Oviedo, the elegant capital of Asturias, guards a UNESCO treasure: the 9th-century pre-Romanesque churches of Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo, built before the rest of Europe had imagined the Romanesque at all.
Gijón, by contrast, faces the sea — a lively port city of beaches, the old fishermen's quarter of Cimavilla, and sidrerías where cider is poured theatrically from above the head.
Further west, Luarca, the 'white town of the green coast', is one of the journey's overnight stops, with free time around its harbour. Between Gijón and Luarca the journey visits Cudillero, an amphitheatre of brightly painted houses tumbling down to a tiny harbour — usually part of the programme, though it may be changed or cancelled because of scheduling or weather.
On your journey
Travelling west, the train reaches Oviedo on the afternoon of day five, after the Picos de Europa, and stops in Gijón and Cudillero on day six before continuing to Luarca for the night. Travelling east, day two passes Luarca and stops in Cudillero on the way to an evening in Oviedo, and day three stops in Gijón.
