Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias and has a history dating back to the Moorish invasion in the 8th century. It’s old town is largely pedestrianised which makes makes walking around the location a pleasure. The city is also full of modern statues that allude to its history including, surprisingly, one of Woody Allen who was very complimentary about the city when he visited in 2002!

Perhaps the main attraction of Oviedo is the gothic-styled Cathedral of San Salvador. It features some huge beautiful carvings behind the altar and in the many side chapels. It also houses a museum displaying a vast number of objects from the church’s history.

Oviedo is also well known for it’s gastronomy so, of course, we had to stop for lunch! We ate at the Restaurant El Fondin. A shared starter of anchovies on tomatoes, followed by the local stew, fabada, for me and hake with caramelised onion for Sue – all very tasty.

On Thursday 8th we drove north out of Potes and back through the Hermida Gorge – this time taking some photos! There is a vast amount of construction work in progress widening and/or repairing the road which made for a slow but exciting drive! Much of the route was reduced to single carriageway with alternating traffic. The van was frequently squeezing between a sheer rock face and steep drop into the valley below – but it was all worth it for the view.

We stopped for two nights at a free (!) aire just outside the small town of Norena, situated halfway between the coastal city of Gijon and the district capital of Oviedo. The main plus point of the site was that it was in walking distance of a train station which we used the following day to visit Oviedo. Note for train nerds – the commuter train lines in the north of Spain use a uncommon narrow gauge track – a remnant from construction many years ago that the country never got round to converting to the standard gauge used everywhere else.

On the 7th we drove into the mountainous Picos de Europa national park arriving at the Teleférico Fuente Dé. We climbed into a (cozy) cable car and were hauled up to an altitude of 1823 metres.

From the top station the views were simply spectacular. Many people were content to take in the sights but many were setting off on hikes through the mountains of four hours or more (we managed to resist that temptation!).

On Monday (5th) we continued west along the coast and then turned south to drive through the spectacular (and rather narrow) 21 kilometre long Desfiladero de la Hermida (Hermida Gorge) reaching the town of Potes. We were staying at a very good aire 5 minutes walk from the town centre for 3 nights.

Potes is on the eastern edge on the Picos de Europa (more later) and is a delightful town with origins dating back to at least the 14th century. It is full of narrow streets and bridges crossing multiple rivers. The centre is dominated by the Torre del Infantado tower which now houses a museum and also has a lift to the rooftop for some excellent views over the area.

The Alquitara shown in the shop window puzzled us for a while as it became clear this was an important symbol of the local area. It turned out that these are traditional stills used to produce Orujo de Liébana, a liquor famous in the region (the Orujo Festival is held every November in Potes!).

We next headed further west along the coast, through the coast towns of Santona and Noja, bypassing Santander and ending up spending one night at an aire overlooking the town of Santillana del Mar.

The town  is often considered one of the most beautiful in Spain.  It’s known for its medieval towers, Renaissance palaces and the Romanesque Santa Juliana Collegiate Church.

After two nights we left Bilbao and headed west to Laredo. This may sound like a location in a cowboy film but in this case it’s a seaside town between Bilbao and Santander.

The town itself was very quiet being out of season but we were stopping for 3 nights at campsite just south of the town which seemed much more popular. Camping Playa del Regatón is set on the estuary of the Treto river, surrounded by a wetlands national park. Just outside the campsite was a large riding school with horses & ponies being ridden along the shoreline.

In the evening people would stand on the shore just outside the campsite gates to watch the sun go down.

Opened in 1997, this must be the biggest single attraction in Bilbao. Designed by Frank Gehry, this contemporary art museum has a stunning exterior, it’s curved lines covered in titanium ‘scales’. Outside are two installations: a huge spider by the riverside and a 12 metre high ‘Puppy’ by Jeff Koons made of flowers at the front of the building.

Inside a host of weird and wonderful exhibits await the visitor. The paintings and drawings include works by almost every well known artist you can name from Da Vinci to Picasso. There are plenty of sculptures and audio-visual works as well. on te left below is a ‘bouquet’ by Jeff Koons (made of ballons!) in front of a piece by Gilbert & George. On the right is a huge collection of steel structures forming spirals and curves that fills the biggest exhibition space in the museum. This collection is called ‘Matter of Time’ and the visitor is invited to walk through the structures and lose themselves! If you click on the photo to expand it you might get a better idea of the scale, compared to the people walking through.

There is only one motorhome site in Bilbao – set on a hill overlooking the city. Fortunately when we eventually got there (after a supermarket stop) they had space for us. The view from the pitch was very impressive (especially at night) with Bilbao Athletic Club Football Stadium in the foreground.

The city is a fascinating mix of new and old architecture. The old town (Casco Viejo) was full of beautiful narrow streets with ornate or enclosed balconies on many of the buildings. The Cathedral is claimed to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture (we also liked the lemon trees in the cloisters). Plaza Nueva was full of bars and restaurants. The impressive neo-Baroque Arriaga Theatre set on the river dates from the 19th century but is still in active use today. The narrow streets, however, seem to require a less automated form of parcel delivery!

For lunch we had to try pintxos (the Northern Spain version of Tapas) at the food court at La Ribera Market – the largest indoor market in Europe (seen below on the left). They tasted delicious but we must point out the pintxos on the plate below are for both of us not just Sue!

Our big motorhome trip this year is to Northern Spain. We are taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao, leaving ay 10pm on 27/5, arriving 8am on 29/5. After an excellent lunch in Gosport with Peter’s sister Lynda and husband David, we drove to the port and boarded the Brittany Ferry Galicia. We sailed on time, passing Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quay and Spinaker Tower.

The crossing was smooth, the cabin basic but comfortable – we even got an invite to tour the bridge.

It was at this point that some very unexpected and worrying news filtered through. All of Spain and Portugal (and parts of southern France) had suffered a massive power outage and chaos was ongoing with transportation grinding to a halt and shops forced to close! No one seemed to know the cause or how long it would take to return everything to normal. As the ship arrived at Bilbao the following day, we were very concerned as to how this would impact the start of the holiday and were devising alternative plans such as turning left out of Bilbao and driving immediately into France. As it turned out things were rapidly returning to normal and as we drove off the ship we decided to stick to ‘Plan A’!