So we've had a few days in Spain now and I'm starting to get my head round the language. The danger of insisting on staying away from the tourist centres as much as possible is that nobody understands a word you're saying and my Spanish is beyond crap. The Google Translate app is an absolute godsend (it pronounces everything for you!) and with a combination of that, lots of pointing and muttering random Spanish words we're just about getting by. I don't think I can eat much more chorizo though....
This area of Spain is absolutely stunning. We have the Picos mountains behind us, the stunning, rugged coast in front and everywhere else is a combination of tiny villages and unspoilt countryside. There's so much to do you can't possibly cram it all into a week but I always think it's good to leave a place with reasons to return.
We had a fantastic time the other day, managing to fit in three of our must sees in one day. We started at Covadonga, which is a bit of a bonkers place, absolutely teeming with history. There are a couple of beautiful lakes to visit but it was really the holy sanctuary we went to see. It's a tiny church built into a cave, high up in the mountain and is the burial place of two ancient kings. People queue to attend mass there but in between you can visit inside, as long as you don't talk or take photos. You can buy a postcard though....
From there we moved on to Cangas de Onis, the once capital of Asturias. It's now really just a tourist town full of restaurants and gift shops but the Roman bridge (Puente Romana) is stunning and well worth a visit, even if only to paddle in the crystal clear river underneath.
After a couple of days in Europe I consider myself an expert in driving on the right so plucked up the courage to take the mountain roads back to the site. 15km/h is acceptable, right? It wasn't actually too bad. Apart from the steep drops on the blind bends. It's a good job I'm not scared of heights or anything.... We were well rewarded though as we stopped off at Mirador del Fito, a lookout point at the top of a mountain. The views across the Picos mountains and out to the coast are jaw dropping and even the usually underwhelmed teens were impressed.
Back at the site everyone was starting to come to life and they were holding a karaoke night (apparently this is some kind of celebration week in Spain so they're all in a party mood, although I can't work out what they're celebrating). Diva daughter had a fantastic time and was a bit of a novelty. She sang a few times, including a duet with a young Spanish girl, but had to stop when they ran out of English songs. Unfortunately they had the Spanish version of 'Let it Go' so we had to sit through that several times. It's no less irritating in Spanish but I managed to order a bottle of rioja so soon stopped caring!
I'm still not quite getting this idea of lazy mornings and late nights but the kids definitely are. They've made friends with a group of Spanish teens and its apparently quite normal for them to come in at 2am, long after I've gone to bed.
The Tent - Outwell Newgate 5
I got a new tent for this trip because I knew how small some of the European pitches were likely to be. Honestly, it really wasn't just because I wanted one.
As we're living in it for 8 weeks it had to tick pretty much every box. It needed to be polycotton, 5 berth with a decent sized living space, poles rather than air beams (I'm far too lazy to be checking air pressure all the time in the changing temperature), and no longer than 6.5m. The Outwell Newgate 5 was the only way to go really and so far I think it's perfect, although I'll review it again in a few weeks when we've been living in it while.
There are two bedrooms, a 3 berth and a 2, although in practical terms that means a 2 berth and a 1. The bigger of the two rooms takes two single Outwell Dreamboat 12cm SIMs exactly. There's no room for anything around the edges and they're pushed together quite tightly (without pushing the inner tent against the outer, thankfully) so it makes a really good double bed. The smaller room takes a single SIM and allows a small amount of storage down the side. I'll post a review of the SIMs another day.
I'd only pitched the tent a couple of times before so was really pleased when it only took us about half an hour to get it pitched and pegged (after we'd worked out how to cope with the dip at the back of the pitch). With a bit more practice I think it will take about 20 minutes.
The living area is a great size, giving us plenty of space for three chairs, a table and clothes rail, while still allowing plenty of room to move about. Because we're away for a long time we've had to bring more clothes, etc than normal with us and there isn't really room to store everything without it getting cluttered but for a normal 2 week trip it would be fine. This time we're keeping the stuff we don't yet need in the trailer.
The best thing I think though is the built in canopy over the front, which gives us an outdoor but sheltered kitchen area, not that I'm doing much cooking on this trip... I've managed to get two small kitchen stands in it so we have somewhere to prep as well as cook, and plenty of storage. Alternatively it would also make a great place to sit.
We’ve only been here a few days so my view might change over the coming weeks but so far I think it was a great choice. It’s far, far cooler inside than out and the tinted windows give you some degree of privacy. There are only two minor gripes at this stage, both relating to the bedrooms. They’re mainly polyester so although the ventilation is very good they still get significantly warmer than the rest of the tent. It gets us out of bed in a morning though! The other thing is that the curtain and the mesh for the bedroom doors are now completely separate. You can still have one or both open/closed but I preferred it when the curtain zipped to the mesh, which avoided extra zipping. I know. I’m too fussy!
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