Asturias in a week

💡Cider is ordered by the bottle and poured by the waiter

You don't order it by the glass and you don't pour it yourself, unless the house has a pouring machine. Everyone shares the same glass, and here that's normal, not odd.

💡A cachopo is for sharing, whatever the menu implies

Two veal fillets stuffed with ham and cheese, breaded, weighing half a kilo. One feeds two hungry people. Same with the fabada: a half portion is a portion.

💡Here you walk in mud most of the year

It rains a lot and the woodland paths never dry out: boots with grip, not street trainers. And check whether the route is a loop or there-and-back before you set off, because many of the good ones make you return the same way.

💡Here you do need a car, and the roads are narrow

The coastal villages are badly connected to each other and the good beaches sit at the end of a track. Reckon on twice the time the map says: everything here is bends.

💡Here the rain falls quietly and it's called orbayu

A fine drizzle that doesn't soak you but doesn't stop either, and can fall any month of the year. That's why everything is green. Always a raincoat in the car, and don't cancel the plan: nobody here does.

💡Check the tide table before going to any beach

On this coast the tide comes in high and fast: some beaches vanish completely and some coves have to be left early. Gulpiyuri without a low tide doesn't exist, literally.