World Traveller February 2020

SPAIN
Opposite: Waves crash
into the rocks at
Cudillero Lighthouse
This page: The La Regenta
sculpture by Mauro Alvarez
is revered for its incredible
attention to detail
‘
THEIR MANSIONS ARE FLORID
SHOWPIECES, EXTRAVAGANTLY
TILED AND TOPPED WITH FLUTED
TURRETS, DOMES AND SPIRES
’
de la Cidra’, it’s lined with taverns serving
Asturian bean stews and ciders. If you
didn’t know what to expect, you might
think on first glance that the individuals
standing oddly motionless by the walls,
yellowish liquid splashing at their feet,
were doing something deeply anti-social.
But these are the cider waiters, who take
pride in pouring the first servings of the
bottle from a great height to properly
aerate it. Some of it inevitably misses.
I was back on the Feve again next day,
this time heading northeast back towards
the coast. The long skinny railway lines
ran alongside stream-watered meadows
and disused watermills, where the train
was whipped occasionally by trailing
brambles for daring to trespass on
their peaceful world. My destination
was a proper seaside resort and one
that proved to be uniquely Asturian,
bearing little resemblance to its cousins
on Spain’s more touristed costas.
Ribadesella spreads either side of
the River Sella, which rises in the Picos
de Europa. These mountains fill the
southern horizon, providing a barrier
between the coast and the rest of Spain,
and filling the Sella with water, so while
the rivers of many costas run dry, this one
teems with salmon. That mountainous
barrier had another effect: in the 8th
century, when Spain was overrun by
Moors from North Africa, it kept the
invaders at bay, something locals point
to when they claim that Asturi is the
‘real Spain’: the unconquered Spain,
Spain at its most independent-minded.
Certainly Ribadesella had a flavour all
of its own. The right bank is the original
town, with fishing boats, restaurants and
pilgrims passing through on the Camino
de Santiago. Across the bridge I found the
resort, on a sandy spit, purpose-built in
the early 20th century by migrants with
a penchant for turrets and castellations.
Extravagant villas line the promenade,
some private, some now hotels.
The resort was meant to be for the
unhealthy and the wealthy – King Alfonso
XIII used to stay. Now I found it an enclave
of vintage chic. Without the wriggle
room to grow, or the scorchio weather to
attract big numbers, it is the kind of place
where children might still wear sailor
suits, dressed by their nannies. From my
seaview balcony in the tiled and turreted
Villa Rosario, the most flamboyant of its
Casas de Indianos, I could look down on
the sweeping promenade that backs the
Playa de Santa Marina, and out to where
a single sail dawdled its way across the
bay. I felt I should be writing poetry before
a late-evening sashay along the prom.
If I were to complete my Asturian
journey I needed to make one last stop,
by bus – up the Sella River, about 25km
inland to Cangas de Onís. Billed as
the gateway to the Picos de Europa, it
couldn’t have been more different from
the coast. The delicate rib of its Roman
bridge, arching across the tumbling
Sella, framed a fresco of snow-topped
mountains. Wood smoke, rather than sea
salt, fragranced the air; rafting, quadbiking,
canoeing and canyoning were
touted on every street corner; vaqueiros
in mud-spattered cars lurched along the
main street and a much younger breed
of tourist was tucking into bean stew
and 24-hour breakfasts in the cafés.
This is most decidedly hill country,
but visitors are here for more than
adrenaline sports. It is a place of
pilgrimage. Just up the road, in 722AD,
the Moors were finally defeated at the
Battle of Covadonga and the Reconquista
began. It is the source of Asturias’s
claim to be the country’s undefeated
soul. I breathed in the air and realised,
whatever the niceties of that claim, in
this region I’d found a place with an
irresistible individualistic streak. Another
country. Another Spain. What’s more,
here I’d reached the very wellspring.
Inspired to travel? To book a trip, call
800 DNATA or visit dnatatravel.com
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