bay of biscay and galicia ::: part III

asturias & galicia


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thursday was a day full of stories. we were already almost hitting our final destination and the end seemed closer than i wanted, but we were about to continue having all sorts of things happenning to us on the way.

shortly after leaving cangas de onis, we stopped for fuel and as we were riding out of the petrol station, charly broke his front brake lever... thank god it was not sunday, although finding a business which is open during lunch hours in spain can be a difficult task. all we had to do was wait till 4 or 4:30 and find a workshop or a suzuki dealer that would have a spare lever. fortunately we were fairly close to oviedo and the road was not as curvey as the ones we had just passed the previous days. at least till oviedo.

old "águila negra" brewery

so we found a suzuki dealer which happened to be right next to a typical asturian cider house where we had lunch while we waited for the shops to open. again, we found great typical food for a ridiculously cheap price. if you happen to be in oviedo, visit "sidrería tierra astur".

after lunch we were in desperate need of a "siesta", but we also needed to make it to galicia before sunset if we wanted to be in shape for the party in vigo on saturday, so we continued getting slowly back to the coast. the road to get to the coast from oviedo is perfect for motorcycles. great scenery and plenty of good places to stop and have a bite if you need to. however, we had a little episode with a dude who thought tailgating was fun. we saw a "guardia civil" patrol car and had the chance to report him. hopefully he will think twice before repeating his feat with other riders.

the last part of this leg was a walk in the park, and the atlantic weather made itself a little more obvious as we aproached ribadeo, a little cloudy and more chilly than what we had so far.

a sight worth mentioning, just before hitting ribadeo... there is a helipad and a storage area for windmill sweeps. this region of spain has plenty of windmills on the top of the mountains used to generate electricity. the sweeps are huge, so they are transported to the storage facility by truck and then lifted by helicopter to the top of the mountains where they are assembled. how i wish i would have stopped to take a picture.

initialy we wanted to stay overnight in ribadeo, but finding a nice place facing the sea was hard, and we were told by the locals to go to foz instead.

we followed instructions and ended up finding a great apartment for the 4 of us for 120€. 2 rooms, kitchen, living room with a huge t.v. and a balcony facing the sea. couldnt be more perfect.

foz

foz happened to be a great place to go out at night too. plenty of young people and super cheap drinks. we ended up at a bar called zooropa, which had a bingo night, so for every drink (4€ /drink is super cheap in spain) they would give us a card to play bingo. our friend "ñas" decided to fuck with us a little and crossed the last remaining number of one of our cards without us noticing and we called bingo. funny moment of the trip. the whole bar was carefully listening to all the numbers being checked, but when number 35 was checked... all started laughing. we were shocked to see ñas laughing too and gave him the "youuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!" kind of look... hahaha fair enough, we had a laugh ourselves i guess.

bay of biscay and galicia ::: part II

cantabria & asturias


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after spending a few days in and around san sebastian, we headed west towards galicia. we had 3 days to hit nigran. also we had to make it to santander to have lunch with silvie (a good friend i met while living in manila), so we took the expressway from san sebastian. this takes around 2 hours on the A-8 and its actually not as boring since it goes through some very nice looking places.

lunch in santander was good thanks to the company, but food was absolutely horrible. this is where i need to make emphasis on how difficult it is to have a bad meal in the north. we were the most unlucky. we were looking for a place near the beach and at the same time, somewhere where we could sit while watching the bikes (we had luggage on them). we ended up at cafetería orsay, right outside artamentos las brisas. they charged us the ridiculous amount of 17 € for a "menu del día" which was worth absolutely nothing. paella was horrible, spaghetti was worse (how hard can it be to cook spaghetti???) and the fish was prehistoric... thank god we were with silvie and friends, they saved the day!!!

after lunch we continued our trip riding past comillas and san vicente de la barquera. these must have been some of the most beautiful sights we´ve seen on our trip. the coastline gets pretty rough and the cliffs make incredibly nice pictures. again, if you come here during the last days of july or during august, you will be sorounded by a constant sea of people. but still... worth seeing.

shortly after san vicente de la barquera we took a detour to continue through the mountains towards cangas de onis and oviedo instead of going along the coastline towards llanes and gijón.

i have driven through these roads several times before. always in a car. only now i realised how impressive the mountains are and really felt we were minuscule compared to the rock walls rising above our heads. we took part of the road that goes around the "parque nacional picos de europa" and decided to turn back and leave that road for another ocasion. i guess this will remain on my "to do list" a little longer.

the alternative route we chose to take was not bad at all. driving through the north side of the national park, through cabrales and very close to "lagos de covadonga" was just what we needed. sharp turns, steep slopes, and beautiful sights. i need to mention, if you like strong cheese, you need to visit the region of cabrales...

our day ended at cangas de onis. a cozy little town with extremely friendly people and really good and cheap food.

we stayed at a hotel called los robles, and to be honest, we did not have to go very far to find a restaurant for dinner or a bar to have a few drinks. they offer a lunch menu for 9,50€ and a dinner menu for 10€. we ordered extra bread and extra drinks including coffee and they did not charge any extra whatsoever... absolutely fantastic.

i need to make a special mention to maria jesus... the woman in charge of the tobacconist right next to the hotel. i went in to buy some rolling tobacco, filters and papers and ended up having this very interesting talk with her. aparently she lived in angola for 16 years before the war. i think i would love to pay her a little visit some time soon. maybe even send her a postcard!!!