East from Gijón Mirador de San Roque On our way to Potes and the eastern side of Picos de Europa national park we traveled along the coast, stopping at a few spots on our way. Our first stop was an...
Blog posts from Asturias
Eric’s 50th: Gijón sites
Located just outside of the city, the Jardín Botánico Atlántico was larger than we expected. From multiple points around the grounds you could see the massive Cultural Center building across the...
Eric’s 50th: Gijón food and drink
Our first taste of Asturias was at a traditional cider house, Sidrería El Tasqueru, about 15 minutes from Gijón. The server didn’t speak English and there was some confusion about ordering at the...
Eric’s 50th: Gijón, where we stayed
In Gijon we had a one-night stay on our way to the mountains, and then a week-long stay near the beach. ARTIEM Asturias ARTIEM was a good stopping point after a morning of travel, located on the...
Eric’s 50th: daytrip to Oviedo
The bus from Gijon to Oviedo is way cheaper (and more frequent) then the train, which makes it popular, but it’s a little tricky to figure out. We bought our timed tickets for 11:15am via credit...
Eric’s 50th: Picos de Europa hikes and sites
We spent six days around park, moving every two days from east to north to west. Our plan was to do one big hike per day in the park. Brez to Canal de las Arranedos The morning started overcast with...
Eric’s 50th: Picos de Europa food and drink
Potes La Soldrería doesn’t take reservations, so we decided to go on the early side to see if we could snag a table. The regular tables were all full at 8:30pm but luckily there were two seats at...
Eric’s 50th: Picos de Europa, where we stayed
We wanted to be close to certain hikes and sites and ultimately chose three different towns around the park. If we had to do it again I would have skipped Las Arenas and added an extra night in...
Eric’s 50th: flights, trains, and rental cars
RDU > LHR > MAD Our flight out of Raleigh was on time and Eric managed to snag us main cabin extra seats in the bulkhead area so we had two seats to ourselves. Neither of us slept that well...
Eric’s 50th: overview and planning
When thinking about where I wanted to spend my 50th birthday I knew I wanted good food, moderate weather, and somewhere at least a little new to us. Northern Spain really fit those criteria: we...
Our Itinerary
2026 Trips
Parrish, FL (Jan)
Medellin, Colombia (Feb)
Wilmington, NC (Apr)
Madrid, Spain (May)
Asturias, Spain (May)
Galicia, Spain (June)
London/Cotswolds, UK (July)
Long Island, NY (July)
Ireland (Aug)
Vietnam (Nov)
Laos (Nov)
Cambodia (Dec)
Singapore (Dec)
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Doha, Qatar (May)
Bristol + London, UK (Jul)
Long Island, NY (Jul)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
day trips from Bologna (Oct)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
Greensboro, NC (Nov)