Port 93 Gijon, Spain

by Ed · June 17, 2022

Hola! Buenos dias!

Today is Jun 12th, 2022. Gijon is not pronounced anything like you may think. Try “Xi-Xon” with a “kh” sound from the back of your throat. Got it? Keep trying!

The skies are gray once again, and the forecast is for 80% rain. Ugh. Our tug boat joins us before I drag my tired body out to the veranda.

Once in the breakwater out tug starts pulling us around.

But our berth is nothing exciting. Oh well.

The cruise terminal is less than exciting, too!

We have a tour today to go see the two cities of Oviedo and Aviles! The rain stops just before we leeave the ship. Fingers crossed for a no-rain day!

Liliana, or Lily, our tour guide, takes time during our drive to show us and explain the Spanish flag established by King Charles III.

Then she shows us the flag for this region of Spain, Asturias, to recognize independence from the Arabs.

We begin in Oviedo!

Our first stop is a wild architectural marvel from an architect we’ve discussed before – Salvador Calatrava. Remember the Science City in Valencia, Spain, on May 3rd? For Oviedo’s Building of Congress he designed this facility called “The Eyelid”. The project came in at three times the cost projection. And The Eyelid over the center building is supposed to open and close, but the hydraulics never worked. So Calatrava was a great visionary architect, but a lousy cost estimator and lousy mechanical engineer. The wings on either side actually have three levels of government offices in them!

We pass by Padre Feijoo Derramo standing in front of the Faculty of Psychology building.

We zip through a tight alley, and these coats of arms are on the side of a building. After some digging I discover this is an outside wall to the cloister of the Metropolitan Cathedral – I didn’t realize at the time that the buildings were connected! But I think they are beautiful, maybe too beautiful to hide in an alleyway?

Through the alleyway we arrive at the backside of the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo. What an interesting structure! Gothic points! Flying buttresses!

The detail crawling up the corners of the belltower is amazing!

The streets are tight and colorful in Oviedo!

This is the Milkmaid and her donkey! Sweet, huh?

This round building stands in front of the Milkmaid. If you go either direction left or right, you will see this is a very long building – a market!

You see part of the market here, on the left, but I like this photo for the other color in the plaza! Colorful buildings, and flowers!

Near the market is this figure – the Fish Seller. He seems pensive about something.

And around the corner is the female Fish Seller! Her fish are much bigger than the guy’s! Maybe that’s why he’s so pensive!

We come to the Iglesia di San Isidoro el Real, a very simple church

Next to the church is the Town Hall!

Now we are finally in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador! We get to go in!

The interior is very interesting! The lighting focuses on illuminating the ceiling, leaving the columns dark. The altar glows in the distance! Do they intend to keep the congregation “in the dark”?

Up close the altar details pop! There are multiple scenes of Christ’s life and death.

On the north side of the Cathedral’s entrance is King Alfonso II. This is the door he left to begin the first-ever Camino (pilgrimage) to Santiago de Compostela. The Camino is now performed by hundereds of thousands of people every year!

In front of the Cathedral, the statue of La Regenta is positioned so she is watching the front door of the Casino, waiting for her husband to come out! That’s King Alfonso II (remember him?) in the distance!

This is the Casino she’s watching!

Next to the Casino is this little chapel, the Chapel of the Balesquida. See the window?

There is a pair of scissors on display – this was once the private palace of a lady who loved being a seamstress!

Time to head down the road. We board the bus and drive to the city of Aviles.

We pass by the rail station on our way to the parking spot. Cute building!

The bus drops us off at the Park del Muelle. The first statue we see is Pedro Menendez. He is sailor who became the founder of St Augustine in Florida, the oldest city in the United States!

Liliana didn’t talk about this church, but I loved this scene as we walked by. You don’t see many restaurants next to old churchs like this! This is the Old Church of Sabugo – Sabugo is the district this church is in.

This is Eugenia Martinez Vallejo. She is nicknamed “La Monstrua” – The Monster. She was widely known because of her weight and size. She is not from Aviles, but for some reason the city requested this statue of her.

We separated from the tour group to go flower shopping, but we know where to meet them for lunch.

Flowers in hand and searching for the church square for the lunch meeting we found several other squares. This is the Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury!

On our way to the next church square we pass Don Juan Carreno de Miranda, a famous Spanish painter busily at work!

Next we see the Church of the Franciscan Fathers (Iglesia de Padres Franciscanos). This is the final resting place of Pedro Menendez who I showed you at the start of the Aviles photos – the sailor who founded St. Augustine, Florida.

Inside is simple, with the Stations of the Cross dominating the walls.

The altar is beautiful for the artwork that is hiding behind on the walls! It’s sad that it is not illuminated right now!

Near the Office of tourism is this interesting piece of art! It is simply titled “Eslabon” – Link.

Continuing our wanderings before lunch we stumble on the Teatro Palacio Valdés. This doesn’t look very old, but is exquisitely decorated! The words “Opera”, “Media”, and “Drama” are stamped in the gables. I neglected to go to the far end to see the fourth gable’s word. Sorry!

At first I thought this was a series of different colorful buildings, but after studying the photo for a bit the two center buildings are almost identical! Still a fun view with lots of detail!

This is the Iglesia San Nicolás de Bari. There was an event going on here today. When the doors opened there was a flood of dresses coming out!

I appears today is First Communion Day for a lot of the girls here! They are all in cute dresses, and clearly not all 15, so I know this isn’t a Quinceañeras.

When they line up for a group photo I finally notice the stunning building behind them! Wow! The balconies are fantastic!

We finally arrive at the meeting point for lunch. We are early, and take a moment to enjoy the six faces on the Fountain de los Caños de San Francisco! This is truly a unique fountain!

Sidreria Tierra Astur is our meeting point. We go in first to find out if our group is there. There was a bit of a disconnect – and our group hadn’t arrived, but the manager showed us the reservation list has Oceania for 47 seats! Oh, my, that’s both buses at the same time!

While we wait, the other bus on this trip walks in and goes upstairs. We wait for our bus, and we are directed to go the same direction. Upstairs, the first bus had spread out , so it was difficult to find seats. We finally sat at a table with a Russian couple, only to be told we couldn’t sit there. This was a super-spreader event! So we asked when they’d be done, got our answer and left!

We go around the block to a cute place with an outdoor table! Joy demonstrates the proper way to pour a cider! This makes it fizz up nicely in the glass! We have a lovely lunch of churros with chocolate, followed by nachos! Desert first! I have beer and Joy has the cider you see! We are both much happier dining this way.

(And the feedback from the folks who stayed at the restaurant is their nine-course meal was too long, too much food, and the only part they liked were the ribs that came out in course 8, after they were too full to enjoy them! Plus, 45 people were crammed into a space that should only seat 25! They all agreed we made the right decision!)

We’re off to our final sight. When Asturias presented him with a Prince of the Arts of Asturias award, architect Oscar Niemeyer wanted to do something nice for the city, so he designed a unique cultural entertainment area and gave it them gratis! This is the only Oscar Niemeyer architecture in the country of Spain, and Aviles is very proud of that!

We approach the entrance to the bridge over the river to the complex. There are about two dozen steps to the bottom of the ramp, then a long back and forth walk up the ramps!

At the end of the first ramp I snap this photo of the colorful buildings and the curvy benches surrounding the plaza. Fun! And look! No people! (Actually, there are three, way down that center street!)

As we cross the bridge over the river we get a glimpse of part of the cultural complex. I’ll explain more in a moment. But I love the rainbow bridge!

At the other end of the bridge’s first ramp we see the signs of love!

It’s our turn to go across the rainbow bridge. When we usually talk about a rainbow bridge it is when we lose a dog. I”m glad today isn’t about that!

To our right is the biggest part of Oscar’s contribution – the auditorium! He likes curves, abhoring straight lines. It looks like a big wave (or it would if my picture wasn’t cropped so tightly). And Oscar put another set of curves on it! In tiles on the wall he drew the suggestion of a female form!