They call it the region of Catalonia, but it is always called the Basque country, which stretches from Biarritz in France, into Spain, taking in San Sebastian and Bilbao and a lot os coastline in between.  They speak a completely different language to French and Spanish and they are very patriotic.  See the photos below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some more photos of Asturias, it’s a great place as you can see below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Spend a lot of time on Gijon .. it has everything you need and is easy to get around and has several surf breaks within walking distance .. Excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gijon (pronounced hehon)

Oviedo is the capital of Asturias, but the city I always come to is Gijon.  Gijon is built on a peninsular on the coast with the sea on 3 sides.  It has 3 beaches, with one long curving bay in the middle of the city.  There are several surf breaks.

Gijon has a university and although modern, it has a lot of culture i.e. book stores, museums, art galleries etc. There are also a lot more bars and restaurants in the city than anywhere else I have ever been, by a multiple of at least 3.  Many are Sideria’s and all of the seem to be trading well.  There doesn’t seem to be any economic downturn at all in Asturias.  The city has a lot os cycle lanes and they run alongside the caminas, which are specially made paths for people to walk and run along.  They have them in all of the Spanish towns and they are very busy.  In Gijon, every morning, the locals power walk along, generally in pairs, whilst chatting loudly.  In the evenings at about 6pm, it seems that everyone in Gijon comes out, dressed up and walk along the promenade and caimans, before going to a bar or restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asturias – What Makes It My Favourite Place?

I love Northern Spain in general, but there is something special about Asturias. As soon as you drive into Asturias from Cantabria, there is a change in me.  The architecture and people also change. … Ah, I said that already … but it is true!

There is surf all along the coast and the breaks are empty, which is very unusual for Europe.

There is a proper mountain range called the Picos de Europa.  It’s like a very mini Alps.  It has great trekking and mountain biking and a couple of ski resorts.  Also, the mountains overlook the beaches in many places.  They are literally side by side.

The whole coast is very green as there is a lot of rain in winter, but after it’s rained, the sun tends to come back out.  The countryside is beautiful and along the coast there are numbers small fishing villages perched on the hillsides going down to a quay side, just like in Cornwall or Scotland.  Then amongst the beautiful scenery, you suddenly come across a town that is more industrial than anything I’ve seen in the UK.  There are coal mines as well as steel, aluminium and zinc plants.  These pockets of industry contain big factories with tall chimneys spewing out smoke or flames.  It is a real contrast.

It’s great that there are no British tourists and very few non-Spanish tourists You need to speak Spanish to get by as the locals don’t speak English.

Strong culture.

The cider – Sidra.  Big misshapen green bottles with corks in them. Cider is everywhere, they cook with it as well as drink it.  There is a whole ritual about how is it poured, as you can’t pour your own drink.  It needs to be poured from above the head and the person pouring can’t look at the glass, which he holds at thigh height.  You are given a straight pint glass but only about 1 inch of sidra is poured into the glass at any one time. You should drink it in one go, or take a swig and toss the remainder into one of the troughs along the bar.   Once you have drunk your inch, you need to wait for the waiter to return and pour some more.

The waiter will come back to you and pour another inch.  You must take the glass from the pourer of the Sidra.  He/she will hold the glass until you take it from their hand whilst looking in their eyes.  If you are in conversation, there will continue to hold the glass out to you, until you take it from them.  They won’t put it onto the bar or table in front of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you pass through the countryside, there are orchards and very striking apple stores, in the gardens of most rural houses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it of not, the bag pipes are played here.  There is a specific Asturian bag pipe.

I drove into Asturias from Cantabria and immediately I felt at home. Different customs, different people, different architecture …. I’ll post more about this later.  It is an amazing place.

I came to Gijon, a city about the size of Brighton.  it’s got a university and culture and is built on a peninsular, so water on 3 sides.  There’s 3 surf breaks right in the centre of the city.

I found out that the cities football team, Sporting Gijon were playing at home last Sunday and bought a ticket. They got relegated from La Liga last year, so play in the 2nd tier, similar to Brighton.  It was a great experience. Although the ground is old, it is really set up in a way that UK clubs should be.  There are good quality bars and restaurants under the stands and they are open every day of the week.  There is also a top class gym/fitness centre open to the public in the ground.  Rather than serving crap that you have to queue for and pay high prices for, in awful surroundings, they give proper food and drink for normal prices in good quality bars and restaurants.  The staff are well trained, so there is minimal queueing.  My accountant is finance director at the Albion and i need to send him over here to look and learn.

In the ground, the atmosphere was excellent, with a particular area of a stand I was in allocated to the ‘Ultras’ who sing all of the way through the game.  There’s a guy with a microphone facing away from the game and starting all of the chants.  There was a guy with a drum and another with a trumpet following his lead.  .. see below. superb! I’ve always wanted to go to a game like this, as seen it on TV  in South America but never been.

Gijon went one nil down against the run of play with 10 minutes to go.  They immediately went up the other end from the kick off and equalised.  Then in the very last minute of stoppage time, they got a winner .. 2-1 .. everyone went wild … superb!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

About a week ago I got 2 days at an amazing reef bread in the middle of nowhere.  At the end of a 3km lane, on from a little village is a forest on the edge of the sea.  There is a really good reef break with an ‘A frame’ and also a great right hander about 200m metres from it.  There were about 5 other vans camping there with Germans and French being the majority, apart from the locals …. still only 1 group of English surfers in Spain .. great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attack of the Giant Mosquitos

I drove from the Basque country into Spain and stayed by a lovely quiet beach called Oyambre.  I have never come across mosquitos in northern Spain before, however, on this night when I went to bed I was woken by things landing on my face.

They buzzed around my ears and sounded like mosquitos, but as I have never had mosquitos dive bomb my face before, I thought they must be flies and couldn’t be bothered to turn the light on the try to swat them.

After being woken several times, I sat up at 3.10am and turned on the light.  My eyes quickly focused on the biggest mosquito I have ever seen.  I splatted him with Alex Ferguson’s autobiography and Sir Alex’s face took the full brunt.  When I looked at Sir Alex again, there was a big smear of blood across his chin. I looked around and saw a couple more and they got the same treatment.  The worrying thing was that each one was full of my blood when being head butted by Sir Alex.  I kept trying to get back to sleep only to be dive bombed again.  The mosquitos kept landing on my face and I just couldn’t sleep.

I think I got around 12 mozzies in total and there was still one flying around when I gave up trying to sleep and dragged myself out of bed at around 8.30am.  The van ceiling and cupboard doors were like something out of a Tarrantino movie and I was knackered.

OH NO …. I Did It Again

Yep, I got out of my van first thing in the morning and closed the side door behind me, to again find myself locked out.  This time, it took from 9am until about 5pm to resolve the issue.

After about 10 phone calls to the UK from a phone box and waiting for hours in a local bar for a return call, I was told that someone was coming to tow my van.  While waiting for the arrival of the tow truck 2 police and lots of locals came along and before I knew it, I had 6 local basques and a crazy Austrian around my van.  There were 2 policemen, 2 maintenance men and a recovery driver all trying to retrieve my key through a slightly open window.  The key was on the worktop in the centre of the van, behind the drivers seat.

The doors could not be opened, so I had resigned myself to have the window smashed and replaced and the breakdown company with whom I have a policy confirmed that they’d put me up in an hotel for the night.  However, when the recovery vehicle arrived the locals had different ideas.  I stood telling them to tow the truck to the VW garage and break the window, but they took absolutely no notice. I had a lady called Patricia, who is Basque but lives in Hampshire translating for me and the response that came back was “tell him to relax”.

The recovery driver said that with the wheel lock on and a lot of other cars around, it was difficult to town my van.  Patricia then asked what he did in these circumstances and he said that he always finds a way to sort out the problem.  Ultimately, one of the policemen had some wire, which Johanas (your highness) put some sticky tape on.  His arm was though my drivers side window and the other 4 guys were peering (noses to the glass) through my tinted windows shouting directions to the key.  It really was like something out of a crazy film, but it worked.  The sticky tape stuck to my key and they somehow got it out from the back of the van through the front window …. have a look at the photos and video ….. AMAZING!  in hindsight, it was hilarious, but at the time, I just wanted to get my van towed, as I’d had enough and didn’t think there was any chance they’d retrieve the key.

On a different note, Patricia, was over from Hampshire to see her 86 year old father who by complete co-incidence have Myloma, which is the same pretty rare form of bone cancer that my Mum has.  (Hi Mum :))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on this link and wait for the video to download, it shows what was going on . .   MVI_4968 …. completely out of my control.

Oh yeah … in all of the chaos about the van, I forgot I left my wet suit hanging up and it was nicked … never mind, I have a spare one with me, although it is crap and cold …. it will have to do for now.

On our first night in Zaurautz Johanas and I set out for a few tapas in the town.  It was Saturday evening, but I was not planning to have a big night out. 8 hours later at 4am, I was zig zagging back to the camp site …. the next day, I woke up with al of my clothes on in my can … I don’t know how I made it and I had a hangover from hell.

That evening, we had got to know loads of people in the town, who were all really friendly. For the next 2 days, lots of people, including the bar tenders were saying hi, although I couldn’t remember most of them.

 

My first stop in Spanish Basque country was Zarautz, just west of San Sebastian.  On the first day 2 brother’s unfortunately drowned together on the beach below the camp site I was staying at.  Apparently, the leash on one of their boards snapped and his brother went to help him. I am not completely sure how they both died, but i think they must have been beginners.

I feel for their family and it is a lesson for me to check my leak is in good order.