Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain

A lucky stumble.

Driving along towards Galicia we decided to stop off in the Asturian town of Villaviciosa as my caffeine levels had depleted to the point where I was having to sing while driving. Yes, it was indeed a desperate situation. Stopping in this quaint little town we soon realised, due to the subtle appearance of apples, everywhere, that we had finally hit cider country!

There is of course a cake of Villaviciosa and it amazingly contained..... apples.

The Marzipan was also surprisingly shaped into apples.

Our second breakfast of the morning included no apples, just a Spanish omelette and a coffee.

Being in the region we even found information about different apples from England.

And of course Spain.

We decided to tour the above cider factory.

Tanks and tanks of cider.

At the end of the tour you get a direct from tank cider.

Quite an impressive, and slightly wet experience for our guide.

It ends up looking flouro-green and tastes fabulous.

Even the corks get apples.

Afterwards, the neighbouring hotel offered a great priced menu del dia. The Fabada came in a big pot and you could serve as much as you wanted, it was insanely delicious and I certainly filled up, but couldn't even get close to finishing the pot.

Cider Days With Michał

DJ Wysocki aka Michał is a guru of many things and was a great young lad when I mentioned making some cider, in that he said he could bring me some organic chemical free apples from the wild East where his family has a small holding. So I got organised in the ol' kitchen and cleaned all surfaces getting it all ready so that we could get the party started.

demijohn fashion parade

Fill the bath with apples and soak them giving them a little scrub if need be.

And start the juicing

working it through some muslin

but wait there is more

Michał getting a run on the juicer

mixing up the duties

choppy choppy

and after filtering into a demijohn

keep working on those apples remaining

and juice it

this is all the waste from our fabulous Hurom juicer

unveiling the last batch

squeezing out the left overs.

and finishing with two demijohns and a fermenting bucket. After a good 2 hours.

Autumnal colours.

Returning to the Autumnal months now briefly. I took some photos right when it was the time for leaves to drop. In fact this was the time of leaves to drop as for about 2 hours I raked up leaves around the property in Sokolka which was actually really fun. I do miss having a house with space, all I can do here is sweep up bird seed!

It is always a tough debate in our house if Spring with the wild flowers, Autumn with the changing colours, Winter with the snow and our wedding anniversary, or Summer with girls in short skirts is the best season. Always hard to tell who will win that one.

Transition time

Fiery

Flame tree, not the Cold Chisel Song.

Ever ready and not a battery

An assortment

More mixed bag

Autumn shrooms

Fall apples, good for pies and hopefully next year cider!

Take a pic

Mine

I got me a lovely bunch of beetroots

Crikey they are heavy

I couldn't stop snapping photos of the colours

But I must.

So that is the colours from flame trees, maples, oaks and a couple I can't translate (e.g. can't be bothered tonight after doing a Polish exam). Also if we can have Autumnal colours in UK English what do the USA English people have? Fallal colours?

Sokolka photoworld

Time to head to the East of Poland for some of the late last 2011 photos. Showing some of the landscapes about the area commonly referred to as "Poland B" for the feeling of its residents that it doesn't gain the investment of the rest of the country. It may be true, I am yet to see the books balanced per population, but what the lack of highways, airports and train lines does is that it makes it a beautiful wilderness, full of forests, which are full of mushrooms and wildlife. All of Poland's remaining Zubr (Bison) live in this region and when you are here it just has a real earthiness to it.

Weedy

Weedy sun

Pow.

Fruit and fly

Lonely Apple

I am Beaver

Leave it to Beaver

A great straight drive

The final Axe. Take that dead tree

You have to admit this ruptured boiled egg looks a little like a chicken coming out, no?

Next we shall paddle the Biebrza River.