From Barcelona to Oviedo

Why Asturias?

After Barcelona we wanted a complete change and thought of going up on the North Coast. We were thinking of moving to San Sebastian, a gorgeous seaside town 20km from the French border but somebody mentioned that it’s very touristy and it’s nice to visit during the summer but not to live there. Not to mention the prices that are equal to the ones in Barcelona or Madrid.

We looked further down the coast. Santander – didn’t find anything interesting about it. Bilbao – way to industrial for my taste. Finally somebody asked us why didn’t we try Asturias? It has everything, high mountains (Picos de Europa) and gorgeous beaches (Playa de Silencio) with lovely seaside villages (Llanes, Cudillero). I looked at it on the internet, liked what I saw and the decision was made. We’re moving to the capital o Asturias, Oviedo.

We had lots of stuff with us (we’re here for a year) so going by plane was out of the question. We looked at driving there but it’s way too far away even with an overnight stop on the way. It left us with one option. Yeah, baby, the train!

After the news of Santiago just a few days ago we were a bit apprehensive but we didn’t have another choice. Paul actually found a train that goes straight from Barcelona to Oviedo with only a few stops on the way. It’s a RENFE train and it took just over 10 hours!

There’ still a rule that you can only take 3 pieces of luggage per person so we squeezed and squashed and left a few things behind (intentionally and unintentionally) then we were off to the train station.

We chose the ‘Preferente’ option. I’m still not sure whether this qualifies as first class as apart form more legroom I didn’t really see any difference between the two classes and even the price difference wasn’t that big. We thought for a 10 hour journey it’s worth spending a bit more and Paul can always do with extra legroom.

Unfortunately food wasn’t included and we thought it was so we had to buy from an overpriced bocadillo menu from the food coach but at least there are plug sockets under every seat, even in the economy coaches. The journey wasn’t as bad as we thought. Paul worked away, I wrote a few blogs and we watched a few films and it was time to get off.

A new adventure has begun.