Gijón

Gijón, sitting on the Bay of Biscay, is the largest city in the province of Asturia and a major Spanish fishing port. I am staying in luxury overnight at the Casino Hotel Hernán Cortés. I booked it from Australia and they have given me a massive marble and wood suite with a hallway, a sitting room complete with a chaise-longue and a king sized bedroom. Gijón was founded by King Pelagius, the Visigothic nobleman in 718 who is credited with the beginning of the Christian Reconquista and thus reclaiming the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. First off I took myself up to the headland of Cimadevilla to have a look at its famous beach, the Playa San Lorenzo, and have a stroll along its promenade. I like cheese so for lunch I had a plate of Quesos Asturianos, a variety of the regional piquant cheeses and a glass of their excelkent vino tinto. I then visited the 19th century late Gothic Church of San Antonio de Pádua, a latin cross design with an ornately painted nave of the life of Christ. I finished off with a visit to the Ferrocarril or Train Museum of Asturia, which displayed about 50 locomotives and carriages covering the history of trains in Asturia. The oldest train there was a French built Corpet-Louvet Steam Locomotive constructed in 1891. Tomorrow I take a bus to Bilbao for the start of my Basque adventure.