Hola!
Up about 7 am and down for breakfast about 8. Then, back upstairs to plan our day. We’ve tried at least three times now over two visits to visit the Roman thermal baths museum in Gijon, but it has never been open before. (I was beginning to think it didn’t exist…) And in fact, from the doorway, one would never know it was open, either! So … we were able to find a parking space near the public beach and the beautiful walkway, and stow the car away. (Note: We did try Uber, but unfortunately, Uber doesn’t work in Gijon!)
Up from the car park and a beautiful walk along the waterfront. The tide was way out this morning, and it seemed like everybody and their puppy was taking advantage of it! So many dogs playing with their people and chasing balls. Looked like everybody was having a great time – like a huge doggy park!
Got to the Roman Baths Museum, and their gate was finally OPEN! Quelle surprise!! It’s a very interesting place, but unfortunately, there truly wasn’t a word in English at all, although they did have a small pamphlet for us. Fortunately for us, if you have ever visited the Roman Baths in Bath, England, (which we have, frequently!) you get an exceptional explanation on how they worked, so we were fairly conversant with the frigidarium, and the caldarium, and other terms.
One very interesting point, though, that we could find no information on, was a skeleton in a stone sarcophagus right in the middle of things! Who was this person? Unsatisfied customer? Former owner? The guy who stayed too long? Oh well!
From the museum, it was just a few steps to the St. Pedro church, which was amazing! When we were last here, some 7 or 8 years ago, the church was closed for restoration work. And, while we picked our way rather carefully through the building, there was a gal who was organizing to begin renovation. Her specialty was gold leaf work, and we had never really heard of such a thing! Well … the chapel in the church goes right across the entire back of the building, literally behind the main altar. It was truly superb! And talk about gold leaf. I had never even seen sheets of gold leaf before, but they are micro-thin sheets of gold! I truly think this was one of most incredible chapels I have ever seen. The photos don’t really do it justice, but we tried!
From the church, we decided to walk around the peninsula, up above the city and past it’s still bulwarked hills. There is a HUGE concrete sculpture there, which looks a trifle out of place, but was impressive nonetheless.
Once you get to the top of the rise, we found that the scenery definitely changed – ocean and beautiful beaches on one side, and industry and a major port facility on the other! We walked around the point and came down on the commercial and marina side. Some wonderful small restaurants there, but so much fish … (I know – when you’re close to the water, that’s what you get!) Oh! I forgot about the explosions! As we were leaving the church, we started to hear what sounded like cannon shots going off every few minutes. What was it? Firing squad, kids, what? Well, when we finally starting walking back towards where we had parked the car, we found out – it was the fire department setting off large fire crackers?! I mean, REALLY? There was a group of about a dozen guys, and they were in the middle of a small square. They would start chanting something neither of us could understand, and then light off a fire cracker! There were policemen all around as well, so not sure if we were witnessing a protest of some sort or just guys wanting to sing and make loud noises?! (You know how guys are…) Oh well!
Back to the car, and up into the city, and Emmy is definitely having some issues. At first, boxed in by tall buildings, she just couldn’t seem to get a fix on satellites, and once she found them, it seemed she didn’t know what to do with them! Fortunately, Robert was conversant enough with Gijon that he could get us back to our hotel, because our GPS definitely couldn’t! Hmmm…..not a good thing when one can’t trust one’s GPS!
We looked for a restaurant along the water to have some lunch, but really couldn’t find anything that looked good. So, we decided to go back to Ebano (our place from last night) to see what they might have! Parked the car back in its hotel parking spot, and up to the street and a right turn. Well … turns out that Ebano is a lot more than we were giving it credit! There is first off, the bar area, where we ate last night; chaotic, friendly, lots of fun. But immediately behind this area, they have a separate room that is all dressed up as a formal dining room! (Who knew?!) And then, when we were leaving, we noticed that immediately across the street, they have a huge outdoor terrace area where people were eating and drinking. Has this place no end?!
This time we were shown directly into the dining room – and were the first one’s here. (Take into consideration that it is now 2 pm!) We opted for the menu of the day, and were both very pleased with our choices. For starters, Robert got a fava bean and mussel soup, which was delicious. I had a German salad, which turned out to be lettuce, sausage, bacon, olives and radishes, in, seriously! A creamy dressing! It was excellent! (Oh! For a starter before our starter, our complimentary serving was a very pate-like tuna fish, on toast, which was delicious! We both ordered the same entrée, entrecote cooked rare, which came with French fries and yet another green salad. Yummy! I can definitely state without hesitation that we have eaten our last meal of the day! Oh, and let’s not forget – a bottle of vino tinto. And the whole bill came to only 30€!
Out about 3 pm and we walked across the street to look get some bottled water for our room. Turns out the supermercado that I can see from the room was more of a Chinese department store; very odd, but I’m sure you could find just about anything you wanted – except food. So, we walked down the street for a bit and found not one but two nice grocery stores almost next door to one another. Found the water and a few Granny Smith apples for Robert, and back to the room for some well-deserved rest. Naps can be really wonderful! I am up now (although R is up and down) and blogging so hopefully to bed early tonight.
Tomorrow we are packing up and leaving Gijon, and heading to Bilbao for the Guggenheim. We have seen the building from outside on a prior pass through Bilbao, but never went inside. This time, we are going to head out early tomorrow, drive the 3+ hours or thereabouts and leave the car and luggage at our hotel. Then, we’ll head straight for the museum. Only one night in Bilbao, before we head to Burgos and Atapuerca! (Atapuercais a fascinating site set in an unremarkable series of rocky hills, which have been the site of incredibly significant palaeontological and archaeological finds. Prehistoric human remains dated to over a million years were found there in 2008; among the oldest known physical evidence of hominids in Europe. I am SO happy to report that we have managed to book our spot on a tour on Sunday and are very, very excited about it!)
So, more later – from Bilbao!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
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