Spain with Asa

July 9-23, 2025

By Hector Gonzalez

July 30^th, 2025

"Hey ChatGPT, can you make me a Spotify playlist of summer jams that would be fun for me and for my 12-year-old travel buddy? The list should include rock, pop, R&B, reggae, and hip hop, but avoid country music in general. Spanish language songs are ok, too, of any genre. The songs should tend to be more recent, but may include some classics going back as far as the 1960s."

If I'd had time I would have put together a better playlist with a more diverse roster and a little less Bruno Mars (seriously, is he on every song? Ok, not really complaining, but other people are making music, right?). (Although actually my first update was replace one Bruno Mars with another so there you go.) But I didn't really have time, so I had the computer do it for me, and while the list was still more engaging that a normal radio station with only seven songs interrupted by too-loud commercial breaks, it was still definitely algorithmic. Luckily, "summer vibes" is a thing pop music specializes in, so even the slightly-above-mediocre list they gave me sounded pretty dang good on the highways of northern Spain.

After a chaotic and traumatic and very challenging six months, I decided that we had earned a break. Julian was in the States testing out a few weeks of independence, and Laura was settling in to her new role at the office, and that left me and Asa, who I have never taken a road trip with. We decided on Spain because we loved it, and Cantabria and Asturias because once I asked a Spaniard where in Spain I would find people like me and she said, "Asturias, definitely. Cantabria maybe." And that was enough for us, so we went. We rented a little car and dashed across the incredible Castilian fields (no pictures though cause I was driving and Asa was playing on his phone, but it was lovely, all golden fields punctuated by green bushes and fairytale villages--and ok, an unexpected amount of heavy industry but they did their best to keep those out of the way). Asa commandeered the radio while I was still learning how to turn the car on, and while his taste in music is excellent, it does lean towards quite dour things (my takeaway: modern rappers are all depressed). Whatever its merits, we can agree that "Sicko Mode" does not lend itself to tearing up the beach in a way that, say, "Steal My Sunshine" does.

Playlist complete, we drove on, enchanted with Spain, apprehensive but optimistic about our new lives, and pretty much stuffed full of churros.

Getafe and Parque Warner

Here we are at the start of the journey, leaving Amman (and officially leaving USAID 🥺) but feeling good because, well, Spain, right? I usually spend months putting together a trip like this but for reasons I had to do it in about a week, so I was a bit nervous that I had all the pieces correctly lined up.

Our first destination was the anonymous-ish suburb of Getafe, where we were staying at a little campground in an industrial zone so that we could be at the Parque Warner theme park first thing in the morning. Naturally, our first meal was at a Middle Eastern restaurant, cause why not, right?

But Spain isn't a get-up-and-go kind of place, so we managed to snag two entire breakfasts before we drove off to the park.

Madrid has two major theme parks, one on either side of the city. We visited Parque de Atracciones, on the western side of the city, in 2021 when we came to Spain the first time. Parque Warner, run by Warner Brothers, is farther away and best reached by car. Now because it was just the two of us, we packed light, and took very few photos. We realized that part of the value (just a part, mind you) that Laura provides is that she carries a bag everywhere that can hold our stuff. But anyway, we were at the park from an hour before it opened until it literally closed--a total of thirteen hours of theme park madness. By the end of it I was exhausted, my throat was sore, my head hurt, and Asa was just about the happiest I've ever seen him.

Altamira Cave

It's about five hours from Madrid to the northern coast when you drive the way I do (slow, stopping for snacks as often as needed). We should have taken pictures. It was beautiful. But our first intended stop was the Altamira Cave, which is like the more famous Lascaux caves in France, filled with prehistoric cave art. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of tourists here in the 60s and 70s who didn't behave properly, so today the actual caves are closed to the public and all you can visit is a replica nearby. Apparently it is exactly the same. They put on a nice show, but for me I always enjoy looking at the art or artifact and imagining the ancient hand that touched it, and these caves were built in my lifetime. We stayed about a half hour and the headed away, not unsatisfied, but ready for new adventures.

Santander

10/10 urban beach. This was the destination. We spent three nights in the city of Santander, the capital of Cantabria. Our hotel was just across the street from Sardinero Beach. Warm water (well, warm enough water), gentle waves, amazing rocks to scramble on, and well-placed feet washing stations so you don't bring all the sand back home. It was amazing. We went to the beach twice every day, except for on the days that we went three times.

There is a proper city of Santander, best accessed from the beach via an abandoned and refurbished streetcar tunnel that is actually kind fun to walk through. It is a fairly standard European city-by-the-sea, but what a sea. I asked Asa if he could ever see himself living here, and the answer was a very firm yes. Note that we also brought Asa's rollerblades from Amman, and he enjoyed zipping up and down the coast on them in between beach breaks.

Picos de Europa

About an hour and a half from central Santander is the Picos de Europa National Park, which is a huge mountain range that is easily accessed via a little cable car.

On the way there, Asa mentioned that he wanted to touch clouds. The mountains did not disappoint. The clouds kept rolling gently over the land, swallowing mountains then giving them back.

There were cows and horses up there, and I got a kick out of taking their pictures. Did I need these many horse pictures? Why do all horses look like they're in indie bands? Nobody will ever know,

While I looked at the horses, Asa got himself up there somehow. He came down, though. Eventually.

Cosgaya and Potes

We stayed the night at this charming hotel near the village of Cosgaya, and in our room the bathroom had this awesome portrait of a cow that I kinda wanted to steal.

We spent time at the postcard-perfect town of Potes, and appreciated its lovely riverwalk and numerous candy stores. I also scored a small bottle of the local liquor, which I am pleased to report is quite drinkable.

Gijón

Remember how I asked Asa if he could live in Santander? I didn't have to ask him in Gijón, the biggest city in the neighboring Principality of Asturias. He said he wanted to stay there as soon as we turned this corner and saw the amazing San Lorenzo Beach. It wasn't as blue as the beach in Santander, and it wasn't as relaxed, but the battering waves and easier access to the city center gave it a much more exciting atmosphere. It didn't even matter that the feet-washing stations were in inconvenient locations so all the sand made it back to the hotel. That was almost a feature, not a bug. A reminder that once we caught our breath and maybe ate a churro we would be heading back to the beach.

There is a proper city just behind the beach--actually, between two beaches, but we never made it to the second one because the one in front of our noses was so perfect. We did wander around Gijón, though, and were charmed by it. It had a nice energy to it.

I was taken by our neighborhood, which gave "East Village by the Sea" vibes.

The oldest part of the city is Cimavilla, a hill on a peninsula that separates the two main beaches. At the hilltop is a park where people apparently like to meditate, or at least that's what they were doing when we got there. But with those views, it seemed like as good as thing to do as any.

In the evenings, the locals head out onto the beach or the boardwalk and walk or bike or rollerblade up and down the beach.

Asa took a stab at surfing. Actually surfing success? Maybe 2/10. But amount of fun had? 10/10.

At this burger joint I took what is now maybe my favorite picture of Asa ever. (Note to orange rash guard under the T-shirt: we went back to the beach as soon as we finished eating.)

On the final night we had to go back one last time.

Oviedo

We did spend one afternoon in the nearby city of Oviedo, the Asturian capital. It was overcast so we couldn't see the surrounding mountains which are supposed to be very nice. The city was pretty and had a lot of statues, including a tribute to street dogs and what appeared to be a giant butt.

Jurassic Park

Okay so it's actually called Museo del Jurásico de Asturias. But close enough.

Outside the museum there were little statues that were more kid-friendly, and a restaurant with this view for kids of all ages who appreciate magnificent vistas.

Down the road is the Playa de la Griega, where of course we swam, but not before standing inside actual dinosaur footprints.

Llastres

We spent the night at the nearby village of Llastres (or sometimes spelled Lastres, don't ask me why). It was voted one of the most beautiful towns in Spain, along with Potes which we visited a few days and seemingly lifetimes ago. It made me think that Spain has so many outrageously beautiful towns in it, that it must suck to live in one of the ugly ones. Let me tell you, though, parking here was a nightmare.

Llastres has its own proper beach at the bottom of the hill, and of course we played there, although for the first time we didn't swim. It was late and it's a really steep climb back up that hill, and we were pretty satisfied with the dinosaur beach. And so the beach portion of our vacation came to an end.

Madrid

After Llastres we drove the five or so hours back across Castile to Madrid, and were pleased to find that we still love Madrid as much as we did in 2021. We had no real agenda for Madrid besides soak up city vibes, and that's what we did. (I have no idea why that one picture is upside down, but it's Asa at the Rastro market.)

One of the weirder things we did was this "museum" called Sweet Space, which calls itself the "sweetest and most interactive museum in Madrid." It is a Willy Wonka-esque series of rooms, but at the entrance to each room a staff member gives you a piece of candy that matches the theme. When we arrived, the only other patrons were very small children, and indeed Asa was the biggest kid there. So at first he wasn't really into it. But as we progressed through each room, he got more and more into it, and in the end he was the last kid to leave the ball pit.

Our hotel was just steps away from the long skinny park that wraps around the entire southern half of Madrid, and when Asa attacked it with his rollerblades he discovered a neat little skate park. I bought myself an ice-cold Tinto de Verano (basically red wine with Sprite--don't knock it til you've tried it, it tastes like happy summer sunshine) and let him zip around. We don't really know what will happen next--for absolutely ridiculous reasons the entire collapse of the United States or even the world is a non-zero possibility now--but that's something to worry about on another day.