Friday 16 August

This is our last morning in Gijon, as we are setting off towards La Corunna today. Sally flew back home yesterday and now it’s back to just the two of us! Thanks Sally for all the good company and your help across Biscay.

We have had a great week in this part of Asturias and met some lovely people. The man on the neighbouring boat in the marina, Marc, presented us with a bottle of Asturian cider and told us all about Asturias. Jesus at the Marina office could not have been more helpful with advice and knowledge. Everywhere we went people were friendly and happy and we managed with our very minimal Spanish and sign language!! We will both make an effort to learn more Spanish over the next few months and before we come back next year.

Asturias is not like the rest of Spain, no bull fights or flamenco here. The culture and traditional music are Celtic fringe, they even play the bagpipes here!i There is coal and steel, but along with the rest of western Europe all this is in decline. there is one shipyard left in Gijon. The countryside is green and rolling with alpine style houses and old towns with sprawling new suburbs.

In Gijon there has been a festival all week so the place was buzzing and there was a lovely firework display over the harbour on Wednesday night at Midnight. We made the effort to stay up, as we are still on non-Spanish time and going to bed about 10.30 pm!

We met friend’s of Sally’s (Jackie and Paul from the beautiful boat “Jetstream”). They have been coming down slowly down the coast of France over the last 18 months and it was great to hear of their experiences and get a look at their fabulous boat. The have a broken generator and so are hoping to get it fixed while here in Gijon.

Andy and I had a trip to Oviedo for the day. A nice old town with lots of history and plenty of statues. There was even one of Woody Allen, as he shot some of his film “Barcelona” here in Asturias and liked the place so much. Some photos of Oviedo below and yes we did have some rain!

So we are off toward La Corunna today. It will take us about 4 days to get there in short 20-30 mile hops, exploring some of the little harbours and Rias on the way. The morning mist has lifted, the sun is shining and we just need to clear out of the Marina and then we are off.