Asturias...not Austria

Prepare to have your breath taken away!! Seriously, Asturias is probably the most beautiful place I have ever visited. Not constructed beauty either…no sir, this is 100% natural, all God’s handiwork. Last weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to visit this normally rainy, normally green wonderland. I could go on and on about how great it is but I am just going to let the pictures do the talking…less reading for you, less typing for me!

Asturias is the northern region of Spain, between Galicia and Cantabria, which will remind anyone of any picture of Ireland you have ever seen. Filled with mountains, hills and even beaches, this place just screams “I’m beautiful! Stare at me!!”





On our agenda for the weekend was to go up to the Picos de Europa, or Peaks of Europe, National Park. This is basically where Spain’s northern mountain range, as well as the mountain range that becomes the Alps originates from. Before heading up to the peaks, though, we got to visit the town of Covadonga, where we saw stuff like this:




Then the drive up. Oh snap, it was amazing!! This is what most of the way up looked like…

In the actual national park, there are also two huge lakes that formed there over the many years these mountains have been around. Where does the water come from you ask? From the crazy amounts of water that are dumped on this region in the form of rain, that’s where! This is the view from up top.


And of course, when you are on top of a mountain, what are you obligated to do by law?

Frolic…

Act like Gollum from Lord of the Rings…


And sing “The hills are alive with the sound of music!!”

Yeah, I’m a dork but I know that if y’all were there you would be thinking the exact same thing!

Next, Cangas de Onis, where we stopped to grab some authentic Asturian food called fabada and some arroz con leche. Cangas has one main thing to attract tourist, a genuine Roman bridge with a replica of the Cross of Victory used by Spain during the Reconquista.



And final stop, Gijon (pronounced Heehon), the beach town that we stayed at for 2 nights! Again BG didn’t hold back and booked us at a 4 star hotel that overlooked the beach. Goodness, I love that school. Hehe…Anyway, the old town was gorgeous but on striking detail in their skyline was this sculpture.


Its name kind of translates in the Hugger of the Horizon, of course it has a much more artsy tone in Spanish. And then to finish off the visit and this post I went for a swim…

Yeah right! That water was freezing cold!! I highly recommend that anyone visit Asturias at some point. As my literature professor said, “You haven’t lived if you haven’t been to Asturias and Texas.” OK, so I threw in the last part, but you know what I mean. OH, and to anyone who hasn’t found out yet, I bought tickets to my next destination this past week, Oslo, NORWAY! WOOT WOOT for Scandinavia and Viking country in December!