This morning we were in a beautiful seaside town with a magnificent beach...Gijon...staying in a beautifully redone little 3 star hotel...redone in a very modern way with a lift that took the car down to the parking! After a walk along the wide promenade at the edge of the beach, we headed east to go off the main roads and see a little of Los Picos del Europa.
This is a national park with magnificent snow capped mountains and big canyons. We drove along winding roads just on the edge of the park through green fields and small towns and beautiful vistas. All of this is very close to the sea..which complicates things. There is a lot of fog on the north side of this mountain range, and we could see that perhaps driving too high would bring us no view. This was confirmed when one of the miradors (lookout) where we expected to see the beaches and ocean in the distance was totally fogged in. The sea complicates many things, because we were torn..a drive along the edge of the sea or through the twisty turny roads..The sea won and we headed for Llanes for lunch.
This is another pretty seaside place...port, resort and pretty town. We found a little restaurant where we managed to order from the menu del dia and had fresh fish. Great!
After lunch our planned seaside drive ran into a little snag...we couldn't find the right road mentioned in Fodor's and neither could our GPS and all of a sudden we were on the main national highway and headed for Santillana Del Mer. Oh well! we got here in a hurry...and it was a good thing.
This is a beautiful little town with original buildings from the 15 and 16 hundreds. Everything is made from stone and it is hard to tell the difference between new and old. And it is quiet...finally, out in the country! Our little posada overlooks the town and the horses in the fields around it. The sun doesn't set until after 9 so the evening is long and the birds sing so beautifully. We have pine floors and a simple room. Tomorrow breakfast is at 8:30...guess we don't have to start too fast. Spanish speed tomorrow.
Though we haven't travelled too many miles here, we sure have seen a lot..so much packed into a small space. Jurg loves the little Skoda car...what it lacks in uphill strength it makes up for in gas usuage. Under 5 l/100 km.
Tomorrow we head toward Bilboa and the Guggenheim Museum...
Hasta Luego
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