Bay of Biscay at their calmest, benign and blue. Our photos do not do it justice because the light wasn´t particularly good and there was quite a damp mist rolling in from the sea.
The campsite is gorgeous. The grounds are so well-tended that it is like camping in a park. The loos and showers are excellent, there is a little shop and friendly staff. Unfortunately the bar/restaurant doesn´t open until 1
st June. One of the disadvantages of out-of-season camping is that not all of the facilities are up and running. This is far outweighed by the
fact that the campsites are really quiet and one is able to spread out over a couple of pitches. This is another ACSI site so it is only 16 euros a night, doggies free but here the WIFI isn´t. It is 4 euros for 24 hours.
On Sunday we had another “catch-up” morning i.e. washing clothes, bathing Bella (this time with a few buckets of warm water outside, nothing as luxurious as a dog shower here) and general tidying and cleaning of the caravan. In the afternoon we went for a little drive down to the nearest vast sandy bay, Playa de Aguilar. It is only about a kilometre down from our site up on the cliff top, but it is a steep and winding road and although not that busy, the Sunday drivers do drive down it very fast. There is no pavement or even a verge so walking in the road is the only option and not a good one with two dogs. When we got down there we noticed that there is a good cliff walk up the other side of the bay so that is one of the things we can do whilst we are
here, later in the week. After this we drove to Cudillero. Being Sunday the little picturesque port was quite busy with day trippers from the cities (Oviedo and Gijon are both nearby) so we decided to make this our Monday trip (today). The weather has warmed up considerably and people were in the sea. We thought it looked a bit cold for our liking. The Bay of Biscay isn´t the Med! This was a great first full day in Asturias.
We are really enjoying our time in northern Spain. The only thing we really miss however, is not the hot southern sunshine (we still have months to enjoy that when we get home at the end of May), it is the fruit and veg. Our local produce in the SE is superb and the fruit, salad and vegetables we are buying here are nothing like the quality, yet more expensive. They don´t call Murcia the “Garden of Spain” for nothing! The veggies here are not as crisp and crunchy as we are used to and they go soft quickly too. It is a shame because the north has such fantastic meat, fish and seafood; just need a Murcian salad
to go with it! Asturias is famous for cider so we ought to sample some “scrumpy” whilst here! It is surprising, considering the cider industry, that the eating apples are not as good as down south either!
Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) we laid outside the caravan on loungers wearing swimming costumes. Today we wore jeans and fleeces and it is now raining steadily. Asturian weather is nothing if not varied! This morning, as planned, we went into Cudillero to potter around the little gift shops, cafés and harbour. Cudillero is a pretty and quaint little coastal town, reminiscent of many such ports in Cornwall.
This afternoon we walked to El Pito, a small hamlet nearby. It is an unusual place since it consists of just a few houses, with “horréos” in the gardens, no shops, a huge church, a very ornate Guardia Civil building with cloisters (obviously once part of the church property) and...a palace! “Horréos” are old food stores, which are raised up on legs, away from animals and to provide air circulation. In Galicia they are made of stone. Here they are made of wood with red tile roofs. As for the palace – El Palacio de
Selgas, it is very grand with beautifully kept grounds, spied through the gateways, obviously private and not open to the public and obviously owned by someone, or some organisation, with serious money! It was quite surreal to come across this palace, with its huge church opposite, in the middle of such a quiet rural setting. We determined that this evening we would get online and find out something about it. We got back from our walk just as the rain settled in for the evening, so good timing!
This is what we found out: The Selgas-Fagalde family were wealthy art collectors who wanted to create a mini Versailles in this region of Selgas (which was once all their land) in Asturias. So they built this palace in the late nineteenth century and filled it with paintings by Goya, Tiziano and El Greco. The house and gardens can be viewed “by appointment”.
The rain is heavy now, not at all pleasant. Having said that we are not craving the southern sunshine, not sure that we want all this rain either! The forecast up here is grim for the next week or so, so we may well cut the trip
a bit shorter than the planned six weeks. We can always come back again!
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