Playa de Poniente

Poniente is the Mediterranean name for the westerly wind.

These look like strewn toys of a child giant but I think they are actually leftover models from parades stored outside an old warehouse.

I took a small diversion to walk on the wall of a breakwater that you see here.

Then I returned to the dockside promenade.

Here I paused to take in a photographic and documentary film exhibition in Sala de Exposiciones Antigua Rula, an art centre. Looking it up, the exhibition Fareras: La Luz Que Nos Guia (Female Lighthouse Keepers: The Light That Guides Us) seems to have originated in Barcelona and was touring Gijón. It's about a minority in a dying profession. By the time women were accepted for lighthouse duty, lighthouses were being converted to remote control.

The curator of the exhibition, Cristina Rodriguez Paz, has given an interview (in Catalan). Something one of the keepers said in the documentary has stuck with me: I felt so grounded in my lighthouse. It was about a feeling of connection to the earth, with a vast history beyond our human lives.

Across the street is the Habana pub.

Further along the promenade is the artwork Árbol de la Sidra (page in Spanish), Cider Tree. It was originally a temporary exhibit intended to promote recycling, and the Asturian connection with cider making, but has become a maintained exhibit.

The marina.

This is the statue of Rex Pelagius. Pelagius is the Latin form of Pelayo, thus King Pelayo, whom we have introduced before in the trip to Picos de Europa.

The statue is on a traffic island in front of Plazuela del Marqués.

I just liked the look of this building, but it turned out to be Antigua Sociedad de Fomento de Gijón on checking, which becomes a lively dance hub when night falls.

A much more artistic rendition of the name of the city than the usual.

Even better-looking close up and vibrant red for a cloudy day.

Another attractive building. It happens to house a small Carrefour Express supermarket.

Finally, the beach named in the title.

At one end is a gymnastics club, looking rather industrial. It's not as good a beach as San Lorenzo but it's handy for the people who live in this part of town.

And these locals, taken with telephoto.

I walked as far as Museo Ferrocarril and then turned back. I found lunch near Plaza Italia, and then returned to my lodgings to rest for the evening paseo. 

 

 

Cerro de Santa Catalina

This is the hill (page in Spanish) on the Santa Catalina peninsula, also known as La Atalaya. The huge work there is Elogio del Horizonte, by Eduardo Chillida, a Basque sculptor. We saw one of his works in the Guggenheim back in Bilbao. It looks like my sense of the horizontal was out of kilter for this photo.

There is also an old fort which I didn't take any pictures of.

Here we are looking back on the path I walked.

I observed some locals rustling in trees then eating what they had plucked. I examined the trees and saw that they were wild fig trees, but the locals had found all the ripe fruit.

It was a relaxing walk through the park even though there wasn't much in formal facilities. Most of the people I encountered were joggers, cyclists, or locals on their morning constitutional. 

Exiting on the western side, there is Colegio Público Honesto Batalón.

A panorama.

Looking at where I would be in a few minutes.

A panorama of the port.

Playa de San Lorenzo

I had been in Gijón for just over 2 days and hadn't yet explored the city because of the two tours I had just done. I had one day to redress that imbalance before leaving the northern coast for Madrid.

My hotel was only a block from Playa de San Lorenzo so I started there. It's the longest urban beach in Gijón at 1.5 km.

Cider is an important part of the Asturian identity.

Gijón is the largest city by population in Asturias but the capital is at Oviedo, about 25 km in a straight line inland. Gijón was an important steel and shipbuilding city and port but is now pivoting to commerce, education, R&D, and tourism.

I passed this modernist tower La Escalerona set on a lookout point. It has a thermometer and a barometer. As you can see the day was cool and a bit drizzly.

Varsovia is a pub. I liked the facade.

A marker on the ground indicates the original walls of Gijón. In the distance is Iglesia de San Pedro.

A close up using telephoto of Iglesia de San Pedro (page in Spanish). It was built between 1945 and 1955, replacing an older church destroyed in the civil war.

I'm actually up next to it now.

Edificio Administrativo Antigua Pescadería Municipal (page in Spanish), as the name indicates, used to be a fish market, but is now a municipal administration office.

I have walked past the church now, and I'm looking back at the buildings behind the beachfront.

You can see from this panorama that the previous photo was zoomed.

This one shows a bit more of the lookout I took the photos from.

To the north is Real Club Astur de Regatas Gijón. As you would expect, ocean sports are prominent on the northern coast.

The area north of the municipal office is Cimavilla, the oldest part of the city, which occupies a bulb of land extending into the Atlantic.

At this point I entered the area of the old fortifications of Gijón, which is now recreational land, so I'll start a new post for that. 

Cangas de Onis

We returned the way we came and parked at the Cangas de Onis bus station. The town, a regional centre, was just a short walk across a footbridge.

The river here is Rio Güeña, a tributary of Rio Sella.

Cangas de Onis was the first capital of the Kingdom of Asturias, under Pelayo.

A Sunday fair was in progress in the town with stalls of local produce.

Our guide took us to the edge of downtown and pointed out the "Roman bridge" over the Rio Sella. It dates from the 14th or 15th century. Incidentally this is the Rio Sella that flows to the ocean at Ribadesella where I was a few days ago.

In the nearby park was this display hórreo. The guide checked that we had remembered our lesson by asking us the usage of an hórreo.

We were then given free time to roam the town, get a late lunch, and to be back at the bus station by a certain time.

Our last destination of the day was the coastal village of Llastres, which faces east. Here we are following the guide to the vantage point.

We were presented with this view.

If you like coastal scenery, Cantabria and Asturias are for you, especially on a sunny day. There is no shortage of places with gorgeous Atlantic views. Then there are the mountains and national parks of the range separating northern Spain from the centre. The locals are justifiably proud of their land and sea scapes.

A panoramic view.

We were dropped off where we started in Gijón. As we left, I joked with the Spanish language guide: I won't see you tomorrow. She slapped my arm in good humour. 

Basílica de Santa María la Real de Covadonga

The lakes were the farthest we would venture into the park. We headed back the way we came to visit an important historical site for Asturians.

This is the basilica we were here for. It was built between 1877 and 1901. It was built to replace a temple which had burnt down a century before. It complements a shrine to Our Lady of Covadonga nearby. More of that further down.

A face on view of the basilica.

We took a quick look inside but I didn't tarry long.

The shrine on the other side of the gorge.

A statue of Pelayo, the first king of Asturias. He was a nobleman who rebelled against the Moorish rulers to the south. A Muslim army sent to quell the rebellion was defeated in the Battle of Covadonga. It is regarded as the first battle of the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula. Note that the process took 7 centuries until 1492 when Granada fell to the Christians.

Here is the cavern that houses the shrine to Our Lady of Covadonga. The legend is that Pelayo prayed to the Virgin Mary and in the battle used the mountainous terrain to the advantage of the defenders before emerging from the caves to slay the invaders. Their commander fell and victory was Pelayo's.

The passageway to the statue of the Virgin. The shrine was very crowded, even with one way traffic, and while some people sat down for the service, most passed through to the exterior.

The view from the exit of the shrine.

A view of the basilica on the other side of the gorge.

The busy mountain road running through the gorge.

We walked up the road to the cluster of buildings around the basilica and by and by reboarded the bus. Note that this site is on a branch off the main route which is why we didn't encounter these landmarks when we headed for the lakes earlier.