Tim In Spain: A is for Asturias, B is for Bagpipes, and C is for Cold

My horse was parched. How did I know this, I knew this because I could literally feel the horse drifting to over to park of the mountain stream where the ice had broken. It began to move and I got nervous, my teacher and guide Professor Montes had told me horses like to lie down when they drink. Feelings of being drenched in the mountains danced in my head. But my horse ended up getting a drink, and not lying down.

So there I was, deep in the Picos de Europa. Here's a quick geography lesson, the picos de Europa are the mountains in the North of Spain. They are located in the region called Asturias. It's north of Leon. You can see the region on the map.

Upon arriving in Asturias, we headed to a cider factory. This wasn't your warm apple cider with cinnamon sticks though. This was alcoholic cider, a specific type native to the region. In this factory they had Huge barrels that they kept the cider in. Check out these three regions of significance.

After the cider factory, we went to the Asturian coast. Let me tell you, it looked exactly like the Irish coast I have been fortunate enough to visit with my family. Check out this picture the coast.

That night, we went to a barn, literally a barn where we had dinner and drank cider. When people drink cider in Asturias they have a very specific way of pouring cider. Rather than explain this one, I will just let this picture explain it.

After some healthy rounds of cider, our teacher and his friend proceeded to bust out their bagpipes and start wailing on some classics (Amazing Grace, Scotland the Brave). Of course all this wailing made me want to get in on the action. Now I wish I could say I picked up the bagpipes and all those years of trumpet made me instantly able to play perfect, but I would be lying. I just filled them with air and couldn't get enough air to get em really going. Here I am trying to be the Boss of the Bagpipes.

The next day we woke up and proceeded to hike through snow on the ground and rain falling on our heads. While the views were pretty, by the end we all were drenched and pretty cold. However I did get some good pictures.

The next day we woke up early and drove really high in the mountains. We put on many layers. My layer break down was the following

T Shirt
Long Sleeve Shirt
Sweater
Sweatshirt
Fleece

We waited for a little bit by the side of the road deep in the mountains. Soon the locals came around the bend with about 15 horses. We proceeded to mount the horses. I had a medium size horse called Moro. He was a great horse that followed my instructions. We then rode our horses deep into the mountains.

Now, I said the word mountains up there in the last paragraph and I mean it. These mountains were super diesel. I constantly felt like I was in the Lord of the Rings or an Imax movie on the Himalayas, and for the people that get it (probably only Sam and Joe) I felt like I was in a picture that would be on the wall in Dr. Lebel's office. Check out this mountains.

At the end of the horse riding trip my horse and I broke free from the group (I am sad to report that Zach's horse was extremely slow and also had some serious fart problems). Now when I broke free I managed to kick my horse/crack the reins and also scream like a crazy deranged eight year old. This combination caused Moro to take off really fast down the mountain road. It was exhilarating in a way I can't even describe. This is our guide, our "Aragorn" who made the trail through the snow.

That night, I convinced the owner of the super tiny hotel we stayed out to give me some nails and a hammer. Ruby and I found a stump and we proceeded to play Stump with the guys on the trip till the early morning. Now I have played some great Stump games (The Game at my Mom's birthday party in Maine sticks out) but this game was pretty perfect. The mountain river roared close by, our teacher was practicing bagpipes inside, the beer was cheap and spanish, and we got probably like 50 looks from locals who thought yankees were crazy. For those who don't know what STUMP is, check out this website for explanation.

The next morning we hiked deep into mountains, unfortunately there was snow on the pass and we could not travel through. It was OK, I got to practice my "Horn of Gondor" skills. I was much better at this then I was at Bagpipes. Check it out.