Sorry for not blogging sooner! We had a wonderful break in Spain a couple of weeks back, and I already feel ready for another holiday (although to be fair, I already have several lined up!).
If you are interested, I have posted our latest holiday pictures to Flickr... am quite pleased with them, and although Marta doubts the 'quality' of some of them, I think she looks stunning, as usual! Check them out here.
Anyway... so what did we get up to? Here is a short run down!
Madrid
On the Tuesday afternoon, Kurt very kindly drove us to Luton to catch the flight to Madrid. A beautiful beautiful afternoon (after a week of gorgeous weather in the UK) had given me a gravely false sense of security, and I packed with the expectation of wearing shorts during the day and summer dresses in the evenings... thankfully, as a last minute thing I did stuff in a couple of long sleeved tops and a pair of jeans, just *in case* it was a bit nippity. This proved most fortunate!
Jez came to meet us at Madrid airport, and drove us back to their place (which is about an hour out of Madrid, set right in the mountains and hills surrounding Madrid). Jez and Marta have a lovely house - the garden is in the process of having an overhaul (while Jez sorts out the drainage etc.), and they are making adjustments in preperation for the arrival of little "Gruno" (Marta's name for the new life, which is currently thriving inside her!). This rather interesting name is derived from "Bruno" (Jez's chosen name if the child turns out to be a boy... which has been re-interpreted in hilarious fashion by Marta's young niece). Anyway... Marta greeted us with lots of little plates of tapas, and some delicious courgette soup that she had made.
We got up fairly early next morning (Jez took Frankie, their adorable Spaniel for a bit of a walk, and Marta was up feeding the large colony of stray cats that congregate outside their home of a morning). We drove into Madrid, had a look around the 'old quarter' (I am wondering how we missed this area when Mark and I went their for their wedding a couple of years back), and had some fabulous tapas in the Casa Labra tapas bar; founded in 1860 and run by the Molina family for the past 6 decades, the mellow brown-walled Casa Labra is located a mere stone's throw from the Puerta del Sol. Said to have started as a favourite meeting spot of the 19th-century socialist party, it's one of the centre's oldest and most popular tapas bars, invariably crowded and full of atmosphere. Of the many tidbits on offer, the delicious deep-fried cod croquettes (croquetas de bacalao) are delicious, accompanied by a tiny glass of beer.
In the afternoon, we wandered around the huge Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which is something like the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. After we were fully 'galleried' out, we went back to Jez and Marta's and Jez took us to their local bar ("The Black Pearl" - unfortunately no sign of Johnny Depp, although the bar maid did vaguely resemble a cross between Cher and Keith Richards). On belated return from the bar, poor Marta had prepared a delicious meal for us; Spanish Omelette (which was a revelation to me), and a lovely salad. Yummm....
Llanes
Thursday morning, we got up very early and headed off to Llanes in Northern Spain, with Frankie in tow. I have to say, he behaved imppecably throughout the five hour drive - only occasionally trying to get his head out of the window, as dogs are prone to doing, but mostly just lolling around in the back seat with Marta and I. Poor dog had to put up with our singing most of the way; mainly 80s hits, with a few dodgy 'novelty' tunes thrown in for good measure. The journey actually flew by - good company always improves such things!
We stayed in the rather picturesque La Arquera Hotel, just on the outskirts of Llanes. The gardens were gorgeous - fig trees and raspberries, carefully tended by its olive skinned middle aged Spanish owner, and his tiny wife - who put on the most amazing breakfast spread every morning (not least the delicious cheesecake, which was surely sent down by the Gods on a daily basis). Shame about her rather rude daughter, who blighted poor Marta's stay with her stinky attitude - although to be honest, language barriers prevented her from having the same effect on us. Our first afternoon there involved a walk around the main town of Llanes (the painted cubes in the harbour are amazing), and a delicious meal in a restaurant on the water front. Thankfully they let us in with Frankie, as there was a torrential storm, mercifully timed for our arrival inside. This was my first taster of the cider (poured from a great height), which was a feature of our holiday. I didn't realise that Northern Spain was such a huge Cider region - plenty of "Siderias" to sample them in as well (considering that I have been unable to stomach cider since blowing it out of my nose in vomit form at age 17, I took some convincing to try it... and then some convincing to stop). We had a fairly quiet evening - not least because we were all pooped from the journey, but also because the hotel refused to allow poor Frankie to stay in the room while we went out, so the poor thing had to be left in the car.
On Friday, we explored the region to the left of Llanes on the map. We took a drive to Ribadesella (a cute coastal town, with impressive South American style housing on the seafront), and then on to Cangas de Onis (to see the medieval bridge with the cross hanging from it, which crosses the Sella river). After a round of alcohol free beers at a bar overlooking the bridge (the Spanish serve great alcohol free bars almost everywhere - perfect for lunch time drinking!), we went on to the impressive mountain-side chapels in Covadonga.
Covadonga (from Latin Cova Dominica, "Cavern of the Lady" is a village among the Picos de Europa mountains where Iberian Christians won the battle over the Moors in 722 AD. This was the first significant Christian victory over the occupying Moors; as such, it is often considered to be the start of the Reconquista, the 770-year effort to expel the Moors from Iberia. Further on up the mountains (a pretty hairy ride) we did a short walk around the Lagos de Covadonga (three lakes), and stopped for a delicious lunch in a shack that I would more likely expect to see in North Wales or the Lake District. Again the evening was fairly quiet, although on this night we had my fave meal of the entire trip; really really good tapas in a restauranmt just around the corner from the Tourist Information place in Llanes (and amazing 'Cider Sangria" - whatever that contains!).
Saturday, we explored the region to the right of Llanes on the map! We took a trip up the Picos de Europa on the cable car at Fuente De. Although I am not a great one for heights, this gave an amazing view of the area. We were also lucky enough to spot a couple of Eagles swooping around in the mid morning chilly air! Close by, is the stunning town/village of Potes. We had a lovely lunch here, and wandered around the shops - where I managed to buy some very cheap bee pollen for my smoothies, and the ingredients for a typical Austrian stew - "Fababda Asturias" (or something). This contains butter beans and delicious selection of sausages - something I will look forward to cooking for myself when Mark is out one night ;-)
In the afternoon, we had a slightly surreal experience - we went to a monastery (the Santo Toribio de Liébana) that houses the largest section of the crucifix in the world. Marta and I seemed to get caught up in a small tour group, that first listened to a Spanish service by a pasty faced monk (cue confused look for me), and then were let into a crypt in orderly fashion (ahem - something resembling a rugby scrum, consisting of mainly elderly and terribly hostile 'Teutonic' yet tiny perfumed and 'gilded' Spanish women) in order to kiss or stroke the relic. Rising panic almost paralysed me; to kiss or not to kiss??? Anyway... i dutifully stroked it, prayed for some relief from the crippling constipation that I am prone to on holiday, and marched purposefully to the public toilets located outside. Hallelujah! I am a born again agnostic.
Our last night in Llanes was again quite muted, thankfully. Several stag and hen parties seemed to be in flow on the Saturday evening in town, so we made our excuses and left; the next day we were on the move!
Bilbao
Sunday we left Llanes (sniff - it all went to fast), to make the trip to Bilbao. This was very kind of Jez and Marta, who only really had one evening here before they made their long trip back to Madrid in the car.
We stopped off on the way in the charming and historic town of Santillana del Mar. There is an old saying that Santillana del Mar is The Town of Three Lies, since it is neither a Saint (Santo), nor flat (llana) and has no sea (Mar) as implied by the town's name. However, the name actually derives from Santa Juliana (or Santa Illana) whose remains are in the kept in the Colegiata, a Romanesque church and former Benedictine monastery.
At lunch time, we stopped off in relatively sprawling Santander. A not-so-impressive ferry port, which seemed a little modern and soulless after the gorgeous places that we had visited previously. The beach there was however quite nice, and the sun was out while we ate lunch outside, so it was a nice enough stop.
Late afternoon we arrived in Bilbao. Have you ever tried to navigate using Lonely Planet maps? I was glad that for once Mark was doing the navigating, and poor Jez was driving - perhaps Mark will be more lenient with me in future when attempting such a feat. They have a habit of only showing every other road, and omitting helpful details etc... anyway - we finally arrived (slightly frazzled) at our hotel; the Petit Palace Arana, a modern 'high tech' hotel (that basically means it has laminate floors and brown bed sheets in 'hotel speak'), handily placed on the best part of town for eating and drinking (the Casco Viejo - or old town). That evening, we managed to ensconce the doggie securely in the hotel (he seemed quite happy), and explored some of the local bars - sampling the 'pinchos' (a form of tapas, or 'finger food', that you take from the bar in such places). This was sadly the last evening we were to spend with Jez and Marta, and we said goodbye (reluctantly) to them the next morning over breakfast at a local cafe. Poor beggars didn't get to see much of Bilbao at all, but I guess they are better placed than us to re-visit it in future. Sniff...
Monday and Tuesday, Mark and I spent time getting to know Bilbao. On Monday, we trampsed around for a bit in the rain (finding that most attractions were actually closed on a Monday in Bilbao), so decided to catch the Metro out to Gexto - to see what we thought would be a picturesque marina on the outskirts of Bilbao. Unfortunately, the thing we had half joked about (ETA bombs) became a stark reality. We saw the aftermath of a bomb (the bomb had gone off hours beforehand, but there was a big clean-up operation in action as the blast was quite far-reaching in its damage), which thankfully didn't hurt anyone, but certainly made us feel a bit uncertain about continuing our exploration of the area. The area proved to be a bit less pretty than we had hoped - although to be honest, the drizzle and the bomb did not help. In the evening, we had one too many drinks in the bars close to our hotel, and found that the Monday opening hours extended to the restaurants - so we struggled to find something to eat as we emerged from the smokey bar at 11pm. I thought this was a city that never slept? Anyway... we found a bizarre little place serving smoked fish and asparagus (the French speaking waiter seemed insistent that we only had this), and we rolled back to the hotel.
Tuesday was our last day, and was alot more successful. The weather helped ALOT; it was beautiful and sunny, and even brightened up the back streets of Casco Viejo. In the morning we donned our matching Histon FC shirts (ah, the things you do for love, eh?) and stormed over to the Athletic Bilbao football stadium. A fab tour of the ground, made even better by a pleasant guide and a couple of Irish football fans (a guy and his son), who had actually heard of Histon FC and their relative successes - this cheered Mark up no end! ;-)
In the afternoon we made the mistake of visiting the inside of the Guggenheim. While this is an amazing feat of engineering and design on the outside, the 'artwork' (and at risk of sounding like a complete pleb, I use the term loosely) was in my humble opinion a bit "pants". Perhaps I shouldn't list out my objections as I would be in danger of showing my possible ignorance and lack of style - I was of course wearing a his and hers set of football shirts, so maybe the whole thing is beyond me to begin with... however, the story of the Emperor's New Clothes comes to mind... anyway...
To round off then. We loved it. Marta and Jez's company was fantastic - and I would deffo be interested in returning to Llanes and discovering more about Asturias... fine food, fine cider and fine company - what more could a girl want?!
Lots of love
Hayls
xxxx
long weekend camping trips (one to the Lake District, and one to destination as yet unknown), our trip to Cornwall with my sis and the boys is still looking good, and most very very much excitingly a trip to Bris-vegas in Oz to visit Jen and John and their soon-to-be expanding family, AND a whistle stop tour of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Mark might even squeeze in a visit to Andy and Srey Neath, to check up on their new family addition too (unfortunately, I am too short of holidays for that!). 
