{"id":6162,"date":"2025-06-02T19:27:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T19:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=6162"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:50:53","slug":"2-asturias-by-one-kilometre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=6162","title":{"rendered":"2. ASTURIAS – BY ONE KILOMETRE."},"content":{"rendered":"

Our campsite at Colombres is nestled just inside the border of Asturias.\u00a0 One kilometre further east and we’d be back in Cantabria.<\/p>\n

The term “Asturias” is named after its ancient inhabitants, the Astures, primitive inhabitants of the banks of the Astura River (now known as the River Esla.\u00a0 Although, as far as I can see this river flows rapidly out of Asturias and spends most of it’s life in the provinces of L\u00e9on and Zamara before joining the Douro and heading to sea via Portugal!)<\/p>\n

Some etymological research indicates that “\u00c1stur” comes from the Celtic root “stour” meaning “river”.\u00a0 So the Asturias principality is named after a river which barely gets going in the region, and would be called the River River if it hadn’t had it’s name changed.<\/p>\n

The same root survives today in Gaelic and Breton with the words “ster”, “stur” and “stour” meaning “river”.\u00a0 I can find three Stours in England, a Stur in Brittany, a St\u00f6r in Germany and a Stura in Italy.\u00a0 I’m sure there will be others!\u00a0 So, along with all the River Avons, Afans and Afons there are a goodish number of economically named “River Rivers” about!<\/p>\n

Asturias, one of the 17 top level administrative communities.\u00a0 It is the only one known as a Principality.\u00a0 This is because the heir to the Spanish throne is called the Prince of Asturias.<\/p>\n

I knew you needed to know all that!<\/p>\n

As a result of the largely un-policed French rule banning the import of dairy goods, fresh meats, drugs and sandwiches (really), one of my first jobs is to get down to the local Lupa supermarket.\u00a0 I need to stock up on milk, cheese and cannabis!\u00a0 The Lupa store in Unquera, five kilometres away isn’t the biggest in Spain, but it’s not that small either.\u00a0 I managed to buy up exactly half of the shop’s entire stock of semi skimmed milk.\u00a0 Two litres.<\/p>\n

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UHT milk, on the other hand, comes on pallets!<\/p>\n

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The next day we went back for the other two litres!\u00a0 Just to be on the safe side!<\/p>\n

Time to explore the local beaches.\u00a0 First up, Llanes.\u00a0 The Playa de Tor\u00f3.<\/p>\n

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A really beautiful cove to the East of town.\u00a0 Protected from the north and east by a rocky promontory …<\/p>\n

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… the Punta Rad\u00f3n – sounds a bit dodgy.\u00a0 I have always associated radon with igneous bedrock.\u00a0 But almost the whole of the Asturias province appears to be limestone karste.\u00a0 Indeed, the numerous rocky pinnacles which are scattered all over the bay and onto the beach are allegedly the remains of the local limestone cliffs.<\/p>\n

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Some come complete with mermaids!<\/p>\n

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The water is clear, and azure.\u00a0 Very tempting, if a little cool – but no togs or chairs with us – so no swimming or relaxing – the rocks proving uncomfortable after a few minutes!\u00a0 So we head into town, via a beer at a local bar which had a sign saying “not to be passed without having some refreshment!”\u00a0 At least that’s what I thought the notice said!\u00a0 There was a small campsite perched between the coast road and the open ocean.\u00a0 We would have investigated, but it was still shut for the winter!\u00a0 We crossed the River Carrocedo in the centre of town as it widens into the port area.\u00a0 Very pretty place.<\/p>\n

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The narrow streets were well provided with eateries, bars and chigres – cider bars. Throughout Spain, these are known as sidrerias, but in Asturias they’re sometimes called chigres.<\/p>\n

And round one corner we stumbled on the casino in a building which was once the town hall.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday, having tried the menu del dia at the restaurant (La Casa Maria) 200 m up the road from the campsite, we were ready to venture a bit further afield.\u00a0 There is a rather posh restaurant up in the hills near the village of Luey, La Jontoya.\u00a0 Gets great reviews.\u00a0 Comes highly recommended!\u00a0 But it’s closed today.\u00a0 Opens at 1 pm – on the 15 June.\u00a0 Over two weeks away!\u00a0 Not convenient.\u00a0 And the tavern in village of Luey, where we got quietly sozzled last time we were here, was also shut.\u00a0 At least that will be open tomorrow!\u00a0 But we want Sunday lunch … today!\u00a0 I discover that there is a parador back down the road at Mo\u00f1orrodero.\u00a0 But, when we get there, it\u2019s more of a lodging for walkers of the Camino trail.\u00a0 No food!<\/p>\n

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Another 100 m back down the road we found a roadside eatery, the Restaurante Mo\u00f1orrodero.\u00a0 It was totally deserted when we arrived, so the plan was to have a coffee and wait to see if anyone came for food!\u00a0 Good plan.\u00a0 Excellent coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A few people started filtering in by 2.30 pm and we were getting hungry to we consulted the menu – and Google – and the barman – and Google again.\u00a0 In the end, we hedged our bets with two different starters and two different mains – both home-made traditional dishes of the region.\u00a0 We’ll worry about the postres later!<\/p>\n

The starters were really big enough to be meals on their own …<\/p>\n

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A very extensive mixed salad for Glenda.\u00a0 A whole lettuce with half a salmon (smoked), cheese, pat\u00e9 and chutney.\u00a0 Huge green peppers stuffed with a spicy meat concoction for me.<\/p>\n

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We squirreled away half of one of the mains, two baguettes, a couple of knives and forks and half the wine for later!\u00a0 By the time we left (with our contraband) there wasn’t a table to be had – apart from ours, that is!<\/p>\n

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Heading further inland, the countryside got more and more crinkly.<\/p>\n

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The view to the west, over the valley of the Rio Nansa – and, coincidentally, almost exactly towards La Sauceda in the next valley over.\u00a0 And that just happens to be where we will have lunch a few days later.\u00a0 But back to “today”…\u00a0 We continued on the “main” road up the valley.\u00a0 Actually, the only road up the valley.\u00a0 At La Puente del Arrudo we got the chance to see and cross the river to Cades.\u00a0 (Puentes are always good for crossing things!)\u00a0 Cades is apparently well known for its 18th century ferreria, or ancient iron works.<\/p>\n

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Closed of course, in the short term because it’s Sunday.\u00a0 And in the long term because it is an ancient relic and now a museum.\u00a0 Different sort of closed!<\/p>\n

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Outside, there is evidence of water powered activity in days gone by – and there is a lovely, peaceful walk up the course of the old mill race.<\/p>\n

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I fibbed about nicking cutlery from the restaurant, by the way!\u00a0 We had already picked up enough from the ferry!<\/p>\n

I’ve been trying to fit in a word I read in the paper the other day.\u00a0 It’s a challenge!\u00a0 So far, I’ve not managed it.\u00a0 I’m sure you will know when I succeed!\u00a0 But it’ll have to wait for another day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our campsite at Colombres is nestled just inside the border of Asturias.\u00a0 One kilometre further east and we’d be back in Cantabria. The term “Asturias” is named after its ancient inhabitants, the Astures, primitive inhabitants of the banks of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6162"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6195,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6162\/revisions\/6195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}