We flew to Bilbao which built it's prosperity on trade, industry and shipbuilding and has the reputation of a working city. It appears that the famous museum was built as compensation for closing the shipyards. It is a truly beautiful building with hardly a straight line in sight. The exhibits are uncompromisingly modern and large, with a each one of the four artists' exhibits spread across several large rooms. Great for their egos.
There is a pleasant old quarter and the inner city looked clean, prosperous and modern.
We then headed for the Posada del Valle (hotel) run by a British couple, and with this stupendous view from its dining room. They provided us with advice and maps for walks that took us into the Picos mountains and by the gorgeous coast of spectacular cliffs and wide sandy beaches.
Four days later and we stayed in Oviedo, a large town with a pedestrianised old quarter surrounded by a ring road replete with fans of Alonso's driving. The Fine Arts museum rambles over two floors and numerous rooms. It owns three amazing paintings by Joaquin Sorolla - never heard of him? Apparently he was a post impressionist at the turn of the 20th century at a time when the modernists came into fashion. Not heard of Oviedo? Well Woody Allen thinks it a great place and, as a result, they have a life size sculpture of him in one of the central streets.
We were amazed to find this bar that is full of East African memorabilia - photos, tickets, etc - dating back to before my times (i.e. stone age) in a tasteful zebra style decor.
At our next stop we decided to tackle the 13 mile out-and-return Cares Gorge walk. It is carved into side of the gorge and as such is relatively level but the slopes and warmth make it an arduous day's outing for us. The views are so spectacular that it is an absolute must for walkers. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. The "green view" shows the highest point, Naranjo, in the mountains and the cutting on the left of the next picture is the track with some walkers on it (click on the image for a bigger view).
We also walked along the coast and visited several resort towns - Suances, Comillas and the lovely Ribadesella, each with its distinctive character.
In the latter there were several large old houses which had been built by locals - known as los Indianos - who had migrated to Cuba and in later life returned and built them with their wealth. This one is now a hotel:
I could write much more but the pictures in flikr tell a broader tale.
This picture is of a horrejo, or grain store, of which there are many dotted about. The older ones are centenarians and built of very heavy timbers and set on stone "toadstools" to keep out rats and birds. A lot now seem to be used as garden sheds and are often high enough to double up as car ports.
One striking aspect of the coastal area is the amount of property that is tied into touristic activity. In some places every building is either a hotel, holiday flats, tourist shop, second home etc and there is little sign of other economic activity than farming or fishing. It was quiet in September but is obviously saturated by Spanish holidaymakers in peak months. Shame, but at least there are few "foreigners" present and so they are probably not being overwhelmed by incomers.
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