Sunday, 1st October, 2023
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| On our walk by the Playa de Toró in Llanes on Wednesday |
Dear all,
Here I am again in Asturias, our third trip here this year. We are leaving today but it won't be our last. We shall come again in October or I hope we will.
We left Madrid last Sunday, rather late. Oli and the kids turned up to give us a kiss goodbye which was very sweet. We felt guilty leaving her alone with them all day while Miguel worked as they are such a handful.
We stopped three times, once for a coffee, again to eat our sandwich and a third time to get petrol. We arrived to beautiful sunshine at around 6 pm. We were not happy to see a broken wall in the entrance though. Just look at this. Later a plumber I finally found and a builder both told me whoever did it was out of his mind and should have inspected the WC before breaking the wall, as in the end the leak was very minor and easy to fix with absolutely no need to do the damage Reale Seguros, our insurance people, did. Damn them.
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| The wall broken by our incompetent insurance company which they now want me to fix because I complained on Twitter. Unbelievable. |
It had been done by the insurance people while searching for the source of a leak which caused a damp stain on a wall on the ground floor. The leak came from the upstairs WC which they broke too. We were later told the cause was a building defect and we would have to get a plumber to mend it but that they would repair the damage they had done. Thus we found ourselves in a catch 22 situation. Impossible to find a plumber so asked them to do the work which we would pay for. They agreed but wouldn't be coming until 16th October. That meant of course that I had lost all potential rental income for most of September and October. Damn them again.
We decided not to be upset about the incident and to enjoy our stay and the beautiful weather. We weren't happy either to see most of the flowers wilting after the hotter than usual summer here but decided that wouldn't worry us either. We settled in and felt at home right away. Soon I was sitting outside on our little terrace and sipping a glass of wine which we had with some pistachios. I love our wine and pistachio moments.
On Monday we went to beautiful Llanes. We could have taken our bathing costumes and I wished I had. People were bathing at the Sablón beach - the one in the middle of town.
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| The Sablón beach in Llanes on Monday |
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| Coffee time in Llanes on Monday |
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| The Aramburu Asturian gourmet food shop in Llanes |
From there we walked to a local printing shop to get more copies of a form guests have to fill out when they arrive. I got a hundred copies for a pittance. We also stopped at an ironmonger to get an outdoor electric cable extension (is that what you call it?) so that I can use my PC on the terrace. They didn't have a suitable one so of course I ordered one on Amazon. It arrived the next day. Sorry if I am feeding the monster.
With errands out of the way, it was time for our walk and it had to be along Saint Peter's Walkway (Paseo de San Pedro) above the town overlooking the Sablón beach. We just love that walk and so does Pippa. It's one of our favourite places in the area.
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| A stop for a picture on the walk along Paseo de San Pedro on Monday in Llanes |
On our way home we stopped in Posada - our nearest town - to get more provisions, mostly fruit. I had brought home made ready meals for the first few days so as not to have to cook too much. Thus lunch was an easy meal to make. The afternoon was spent in the sun or rather under the parasol in the sun on our little terrace, the saving grace of this house. The weather has been marvelous here.
We walked across fields with horses and cows towards the cliffs until we came to the edge and saw this view. Just look
It was stunning. Eladio saw there was a very narrow path down to a tiny hidden beach but I didn't dare follow him. I preferred to walk on to enjoy more views from the cliffs like this one below. Just look at the colours.
It was warm and we were both wearing long sleeves. I swore we would bathe at least once before we left and we did (twice in the end): But what a beautiful place and what a beautiful walk. The only problem was parking in a rather rocky field. It took ages to get the car out of it.
After a delicious coffee just above the beach, we took a steep path up to the cliffs where you get great views of the town and the beach. That is where two kind ladies offered to take a photo of the two of us, the one I have chosen for this week's feature photo. I am all in pink but feeling fat which I am. However, I was rather pleased when earlier a woman who asked me for directions, looked at me and said "oh how beautiful you are and what lovely eyes you have". Gosh, she raised my self esteem to heights I haven't been at for a while. Right now I am not in the mood for a diet so let things be as they are.
The day ended with me watching Exodus on Prime Video. It was made in 1960 and stars Paul Newman and is based on the novel by Leon Uris which I have read more than once. I have see the film more than once too and it is one of my all time favourites. It is a loose interpretation of the story of the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948. I'm not sure if the facts are actually historical but the film is beautiful and I never tire of it. I think it is called Exodus as a sort of reference to The Old Testament and the ship - the Olympia that illegally carried 600 or so Jewish Holocaust survivors to Palestine from Cyprus. Both Cyprus and Palestine were governed by the British at the time. That part of the film and book are true. The rest I imagine is pretty fictional.
I then went to bed with Ben Macintyre's book "Operation Mincemeat" - a spy story from WW2 which again is loosely based on a true story. You will notice my taste for books and films about WW2. Well, I was brought up on my parents' experiences and used to have nightmares about the Gestapo knocking on our door at night at 6 Heaton Grove in Bradford. No doubt, a psychologist would have a field day with my post traumatic stress syndrome related to WW2 hahah.
On Tuesday as we were getting nowhere with the insurance company apart from a vague promise for work to commence on 16th October, we decided to take matters into our own hands and drive to their offices in the small town of Nueva de Llanes and confront them in person. On the way and for good measure I posted a complaint on Twitter which I got my journalist daughter and my friend Kathy to retweet. We didn't get far with "Jaime" the rather gormless employee at the office. But as we left, I got a call from their customer care people who had seen my tweet. These days it is sometimes good to wash your dirty linen in public. I find it works but against me this time as you will read later. Bottom line was we had to try and find a plumber before they could do the work which we did but would he come the next day as he promised me? His name is Jesús and I had some faith in him (hahaha). He had put in a new bath tub last year and all had gone well.
With nothing else to do we revisited a pretty beach nearby, the Playa de las Cuevas. We took an off piste path which looked promising but did not reach the end. When we had coffee later in Nueva we heard we had missed seeing the Playa de San Antonio, apparently the prettiest wild beach in Spain. But we weren't going back. Instead we went to explore somewhere new; the Playa de la Huelga which I had heard was pretty. Well, which beach in Asturias is not pretty I told myself. Nature here is at its best, on this beautiful and lush green coast of Spain. So that day we discovered a new place, one we may return to. The tide was out so the beach or cove was not at its best but oh boy we found an amazing walk. At the end of the beach there was a wooden bridge which led to a path we thought would take us to the cliffs above the beach. So we followed it.
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| The secret path to the cliffs above the Huelga beach |
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| The sea surrounded by rocks as seen on our walk from Playa de la Huelga |
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| On the cliffs above the sea near the Huelga beach about 15km from Llanes |
We were home a bit late for lunch but who cares when you are retired? Lunch was more ready to eat home made food I had brought from Madrid; this time chickpea stew which tasted divine.
I spent a lot of the afternoon on my rental work. A young Canadian boy coming to be a conversation teacher assistant at a school in Brunete will be spending nearly a month with us. So there was a lot of correspondence with him and his parents that afternoon. They seem lovely people. His parents told me they were glad to find us. I was glad they found us too.
After dinner of fried eggs - always Eladio's favourite; possibly because that is what he was fed on most nights in Montrondo as a boy - we watched the news. It wasn't new to me. That day, the Opposition leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo was in parliament for a hopeless investiture. He may have won more votes than Pedro Sanchez' party, PSOE, but he won't become PM. That will be Pedro Sánchez again if he closes an agreement with the Catalan fugitive, Carlos Puigdemont, in hiding in Waterloo, Belgium, for holding an illegal referendum. Sanchez needs his votes which means he has to agree to 1) an amnisty and 2) a referendum. Frankly it disgusts me that the governing of this country depends on such a despicable man. Much more interesting was news from the Caucasus where we travelled to in on our road trip in the spring. It was about the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed area which officially belongs to Azerbaijan but is claimed by Armenia and where some 120.000 Armenians live. Very recently there were military skirmishes soon quashed by the stronger Azerbaijan army. Armenians now fear a possible genocide and up to 100.000 have left their homes for Armenia. This is a conflict which is not going away soon and one I am now more interested in because we visited Armenia.
After the news I watched the end of Exodus and then started on the 1970 TV series, Holocaust (of course) and once again went to bed with Ben Macintyre. I was at the part where the operation is centred in Franco's Spain in 1942, the largest hub of spies in Europe at the time. Oh the wheeling and the dealing. Amazing. I like Macintyres novels but there are too many names to keep up with. If you have ever read the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez, you will know what I mean.
I slept on and off that night and was up at 7.45 - late for me - on Wednesday morning. Amazingly, Jesús, the plumber turned up at 9 am as he had promised. It was a blessing to see him (hahaha). We had to ring the insurance company for them to explain to him what his job was - something about connecting a pipe from the upstairs loo to the mains. He promised to come back on to do what is really quite a simple job. I hoped that would spur on the insurance company to repair the broken wall but it didn't.
Thus we were free for the day again. It was supposed to be warm enough for bathing so I packed our beach bag. I then offered Eladio three options of where to go. He was rather hesitant as my husband is not one for on the spot decisions. I pointed out to him that any one would do as he is not a pensioner sitting in a tiny little flat somewhere with no such options. In the end we decided on Playa de Toró, the other larger beach just outside the posh seaside town of Llanes. We decided we would have our coffee there, go for our walk and also have lunch at the restaurant by the beach, Miramar, which offers a menu of the day and which we had never tried - another new place for us on this visit to Asturias.
This is the pretty beach of Toró. It would be a dream to have a house right next to it but that will be for another lifetime I am afraid.
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| Playa de Toró |
On the way up I heard a couple walking behind us speaking English and I couldn't resist talking to them. They are from Telford and had just come off the Santander ferry. They had no plans for their holiday in a motor home and knew nothing about the area. Their first questions were about the mountain range. So I enthusiastically told them it's the Picos de Europa (the Peaks of Europe) and the main places to visit which they painstakingly wrote down. I was eager to share the beauty of Asturias and they were happy to get my tips.
We then walked from the cliffs towards the town past two smaller beaches where people were bathing. . We walked as far as the port and back and by about 1.45 were sitting in the dining room of the Miramar restaurant/bar. In Spain beach bars and restaurants are normally referred to as "chirringuitos". But this was a lot more.
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| The Playa de Toró beach with the Miramar restaurant on the far right of the photo where we had lunch on Wednesday |
We had two hearty courses each, none of which we could finish so brought back a large doggy bag which would come in handy for more meals at home, so I didn't have to cook. Don't get me wrong. I love cooking but it's time consuming and if I want to spend my mornings out, I do not want to waste time cooking.
We spent the rest of the afternoon quietly. Amazon had delivered a 7.5 metre long electric cable extension with an adapter for 2 plugs and thus I was able to work and write my blog from our modest little terrace. Eladio was able to read/consume content on YouTube. I had to capture the moment on camera. I entitled the photo on social media as "the quiet life". Retirement is all it's cooked up to be and more, while you are in good health that is.
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| Working/reading/surfing/consuming content on our little terrace on Wednesday afternoon |
Dinner was a no brainer: easy to pour Mercadona "salmorejo" followed by fruit. Salmorejo is like gazpacho. It comes from Córdoba and is made with tomatoes, bread and olive oil. We love it.
Entertainment that night, when I was finally free of guest work, was a wonderful Polish film called Forgotten Love on Prime Video. It's also on Netflix here. It's about a renowned surgeon who loses his memory but never loses his ability to practice medicine. I loved it.
Jesus, our plumber did not turn up the next morning so we left the key for him and off we went to enjoy the day, one of the warmest. We chose our favourite, Playa de Póo just a few kilometres from Llanes. It was too early for our coffee so we walked up to the cliffs overlooking this inland fjord type beach which is so lush and beautiful you would think you were in Costa Rica or Thailand. In the background always are the Peaks of Europe (Los Picos de Europa national Park) which dominate the Asturian rugged coastline and make is so unique.
I just never tire of this place which I think is my overall favourite in the area. Here are some pictures for you to get an idea.
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| The views from the cliffs overlooking Póo Beach where we would bathe later |
By the time we walked down to the beach again where the tide was still out, it was time for our coffee. We had it at the Farola del Mar hotel and restaurant where we had coffee the first time we discovered the Póo beach in September 2020 just after we bought the house. We sat at the very same table too. So I had to have pictures didn't I? Here they come.
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| Coffee time at Playa de Póo on Thursday |
By then it was nearly 1 o'clock and high time for a bathe in the sea. We took our chairs and found a little rock to hide behind to change into our swimwear. Pippa stayed behind, tied to one of the chairs looked after by the Irish lady. That very day a new law for the protection of animals came into force in Spain which may sound good but it is has its pitfalls. The main things I learned is that animals cannot be tied up - great but what about when you have to go into a shop where they are not allowed? The same applies to the fact that they cannot be left alone in the car. I totally agree but then they are not allowed on beaches, in restaurants, hotels, most parks and a lot of other places. So if you can't take them there or leave them at home alone for more than a stipulated number of hours, how are you supposed to keep the new law. The new law would work if this country was more pet friendly and it isn't. But Pippa is used to waiting for us for a short while so off we went into the sea. We had to walk quite a while for the water to cover us as the tide was still out but coming in and quite fast. The water wasn't cold and we had a glorious bathe. Here are some pictures to remember the moment.
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| Póo beach where we bathed on Thursday |
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| Our spot on the beach |
After a short siesta, once again we sat outside on the terrace with our PC's. I sent a message to my sister-in-law who was going on holiday to Uzbekistan to wish her a happy holiday. That got me thinking about our road trip next year. We want to do the "Stan" countries so I did a preliminary search on Google Maps. I soon realised that from Baku in Azerbaijan we would have to cross the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan as the route by from Georgia to Kazakhastan and all the way to Turkmenistan overland would take forever. I shared the route with Eladio and we both nodded. A seed has been sown. Will we do it? I hope so. If we made it to Armenia, why not to Almaty via Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan? It's the true Silk Road which we only really touched superficially on our road trip to Yerevan.
After we had had our fill we got back into the car and drove to the small village of Asiego where we had booked a table at the only restaurant there, Casa Niembro and which comes highly recommended. We parked outside the village and walked its streets which we found charming and the houses too. Here are some pictures to show you.
Soon we were sitting down in the restaurant where Pippa was allowed in but only after I pointed out to the owner that because of the new law for animal protection I could not leave her either in the car alone or tied up outside. But she did bark a bit too often and we kept having to say "stop it Pippa", bless her. The restaurant and village are famous for the local blue cheese (queso de cabrales) but I do not eat cheese. Instead we had their home grown tomatoes for starters. We chose lamb cooked in cider (also famous in the area) as our main course and it was divine. Divine too was the cider poured for us by one of the two brothers who run Casa Niembro.
I came back to earth when it was time for dinner and rustled up a simple meal from the few ingredients we had left. That night I slept quite well and was awake at 7.30 on Friday morning. Jesús, the plumber, after a gentle reminder, arrived at 9.30 to fix the upstairs loo. It was a simple and very inexpensive job which should not have required the wall to be broken by the damned insurance people. As soon as he had gone, I range Reale Seguros. I was flabbergasted to hear them tell me that their subcontractor had refused to fix the broken wall because I had complained on Twitter!!!! They told me I had to find a builder and painter and pass them on the bill. I was furious as you can imagine. I rang a higher up guy from the company and am still waiting to hear from him. Honestly I have never come across such an inept company and that would not be the end of it, I can assure you. The problem of course is that finding anyone to do the job is a job in itself as there are not enough building professionals in this area. When we changed the main door of this house the carpenter, who did it in between jobs, took more than 6 months.
But we refused to let this upset our day which we had planned to spend in the Peaks of Europe, visiting the pretty village of Asiego. But first we drove to Posada to go to the Friday market where I bought some delicious asparagus and tuna fish for our dinner. We had coffee in Posada and then got back in the car again destination Asiego. The village which overlooks the famous Naranjo de Bulnes peak, has about 100 inhabitants and is largely unspoiled. It became well known when it was named "exemplary village of the year" in 2019. Each year a village in Asturias is given this distinction and the King and Queen of Spain along with the Princess of Asturias, the Crown Princess, go to the village in question to give the prize, an event which is much televised. Asiego, by the way, is just 18km from our village, El Cuetu de Meré so quite a short drive up beautiful mountains.
Before driving into the village we took the path to a special view point (mirador) where you get a spectacular view of the Naranjo de Bulnes, also called Pico de Urrielu (peak of peaks in the local dialect). This mountain which is 2.519k high is not the highest in the Peaks of Europe, that honour going to Torre de Cerredo (2650), but it is the most famous. I think this is because it is the most difficult to climb as the peak is sheer rock. It also has a peculiar molar like shape which makes it so iconic.
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| The iconic shaped peak of the Naranjo de Bulnes mountain in the Peaks of Europe - photo courtesy of Google. |
It is easy to identify and can be seen from many places in Asturias, nowhere better than at Mirador de Pedro Udaondo. I think this is named after the first person to ascend it. You have to be a good rock climber to reach the top and many people have died in the attempt. We were the only ones there except for a lone camper in an old VW van which I wish we had for our road trips hahaha. This was the sight that greeted our eyes from the Mirador. If you enlarge the photo you will see the summit of the mountain better.
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| Eladio at the Mirador de Pedro Udaondo near Asiego. Eladio showing me the Naranjo de Bulnes summit. |
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| Discovering Asiego |
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| Natural and home made cider being poured for us at Casas Niembro in Asiego on Friday |
Eladio commented he had never eaten such delicious lamb and I think I agree. Although I had not much room left I had to have a dessert and I chose their almond ice cream which is also home made. It was served with "cocos" - a short of souffle shaped pastry made from corn. I was in seventh heaven.
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| Turrón (nut) ice cream with "cocos" for dessert |
The bill came to a paltry 50 euros for one of the best meals we have ever had in this area in the three years since we bought the house. We shall be going back, for sure.
We walked out into brilliant sunshine with a temperature of about 28ºc which is unheard of in these parts at this time of year. That's climate change for you I'm afraid.
The drive home was short and soon we were both having a well deserved siesta. Mine was short. Not long after I was on our modest terrace having a cup of decaf tea. That's when I spied some men doing a job at a house round the corner from ours. So off I went to approach them and see if they could repair the broken wall. Ramón came with me and was astonished at the unnecessary damage caused by the insurance company. To cut a long story short, he will be coming on Wednesday to repair it and hopefully the costs will be covered by Reale Seguros. Amazingly we had found someone who would do the job. Let's hope he does a good one too, like Jesús. Soon this little nightmare will be over.
Saturday came, our last full day here and again the temperature would reach 28ºc and we wanted to spend the morning on the beach. Again we went to Playa de Póo which was much fuller than on a week day but nothing like Benidorm and the like. We had coffee at La Farola del Mar and walked to the end of the beach with the tide out. It's such a beautiful walk. Here are some pics.
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| At Playa de Póo yesterday, perhaps the warmest day |
We had to walk quite a way to find the sea and it was a bit rough but we both enjoyed the bathe enormously. We then sat in the sun, next to the Irish lady who is staying with friends who have a house in Póo. I wish we did. But I am happy with ours.
We were home later than usual after a wonderful morning on the beach, our last in Asturias. Lunch was steak and chips - naughty but nice. The rest of the day was spent quietly except that I was constantly in contact with Tana, new guests, old guests, you name it. My phone was pinging all afternoon but all for a good cause, thankfully.
The day ended with us us having wine and pistachios on the terrace, the last time here. We didn't bother with dinner, watched the news and finished a disturbing series, The Nurse on Netflix which is based, unfortunately, on a true story. It's about how a nurse called Pernille in Denmark discovers a fellow colleague is a serial killer of ill patients. We know a lovely nurse called Pernille from Denmark too. She was the girls' au-pair which is about the only coincidence. The series though did remind me of that ghastly nurse in England who killed so many new born premature babies. May Lucy Letby and Christina Hansen rot in hell.
I slept so so last night and at 5 am was on my phone accepting a new booking for the only room available at home tonight and tomorrow. It's for a young Peruvian student. So today we shall be going back to a full house. We shall also be going back to unusually high temperatures where in Madrid today mercury will reach over 31ºc. It will reach 28ºc here which we had never experienced in September in Asturias.
We shall say farewell to Asturias and hope that the builder Ramón comes on Wednesday, as promised, to cover the broken wall. I am crossing my fingers he will and that Reale Seguros will reimburse us as they should.
Today, my friends, is 1st October. That is the date my dear Mother died aged 79, now 24 years ago. It is a date that is etched in my mind, one I will never forget as I can never ever forget her. She was an extraordinary woman in so many senses and such a fun mother to have. Bless you Mummy. You are always in my heart.
In my heart too are my grandchildren whom I look forward to seeing this week before I am off again. On Thursday I am going alone to Santa Pola where my daughter Suzy is living. On Saturday my dearest friends Sandra and Adele are coming for a girly week so I will have lots to report next Sunday.
I shall leave you till then. Cheers to you all.
Masha
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