Parroquia de Santo Tomás de Cantorbery

After a fairly intermittent nights sleep I felt it wasn’t worth staying in bed - despite having no need to get up early. So showered and then started to try to sort out my stuff, which is definitely not as organised as last year - yet.
Checkout from the hotel was 12 so we went out to find coffee and I found a lovely church (StThomas a Becket) where I went to a start of Camino Sunday mass.
After mass I met Cress in one of Avilés’ wide squares - great coffee, sunshine and church bells followed by a cup of green tea.
Eventually we stirred our stumps, collected our (far too heavy in my case) bags and navigated back to the bus station to find a bus to Gijón.
This took a little while as the buses don’t run as frequently on Sundays but eventually one came and it was a fairly swift ride to Gijón.
Gijón has a fabulous at deco bus station and many other interesting and unusual buildings as well as the sea and more spacious and beautiful squares lined with cafes. This really is a much underrated area of Spain.
Having bought onward bus tickets for Villaviciosa we walked into the centre of town for an explore. The wide sandy beaches at either end of the port area looked very inviting but we didn’t really have time to take advantage of them (and didn’t want to risk sandy feet in reasonably clean socks) so walked along by the sea and then found a bar for a drink - mineral water in my case. Cress had a beer.
In the way back to the bus station I bought some pizza at a bakery as was starving - very delicious with loads of vegetables. Then a short bus ride to Villaviciosa. It seems a bit dead here but think the hotel is more in the central area and it is obviously Sunday. We are going out to explore soon, having completed tasks like washing and ballet practice (I’ve got an exam soon after I get back!).
More later when I’ve been out to explore and found something to eat.
Wandering round Villaviciosa was a delight once we found the older part. Curving streets of houses dotted with appealing bars and cafes and an 8th century Romanesque church with and exquisite ‘floating’ crucifix - the picture really doesn’t do it justice.
Villaviciosa is at the centre of the cider making area so there is a huge cider factory and references everywhere to this important industry. Sadly cider makes me feel very unwell so haven’t tried any yet but did have a couple of glasses of a lovely Albariño.
Dinner was at a very traditional bar - to be honest many places were closed but this was good - grilled vegetables, patatas with three sauces (version of patatas bravas) and some local blue cheese with quince jelly - eclectic combination but very good.
Now trying to get a reasonably early night in advance of first walk tomorrow - and it’s going to be quite a long one.Read more