Europe
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The rain is coming down in sheets. I guess
that’s why this area is called the “verde coast”. There’s
fresh snow visible in the mountains all around us. I went to
the internet café while DW and AD did schoolwork. I need to
get some more hotels booked for future destinations. The hours
of this café are unlike any others. Not only does she take the
afternoon siesta but evening computer classes shut us out at
night.
At Poloma’s advice (the hotel owner), we went to the recently
opened Museo del Jurasico de Asturias, or a dinosaur museum
located in Lastres, a village north of Colunga. Asturias is
know as the dinosaur coast because of all the dinosaur remains
found there. The museum sits on a bluff overlooking a beach
where you can find fossilized dinosaur tracks in the rock
formations. The museum is exceptional with lots of skeletons,
informational displays, and artist renditions. The flow
through the displays works perfectly as you see the Theropod,
Sauropod, and Ornithopod species that inhabited this area. AD
can finally say “I found a museum I liked”. We left intent on
making our own search for dinosaur tracks if the weather ever
clears up!
The rest of the day was devoted to coastal village hopping.
Before the #A-8 Expressway was built, all the traffic went
through small towns and villages. The old road remains for the
locals and travelers who aren’t in a hurry. The property boom
that followed the road building is evident in every town with
a playa (beach). Construction cranes dot the skyline of them
all, as new apartment buildings go up for holiday flats. We
can only imagine how much poorer all these small villages
were, but with the property boom come the benefit of
restorations in the old sections. Cities like Ribadesella are
built around a large protected harbor. Pleasure craft complete
with the fishing boats for a place to dock. It all adds to our
pleasure as we drove along the coast.
The real treasures are the small villages of Torimbia, Niembro
and Barro. They are still quiet little rural spots, near the
sea but not on it. Every town has their early 20th century
large homes built by the returning families from the Americas.
Farming is still a main part of the economy for most of the
towns. The Asturias region has an unusual farm building that
stands up off the ground on 4 stone posts. It appears to be
for storage and then allows for a covered area below. Our trip
ended in Llanes. It is a very old coastal town with a walled
section and large old church.
In the Hotel Casona del Sella, AD found a round game table
called the “Billiards of St. Nicholas”. He asked Poloma about
playing and she offered to teach us. The table is about a
meter across and has 4 small holes on the wooden playing
surface. Four people play, each trying to blow a small cork
ball in an opponents’ hole. You have a suction
ball/combination turkey baster which is squeezed to blow the
cork ball around the table top into a hole. It is a lot of fun
and we are going to try and find one to buy somewhere. Poloma
feels “they aren’t made anymore”.
The rains continued to pour down through the day. We drove to
Congas, the next village up the river for dinner. It is larger
than Arriondas and has more tourist facilities. Walking from
shop to shop, we found the “in-store” sales statues very
popular. There were more than any town so far. Dinner wasn’t
very good but we should have known better than to try pizza
again. At least the restaurant was dry, because we were
soaked. They also had delicious vino tinto, so there were
positives.
The word for the day is “fossil”. We began
the day as usual with TD at the internet and AD and I working
on homework and journal writing. Leaving the hotel at about
11, we headed toward Ribasella to look for the fossilized
dinosaur tracks that abound on the coast near there. The
weather continues to be dreary and today as is typical, it is
raining.
Luckily the sun came out, momentarily, as we trekked down a
farm path to the rocky cliffs of Terenes. It has rained so
much that the path and steps leading down are now small
streams of water running to the shore. I of course am very
nervous, tromping down on the mud slopes and wooden steps with
water literally running off of them. As we finally got to the
cliffs we had to clamor over wet and slippery rocks/boulders
to get to an area about 100 feet out to look for the dinosaur
tracks. By this time I am near cardiac arrest with the fear of
falling and am wondering, “why in the world am I doing this?”
As I approach the area where we are desperately trying to view
our first dinosaur print TD tells us, “we better head back as
more rainfall appears eminent.” The rains are not usually just
a drizzle. It comes down in sheets.
As you can imagine I am the picture of cheerfulness. Not only
am I scared to death on the already slick rocks, but it is
sprinkling and I haven’t seen anything remotely like a
dinosaur print. With AD’s help I scurry (can you picture
that?) across the rocks to begin the 10 minute ascent up the
flooded steps and the muddy stream like path. I am now panting
and ##%*?/ as we reach the road and must run the last 300
feet, up hill, to the car as it is now pouring. Hey, do I know
how to have fun or what?
We now head into Ribasella in search of the next fossil print
location. I have decided that there will be no rock climbing
for me at this location!! Once we arrived the weather
continued to rain, but patches blue sky could be seen so we
waited in the car for a clear patch. After 10-15 minutes we
decided that the light drizzle would not be too bad so we set
off down a paved walkway. We met with great success seeing
very some very large prints of the sauropod and ornithopod
along what is now a sheer rock wall. Unfortunately, it was too
far away to be photographic. The prints in this location
actually formed patterns where you could imagine these 8 ton
long necks walking here 120 million years ago.
From here we headed into the mountains to see Lago (lake) Enol
and Lago Ercina. On the way we passed a beautiful church named
Nuestra Senora de Covadonga. Poor AD has seen enough churches
to last a lifetime. Or so he feels now. His spirits were
lifted when we began to see snow along the roadway. He
couldn’t wait to get out of the car and throw snowballs. The
lakes were small and not really all that exciting.
The drive
up and down with sheer rocky cliffs and roads the size of two
small cars now that is exciting. Especially when TD is rubber
necking the countryside while driving or when the road is
overtaken by a herd of cows changing pastures. It’s also a lot
more comfortable when the cars pass one another if you are on
the mountain side. My nerves have never calmed down and TD is
not happy about my shrieks of fear nor our telling him to keep
his eyes on the road and not the hillside. Luckily for me he
gets over these incidences easily and we are soon on flat road
and an even keel.
Our next stop was in Cabrales, which is known for it’s cheese
production. Cheese was originally produced by farmers to allow
for a year round protein source. In this area they use cow,
goat and sheep milk for their cheeses and store the cheese in
caves to promote the mold development. After viewing the cave
storage units, seeing a short film related to cheese
production and sampling the cheese. We went right out and
bought a big wheel of bleu cheese. Yummy!!! When we returned
to the hotel Poloma was ready for another round of billiards.
We laughed a lot and really enjoy this game. Afterward she
guided us to a locals only restaurant for a delicious dinner.
You’d never know the place existed since there was no sign
designating it as a restaurant. She ordered for us and then
left to finish her daily paperwork. We had invited her to
dinner but she said that 8:30 was way too early!! Can you
imagine.
 |
AD Journal |
|
|
|
|||
 |
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2004, diblings.com ~ All rights reserved. Contact our
Webmaster |
