The last weekend of February rolled around and it was time for my next adventure: a trip to Asturias with some university friends. I took the 3pm bus from Valladolid and arrived in Oviedo around the same time as Lia and Nice who were coming from Huelva (via Madrid). I met them at the train station at around 7pm, and we made our way towards the Airbnb. Our Airbnb was about a 25 minute walk from the bus station, which is normally not so bad, but it was raining steadily and our feet were getting wetter and wetter by the minute, so we really just couldn't wait to get there.
Since there would be five of us, we sprang for and Airbnb so we could have a cozy and relaxing weekend. We stayed in
this Airbnb; including the service and cleaning fee, it was a total of €188 for 3 nights, which, divided amongst the five of us, came out to €12,50/night. Not a bad deal. The apartment was cozy and welcoming, and we really got to settle in, and relax. We had the whole place to ourselves (two bedrooms and a living room; can accommodate 6), and we were able to cook breakfast and dinner in the kitchen.
We met Vags and Janina who were at the apartment already (it took us a while to get in because we were ringing the doorbell of the wrong house, oops!), and decided to buy some food in the supermarket before taking off our boots. Then we had a lovely first dinner catching up over a bottle of
sidra.
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| Kwento and sidra for our first night in Asturias |
The next day we cooked some breakfast at the apartment, then headed to the bus station to catch the bus to Gijón.
Gijón (or
Xixón in Asturian) is Asturias' largest city, just half an hour by bus (€4,75 round trip) from Oviedo, the capital. It was drizzling steadily when we arrived, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the wonderful architecture of the city.
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| A beautiful church |
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| Lovely old buildings. This green one was a library. |
We made our way towards the Playa de San Lorenzo, and just our luck -- the rain subsided and the sun came out, and we got to take beautiful pictures of the beach. At 1,550 meters long, the
Playa de San Lorenzo is one of Gijón's most famous beaches. It curves, forming a shape of a shell (
concha in Spanish), and has beautiful golden sand.
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| Playa de San Lorenzo |
We took in the amazing views: on the left is the old town, and on the right there were more hills and villages.
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| Panoramic view of the Playa de San Lorenzo |
Gijón is very dog friendly! There weren't any sunbathers or beachgoers as it was still pretty cold, but there were a lot of dogs running around in the beach.
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| Dogs on the beach |
We stayed on the boardwalk (el Paseo del Muro) taking lots of pictures with the beautiful backdrop, and enjoying the break from the rain and the sun on our faces.
We took many many pictures, then with bluer skies all around, we made our way through
Cimavilla, the old part of the city to go up the Cerro de Santa Catalina.
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| Colorful buildings in Cimavilla |
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| Another church |
We passed by this marina, which is also a surf school (I think). The waves were pretty big, and crashing into the rocks.
If you squint, you may be able to see little black dots in the sea. Those were surfers trying to catch the waves.
We continued walking and reached the entrance of the
Cerro de Santa Catalina.
Cerro means hill in Spanish, and Santa Catalina is a hill/park. It's located in Cimavilla at the top of the city, and spread over 7,000 square yards.
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| Cerro de Santa Catalina |
One thing Asturias is famous for is its green landscapes. Going up the hill we could evidently see this. Paired against the blue skies, it made for such a beautiful sight. I read that only 10% of Gijón is urbanized, so if you drive out of the city, you'll encounter more forests and natural landscapes. We made do with the green of this small hill. It was still quite beautiful.
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| Green landscape |
Situated at the top of the hill is the
Elogio del Horizonte (Eulogy to the Horizon) sculpture. This monument is the work of Eduardo Chilida, a Basque sculptor, and has become a symbol of modern Gijón.
To Chillida, "all men are equal and at the horizon we are all brothers, the horizon is a common homeland."
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| Elogio del Horizonte |
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| We asked a passerby to take our picture and.... she didn't get the sculpture in the background. |
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| So here's take two |
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| More pictures and goofing around |
By now we were pretty hungry so we made our way down via the other side of the hill. We ended up at the port and at the foot of the old town, which was so picturesque, but we decided to escape the cold and get some lunch first. We looked around a bit, then decided on
El Antiguo. We each got the menu del día for €13, which gave us a first plate, second plate, bread, drink, and dessert.
For my first plate I just had to try fabada, a Spanish stew made with white beans (fabes in Asturian) and several types of sausages and pork. Fabada is popular in Asturias, and perfect for warming you up from the cold rain. I got more meat into my system with a fillet steak for my second plate, and we all had some wine to go around. After our second plate we were stuffed and about to ask for the check, when the waiter reminded us we still had some dessert! So I made some room in my stomach, and asked for the flan. Definitely a great meal.
Though stuffed, we managed to get ourselves on our feet, and headed back out to see more of Gijón. A bit of some history -- Asturias plays quite an important part in Spanish history. Below is a statue of
King Pelayo, a Visigothic king who founded the Christian kingdom of Asturias. Asturias then went on to spearhead the
Reconquista (Reconquest) in the later Middle Ages.
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| Statue of King Pelayo at the Plaza del Marqués |
I loved looking at the architecture of the old part of town. Above is the
Palacio de Revillagigedo behind the statue of King Pelayo, and below, some archways leading to
Plaza Mayor. I also love how the rain hits the paved walkays. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I do love the North!
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| Archways leading to Plaza Mayor |
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| A sculpture made of sidra bottles |
We couldn't resist stopping by the nearby
Port Marina to take some pictures with the Gijón sign.
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| Playing around with Nice's fish eye lens |
We then walked around the old quarter some more, and headed back to a shoe store we saw earlier because Nice and Lia wanted to buy rain boots. They bought some cute pairs, and we made our way back to the bus station. I asked the others if they wanted to check out the Museo Nicanor Piñole which was nearby. They gamely agreed, and we popped in for a while. The
Museo Nicanor Piñole, located in Plaza España with free entrance, was a small museum dedicated to Nicanor Piñole, an Asturian artist.
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| Checking out Piñole's work |
Only one floor of the museum was free to visit (the others were under construction), so we finished pretty quickly, and headed to the bus station to catch a bus back to Oviedo. (When you buy your ticket, there's no time printed because buses run every half hour, so you can just hop on the next available bus. Very convenient).
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| Resting and checking out all our photos |
Tired but quite happy, we crashed on the sofa bed checking out and laughing at all the pictures we took that day. We heated up some pizza and mixed some drinks, and had another long night of talking before finally heading to bed. Up next: exploring Oviedo. :)
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