The Road from Santiago

    Villaviciosa sits near the edge of the tidal marshes of the river Villaviciosa. The town is not by the river but a little uphill of it.  It is hemmed by two expansives of upland, with a valley tapering of into the ranges to the south. It occupies that rarest of Astruain things, some flat land. To get to the town we cross the A-8.  The designers of the motorway opted for a tunnel under the river and marsh rather than a bridge.  A row of houses, once a hamlet beyond the river mark our approach. They seem to be either spick and span or in great decay. As towns go this one has expanded geographically, if not demographically.  There seems to be almost two, parallel, centres, divided by the N-632.  The road cuts through the centre.  To the north are big, modern apartments, with parking, supermarkets and a road or two with many shops.  To the south the core of the older town, including a market with a machine for dispensing bottles of milk, a fe...

Down the road we go; down 148m to 44m above sea level.  The most exciting thing en route is the Club de Golf Villaviciosa. https://villaviciosagolf.com/   Should you wish 18 holes it will cost you, a non-member, 25 euros - although if you can wait till next week it will only be 20.  The most recent review was by Ivan, two months ago.  He said ‘The treatment and love they give you is impressive, as they take care of the course, the best greens in Asturias.’  Fermin had another joy in mind. ‘My son-in-law took me and we had the vermouth on a terrace from where you could see the entire countryside, spectacular, I will return.’  Esther was not impressed by the restaurant. ‘Fatal!!! We have ordered cachopos and they were inedible. Look, it's difficult to eat badly in Asturias! Not even the potatoes were good!! The bacon combo plate for my son tasted bad. They must have changed owners because I have eaten there in other years and it had been a good experience.’ ...

  We are not going to be troubled by much in the way of things today.  Chalet Noemi has only one, five star, uncommitted review. We will walk near the Church of San Justo. It has two reviews. A four star uncommitted one and another, less forgiving from Javier, who says ‘If there is an event to attend at this church, keep in mind that there are very few parking spaces nearby, so you end up leaving the car far away and then walk along the edges of the road to get there.’   That’s it.  Maybe we should imagine what this road was like before the motorways.  See the lorries slowly crawling up hills, followed by convoys of cars. Let us go to the Villaviciosa municipal website.  https://www.villaviciosa.es/   It contains such useful information as that the biggest employer is the commercial sector, followed by services and then hotels. That’s it.  We’ve crossed the geography and are heading down into the lowlands.

Rarely do we just hang around and look at all the shops in an area.  We have come to  a cross roads and will gaze at what joys we have to explore. Almacenes Rio de Oro SL is one of those hardware shops every smallholder, country dweller and chap of any flavour may wish to hang around at and look at the lovely bits of bent metal.  Spain does this a lot. I bought a mattock blade in the middle of Barcelona once.  This is the type of place which people don’t tend to review and when they do they say very little.  Two years ago Joe said ‘Very friendly staff. To put it another way, access for articulated trucks is a bit complicated. But the staff helps you with everything you need to get in or out.’ Across the road is the Parrilla Cantabrico.  It is open Wednesday to Sunday, usually from 9 till 5 but 8-11 on Friday to Sunday.   Five days ago Raul wrote ‘Very aithentic please with good food and nice staff!’   Yesterday Alfonso said ‘Great homemade food, t...

  It is a quiet day.  We will get near to the A-8 along the new branch of the N-632.  We will pass by the Venta La Esperanza and as it will be open at 2pm we will hang around for it to open.   This is a place that serves meals.  Old Spain hands will nod wisely, of course 2pm is the only decent time to begin the middle day meal.  They close up between 6 and 8.30 before opening up till 11.30,  According to Google it identifies as woman owned. Maria wrote ‘Everything is always great. The squid casserole is very good, as are the scallopines with cabrales. The baked pear cheese is to cry. For dessert we ordered cheesecake which was also spectacular.’ Look, we’ve not a lot to do so let me give you details of a debate on Google from a week ago. Celta Perez wrote My dear Mrs. Noelia (owner), it is not my norm to get involved in responding to certain comments, this will be an exception.  When half-truths are told, they are usually lies, my dear...if it is ...

  We are heading south. You may have noticed, in the distance, some bloody great land masses.  If we went by car we would be going under deep, long tunnels.  I really like those tunnels,  We aren’t going by car.  We need to search out the N-632 to find a way we can walk.  We will flick between September 2008 and June 2024 in our photos. I’m sure not much has happened between those two dates. The Merendero La Cabana is closed today.  It will be closed tomorrow. Thereafter we can mooch in at 11am.   Three days ago Luis wrote ‘ Good service and very delicious food. Two of those who went were celiacs and they were delighted because the entire menu is for celiacs and without losing quality or flavor. It has a playground and inflatables for children.  Totally recommended. We better push on.  The Sidreria El Tasqueru us open [it closes tomorrow and wednesday]. It is a cheerful little looking place, snuck in between the AS-356 and GI-2.  23...