Traveling Spanish Style

One of my readers wrote a comment wondering about what life is like for an American living in Spain. I’m happy to give you a picture of our recent trip to Asturias to visit friends.

We got up early last Thursday to take the train to Oviedo, in Asturias. We packed light, taking only daypacks for our four-day journey. Walking three minutes to the train station from our fourth-floor apartment, we boarded the express train for Oviedo. We were given a compartment to ourselves on this fast train and rode in comfort all the way to Oviedo. Since we are senior citizens we ride the trains with a 40% discount from the regular fares.

Just outside of León we found ourselves in the Picos de Europa, a rugged range of mountains that remind me of the Rockies in Colorado. Passing through the snow-covered landscape we sipped steaming tea from the dining car while we admired some of the most beautiful mountain scenery we have seen anywhere. Spain is second only to Switzerland in Europe for its mountains. Traveling around Spain, one encounters all the variety of scenery we have in the US, but compressed into much less space.

Dropping down into Asturias, the mountain valleys are suddenly carpeted in green, which contrasts sharply with the rugged snow-covered mountains above. We arrived in Oviedo in mid morning and walked to a local bar where we enjoyed a late breakfast, Our waitress wanted to practice her English and we were happy to oblige. Oviedo is a university town and like most college towns, is filled with young people who are enjoying their first adventures away from home. They are friendly and welcoming to Americans and we are spoken to in English fairly often.

In keeping with the strange weather we have had this winter, we walked out into a mixture of rain and snow that was filling the streets with slush. Since walking around town was not going to be comfortable, we chose to spend the rest of the morning at the cathedral. Oviedo Cathedral is a mixture of Romanesque and Flamboyant Gothic, and the treasury houses some of the oldest and most valuable religious items in Christendom. There are two 9th century gold crosses studded with precious stones and the tombs of several Asturian kings.

After our tour of the cathedral, we called Renate Fernandez, our American friend, who was meeting us and made plans to meet for lunch. Renate is an anthropologist who had come to Oviedo from their home in Cangas de Onis to give a powerpoint presentation on the American national park system the previous evening. Her husband, Jim, who is a retired professor of anthropology from the University of Chicago had come into town that morning to do some research for a paper he is preparing for delivery in Burgos later in the month. We all met together in a bookshop where Jim was pouring over textbooks that the Spanish school system uses to teach citizenship to its high school students. The topic is hot here in Spain, since the government-mandated curriculum is not strictly in keeping with the views of the more conservative ranks of the Catholic Church and there is quite vocal opposition from such groups as Opus Dei. Jim’s topic for the paper in Burgos concerns this controversy.

We walked to one of their favorite restaurants and enjoyed a leisurely mid afternoon Spanish lunch while we caught up with our various recent adventures. After a short visit with one of Renate’s friends who is a physician in Oviedo, we walked to the bus station for what is usually a short ride to their home in Cangas. Since the snow and rain were continuing, our bus driver was forced to drive about 20 mph for much of the way and it was evening when we arrived in Cangas de Onis. One really needs to use the complete name for this town, since there is another Cangas in Asturias. Cangas is a tourist town since it is at the gateway to the national park in the Picos de Europa. As you can imagine, the mountain scenery here is spectacular. Renate has a long-standing professional interest in the park and how the Spanish national park system differs from our system in the US. We had a light dinner at their 6th floor apartment, which has a full view of the surrounding mountains. Since we are all Americans, we had our dinner very early by Spanish standards and took to our beds for some much needed rest.

Since this posting is about as long as anyone can stand, I’ll continue in a second post tomorrow.