Asturias coast

Sun 5^th

Gijon was our next stop along the coast (pronounced Gihon). It is a modern, clean city with another great beach right in front of all the apartment and office blocks. It also had a relatively new cycle path all the way from the car park to the old part of the city. We cycled there into a rather cold wind and wandered around the rather small area of old streets. Nice but not that impressive. Once back at the van we decided to move from the carpark to the nearby campsite – Costa Surf!  Officially closed but we had no problem in getting in.  Right by the sea and the sound of the huge waves pounding in. Again.  We also had the sea front promenade right around us – it was very popular and quite busy all day. The Spanish tend to talk as they walk – non -stop and very LOULDLY. We could hear them coming miles away. Lovely to see the sunset and the city start to twinkle across the bay.

promenade around site

all on our own

marble sculpture (?)

Mon 6^th

After a supermarket shop and a visit to Decathlon for some bike bits we headed further west along the coast to Ortiguera.  On the way we stopped in at Luarca a very picturesque fishing port in a very steep sided valley. The sky was very dark and the wind was up - rain was coming soon. What a lovely place. We parked the van above the port and walked down some very steep paths between the houses. Definitely a place to revisit.

Luarca from above

rain on its way

Ortiguera has a cliff top aire and is rated as “must be visited” in our guide. We found it easily and parked up on the grass overlooking a stunning coast just before a huge downpour arrived. The only other van there was French, it was soon taken away on a breakdown truck as it had developed a diesel leak. Bad luck, but………. 2 hours later it returned under its own power! Turned out the diesel filter had been loose so very easily fixed. The owners were very happy.

view from the van - superb

cove below us

amazing patterns created by the sea

The views were truly stunning, for once we agreed with the guide comments. Some of the adjacent houses were very individual – I liked the modernist white house – very Grand Designs with a brilliant location, but I also liked the old house standing empty and looking ripe for restoration.

project?

location, location

where do we park the van?