Blog 14: The Northern Spanish Coast Part 2 – Santander to Gijón

We spent the next few weeks moving westwards along the north coast of Spain, stopping along the way at many interesting little places.

Up early to catch the tide and leave Santander – this is the Parque de La Magdalena from the sea

Later quite a strong sailing breeze got up – we’re making good speed with both sails reefed

St Vincente de la Barquera

Mooring at St Vincente de la Barquera (known as SVB) is between buoys joined by thick ropes – quite a tricky procedure with a strong wind and tide.

View of Astraia securely mooored in the river.

Narrow, steep lanes leading up to …

… the Castle de Rey

Charles and Caroline and the view from the Castle.

Di and Charles and the view in the other direction upriver

At the top of the hill on the right of this picture is the Iglesia Nuestra Sra de los Ángeles, which is on the route of the Camino de Santiago di Compostela.

The most interesting – and slightly gruesome – thing about the Iglesia is that its wooden floorboards are actually the lids of coffins with the body of a pilgrim lying beneath each one!

There is a spectacular view from the Iglesia, even on a greyish day

Charles and Caroline

Nice bright boats in SVB harbour

Ribadesella

A grey cloudy day and grey lumpy sea for our passage to Ribadesella

Dramatic strata in the cliffs at the entrance to Ribadesella

Lovely long sandy beach lined with ‘Casas de Indianos’ – these grand houses were built by local people who made their fortunes in South America in the late 19^thand early 20^thcenturies. When they returned to their home towns they built magnificent houses combining many architectural styles from the places they had visited …

Lots of elaborate architectural features …

This house is entirely faced with tiles

We went for a guided walking tour round the old town …

… where the streets were much narrower and the buildings smaller with tiny windows and low doorways in the really old parts

Lovely flowers …

Attractive tiles …

… and a quirky colourful staircase

Our guide, Emilio, stopped at a hoarding protecting some conservation work to point out an old photo of a fiesta in the 1940s or 50s – to his surprise, he spotted both his parents in the crowd with their backs to each other long before they met!

Final stop on the walking tour was the Iglesia Santa Maria Magdalena …

The Iglesia is considered rather out of proportion because the towers were made extra tall to satisfy the aspirations of the town’s leaders!

Inside there are some impressive ‘trompe l’oeil’, though it was hard to get a photo looking up at the light …

The painted draping curtains make the Church look as if it has a domed ceiling whereas in fact it doesn’t at all!

Caroline and I then climbed up to the tiny Chapel on top of the steep cliffs at the harbour entrance …

Fantastic views – even in the drizzle!

Rather a nice view of Ribadeslla as we are leaving just before dawn the next day

Sunrise over the Bay of Biscay which was as calm as a millpond for the whole voyage to Gijón!

Arriving at Gijón – sea still like a mirror!

Gijón

The first good thing that happened in Gijón was that we chanced upon a free outdoor wine-tasting held in an old square in the town! 

This was an excellent event to promote wines from the La Mancha region and included generous tastings of 67 different wines with delicious nibbles of cheese and local ham – plus we were given the unfinished bottles of wine at the end! 

It’s easy to make friends at a wine-tasting!  This young Spanish couple gave us some good suggestions of places to visit in the Picos de Europa National Park.

We then explored further in the town and came across the local custom of drinking cider poured into the glass from a great height to aerate it – possibly to make it taste drinkable too?!  

It’s quite an art to get the cider in the glass without pouring it all over yourself, and the local waiters like to show off their expertise!

Then we all had to have a go, too, of course!

Much hilarity!

Gijón is an attractive and interesting town …

Attractives squares …

… and old stone buildings

Gijón Town Hall

One of the modern city squares

Colourful tiled building

San Pedro Church which has some interesting Roman baths beneath

Part of the old walls with tiny gateways

Gijón also has some spectacular long sandy beaches …

This is the Playa de San Lorenzo looking towards the town

… and looking the other way the beach sweeps round the huge bay

By contrast to the old town this modern, rather ugly, art installation stands high up on the cliffs overlooking the sea.  But if you stand within its structure, it’s rather like holding a shell to your ear and listening to the sea. 

You can hear the sound of the waves on the rocks far below you – somehow the sound is reflected and amplified in the artwork. A clever and effective idea if not a very attractive piece of art.

The Picos Mountains and Covadonga Lakes

We hired a car one day and drove into the mountains …

Beautiful views on the trip up …

But the actual mountain tops were in the cloud …

And by the time we got to the top, we could hardly see a thing!  Here we're with Caroline and Jo at the Covadonga Lakes.

Here’s Caroline showing us on her mobile phone what it should look like on a good day!

Lakes Ercina and Enol looked very much like murky views we’ve seen in the Lake District, except that cows rather than sheep roam the fells!

Back down in the village of Covadonga, the weather was lovely again to see the waterfall and tiny shrine of Saint Cueva cut into the rock …

… and the quite magnificent Basilica de Santa Maria la Real de Covadonga

It’s built entirely of pink limestone, which is normally only used in small quantities for decoration – a symbol of its importance.

Back in Gijón, the marina and town look lovely in the sunshine on our final evening here.