Gijon is a major port for this Northern part of Spain, Costa Verde, and we would like to revisit the area one day by car to explore more of the coastal and inland towns. We wisely chose Marina Yates (also called Marina del Principado) because the depth was much more suitable for our boats than the marina in the centre of town, Muelles Locales. The other marina has a much more difficult approach, which was confirmed yesterday when another yacht hit a rock near the entrance and the rudder was split in two. Also the manager of Marina Yates was the most helpful person we have found at any marina and there was plenty of room on the docks for the guys to do all of the boat jobs they needed to do.
We hired a car and spent a lot of time the first day on mundane chores such as trying to organise Spanish Internet coverage for our iPads and iPhones. There were no micro or nano chips left in the whole town! All sold out! The best part of the day was finding a chic cafe/bar overlooking the waterfront near the centre of town and actually feeling HOT while we sat in the SUN having beer and coffee. We had dinner that night in a tapas restaurant and could even sit outside. The temperature has definitely increased now, thank goodness.
The restaurant specialised in local cider too and the waiters were experts in pouring it from a bottle into a glass, holding the bottle as high as possible and the glass as low as possible. We tried some, mostly for the entertainment, but preferred the Spanish red wine. Our tapas were excellent - quartered artichokes with specks of jamon (ham), platter of Iberican jamon, squid (sautéed with lots of garlic), fried calamari, chorizo sausage, and manchengo cheese. It was a delightful experience to discover the area around the restaurant, which was in the plaza with the town hall. As part of the old town the buildings are stone, many with the glassed-in balconies with fancy timber frames, and the plaza is cobbled stones. The streets are narrow and winding in all directions because the shoreline curves around in that part of town. Nearby was a magnificent sandy beach, sweeping around in a long arc, with a wide promenade for everyone to take their evening stroll. Driving home was a struggle as we had no idea of direction in the winding streets and it was very late because we had eaten dinner at 10.00 pm. We have already adjusted to the Spanish time for doing things, although it is annoying that everything except cafes and restaurants closes from 1.00 - 4.00 pm each day while the Spanish people have lunch, the main meal of the day.
Elizabeth and I had no trouble finding the food market the next morning and I absolutely loved being back in a Spanish market, buying the tiniest lamb chops, Spanish hams and cheeses and a great range of fresh fruit and vegetables, especially the large deep red cherries (stems removed), the juicy and sweet yellow plums and the yellow-fleshed melon (nothing like it in Australia) and loose strawberries. How stupid anyone would be to buy food at a supermarket. Thank goodness I am likely to find a fresh food market at most of the Spanish towns we go to.
Greg and I found the Corte Ingles department store in the late afternoon so that Greg could buy a new printer for the boat and we accidentally discovered a whole new area of the old town, with beautiful ornate architecture and a miriad of little shopping streets. We passed by a few parks and noticed that they were filled with families and groups of children out playing games - much better than inside watching TV or playing computer games etc. It was frustrating trying to find our way back to the marina side of town as even Tom-Tom was confused by all of the one-way streets, but we would have loved more time to have explored this town by foot and to have driven to other places in the area. Tomorrow we need to move on though as the next two days will be the best for our sailing/motoring and it will take us two days to get to La Coruna with a stop overnight in one of the rias (gorges) along the coast. We want to reach La Coruna, around the 'corner' because then we will no longer be travelling in the Bay of Biscay and apparently the area around that town is worth spending several days exploring and relaxing. We are also hoping for more sunshine; although we have higher temperatures now we have still have a lot of heavy cloud.