# Northern Spain - villages, beaches and green green scenery



## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

I only met one person in two weeks who spoke any English, she was the receptionist at the campsite in Mundaka, with everybody else I had to communicate with a combination of my bad Spanish and some sign language. :laugh:


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## Stifler (Apr 11, 2006)

Tourism here is not usually international (although I saw hundreds of Dutchies in our campsite near Llanes), so English level is worse than in the Mediterranean resorts. In villages, it's almost impossible to find someone able to speak English.hno:

In towns, every person between 20-35 will have a basic knowledge of the language at least, so they must be the targets when asking. Somehow people feel ridiculous trying to speak a language they don't master, but if you speak slowly with simple words, it won't be too difficult to make you understand.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ It was fine, I wanted to try practicing my Spanish anyway.

We didn't see many international tourists, a few British and Portuguese were staying at the campsites but that was it really. It was probably a bit too early in the season, I would imagine that you can find more foreign tourists in July/August. :dunno:


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

I really hate it to be on a campsite with nothing but drunk Dutch youths. I could've stayed at home aswell. :|


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## Stifler (Apr 11, 2006)

Chriszwolle said:


> I really hate it to be on a campsite with nothing but drunk Dutch youths. I could've stayed at home aswell.


Actually they weren't that kind of tourists, but families pretty interested on knowing the place where they were staying. Youngsters looking for cheap booze have better places to go in Spain.



Jonesy55 said:


> It was fine, I wanted to try practicing my Spanish anyway.


It's annoying for me though. Many friends stare at me like if I was an alien when I reply a tourist in English.



Jonesy55 said:


> We didn't see many international tourists, a few British and Portuguese were staying at the campsites but that was it really. It was probably a bit too early in the season, I would imagine that you can find more foreign tourists in July/August.


Compared to the rest of Spain the amount is not important. Asturias gets 2.1%, Cantabria 2.2% and Basque Country 1.8% of the domestic tourism in Spain, while they only get 0.3%, 0.6% and 1.8% of the international one.


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## Btxr_art (Jun 17, 2007)

Its very strange seing tourists (and more international ones) outside Bilbao, Donostia and Vitoria-Gasteiz (I am talking about the Basque Country) so people usually dont speak english (except the youngest ones as Stifler says). 
About the campsite recepcionist, Mundaka is one of the exceptions of towns which havent got international tourist because its one of the places where the world surfing competition its done (on Septembre-October) so thats why she speaks english, I suposse.
And finally I have to say that some days ago we had the new that the Guggenheim museum is going to make another museum (as an ampliation of Bilbaos one) in that area (Nature reserve of Urdaibai) to get more tourist outside the city.


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## Btxr_art (Jun 17, 2007)

...


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## Guest (Jul 7, 2008)

Santader has got Ryanair (cheap flights), and you can travel from Dublin, London, Rome, Milan (Bergamo)and Francfort. Santander is linked with Amsterdam and Paris by Iberia (more expensive).

Asturias airport and Bilbao airport have Easyjet (I don't know destinations).

As wherever part of Spain you visit, people seldom speak english (unluckily). But you can use your body language or learn useful expressions as "Por Favor", "Gracias",... If you need some help, open a thread in Spanish forum and people would be pleased to help you


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ I think that Asturias airport has flights to London Stansted.


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## Stifler (Apr 11, 2006)

Yup, as well as Geneva, Paris-Orly and Brussels.


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## harns (Nov 10, 2007)

Asturias Patria Querida , is a lovely song . NIce country !!!


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## Ricbit (Dec 14, 2007)

Amazing and breathtaking villages!

Santander is so, so, so beautiful!


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## buildmilehightower (Mar 29, 2008)

no wonder English people always escape to Spain everytime they can... just wonderful and sunny.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Actually we had some of the heaviest rain i've ever experienced on our trip to Spain, the north isn't always hot and sunny but this means it isn't overcrowded with tourists which is good.


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## Bitxofo (Feb 3, 2005)

^^Which part of the nord?
:?
No rains in Barcelona since June...


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Bilbao and Mundaka, May 31st.


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## P05 (Aug 24, 2005)

Jonesy55 said:


> ^^ Bilbao and Mundaka, May 31st.


May 31st and June 1st, expecially June 1st was one of the rainiest days in a long time in Bilbao. Maybe you noticed the strenght the river had in Bilbao that day. 

The heavier rains normally occur during the winter, but pretty much rainy all year round, just around 1200mm. Sometimes unfortunately serious floodings occur, on August 26th 1983, 504mm fell over the city, the river rose 3 to 4 metres above street level at the old part of the city, and 45 people died.

Abandoibarra in 1983. To the left the area where currently the Guggenheim museum stands


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## ruben.briosa (Dec 30, 2007)

the mediterrean coast of spain it's much more beautiful in my opinion.. sorry.


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## HowardL (Jan 16, 2004)

The north of Spain is spectacular. I was in País Vasco last summer, Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Ondarroa. I loved every second of it. If I could be there right now, I would be.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

ruben.briosa said:


> the mediterrean coast of spain it's much more beautiful in my opinion.. sorry.


The med coast is nice too, I like them both although the med coast suffers much more from overdevelopment I think.


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## Skyprince (May 2, 2006)

looking at the map Northern Spain shud be pretty cold at the time of your visit ( May-mid June ) rite ? 

Mundaka & leikeito- the names dont sound Spanish at all . Hmm didnt know that urban sprawl concept isn't popular there, as you said. 

Spain is very pretty !


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

Skyprince said:


> looking at the map Northern Spain shud be pretty cold at the time of your visit ( May-mid June ) rite ?
> 
> Mundaka & leikeito- the names dont sound Spanish at all . Hmm didnt know that urban sprawl concept isn't popular there, as you said.
> 
> Spain is very pretty !


Leikeito and Mundaka are both in the Basque country so they are probably basque names, that language is completely different to Spanish and I don't understand any of it. :laugh:

The weather was quite variable, on a couple of days it rained and it was quite cold 16C, other days it was sunny and fairly hot, 27C, sometimes in between, some clouds and 21C.

I think that urban sprawl seems to be becoming more common, I saw a huge retail park outside Oviedo for example with Ikea, big hypermarkets etc but traditional town planning in Spain seems to be very dense.


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## Stifler (Apr 11, 2006)

You can always use their Spanish name Lequeitio or Mundaca (although the official name is the Basque one). It's a cool language but it's extremely difficult to learn.

I would say sprawl is not popular in the North, although there have been some developments in the latest years. Almost nothing compared to what you can see in some areas of Madrid or the Mediterranean coast.

@jonesy: That area you saw is supossed to be where Oviedo-Gijón-Avilés will expand together to create Ciudad Astur. However, with a stagnant population it's not possible to build too much dense districts, so they are developing industrial areas, retail parks and low-density areas so far.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

nice pics. beautiful.


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## Troopchina (Oct 7, 2005)

The Santander-Plymouth line reminded of how I've always considered northern spanish coast to be quite similar to the english southwestern coast (Dorset, Cornwall)


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

^^ Yes, the scenery is similar in some ways, also Brittany and parts of Southern Wales and Southern Ireland are similar.

I love greenery, it's one advantage of having a wet climate.


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## Andrex (Dec 27, 2004)

Spain has many different climates. In fact, Iberian Peninsula is like a small continent itself. Almería or Alicante's climate, for instance, is more similar to the North African ones than Santander area. Climate & vegetation in Northern Spain is more similar to the British one but of course it is not completely similar.

For those who can be interested, love luxury a bit and ...can afford it: http://www.transcantabrico.feve.es/index.asp


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## 437.001 (Mar 27, 2009)

Jonesy55 said:


> ^^ Yes, the scenery is similar in some ways, also Brittany and parts of Southern Wales and Southern Ireland are similar.
> 
> I love greenery, it's one advantage of having a wet climate.


If you ever get back to Northern Spain, keep these two names in mind.

One, _Ribadeo_ and its surroundings. Britons went to live there escaping from the Saxons many centuries ago. Still there btw, though now no one remembers. Inter-celtic collaboration, I guess. Being from the Med as I am, around Ribadeo is where you get the most the feeling of "being in Spain but somehow near the UK"... 

The other one, _San Andrés de Teixido_, one of the highest cliffs in Europe -not to say the highest.

Btw; the three non-Basque regions in the Spanish Atlantic coast are celtic.
Asturias comes from the ancient name of the river Esla ("Stura", that´s celtic). In English it gave another river name: the Stour.

Then Cantabria comes from "Kent Aber" (the country of the river or something like that in celtic). The "river" is the Ebro (Aber -celtic/Iber -iberian).

The name Galicia is like "Gaelic".

Celtic traditions are still strong in Northern Spain, and though the celtic language died many centuries ago, folklore is carefully kept, and Spanish Celtic music more and more appreciated in the rest of Spain.


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## Linguine (Aug 10, 2009)

would love to see new photos from Northern Spain....


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## n9551217 (May 7, 2015)

*wotnopictures *

Hi

Im looking at going to northern spain and picked up this link but unfortunately couldn't view the pictures. Ive registered on the site now and I have to create ten posts also now before I can view them. 

Heres one : )

sorry and thanks

Tony


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