Destination: Foz, Northern Spain
After another great nights sleep, we woke around 6am to get showered and head to breakfast before we reached Santander. The Taberna was still relatively quiet, so we were easily able to get a table and sat down to tuck into the French version of a full English. Suffice to say, it was a good effort. I appreciated that they had tried with the veggie sausage and the ‘fakon’, but I really wasn’t sure about the mushrooms. I think they may have been cooked in wine.
Having spent the last of our food credit, we headed out on deck to make the most of the incredible sunrise. The Santona was just pulling into Santander, which has a wide sweeping harbour, and we were seeing our first Spanish sunrise. We were blessed with the most intense colours reflecting on the water, contrasting with the mist rolling in from the hills on the coast. What a fantastic start to the day and to our Iberian adventures!
I could happily have stayed for ages taking it all in. But it wasn’t too long before we were called down to our vehicles. As I have learned my lesson on previous trips, I made sure to set up Waze as soon as I got into the car. I use Waze whenever I drive in Europe because as well as giving me directions, it also helps me stay on the right side of the road! Turns out I needn’t have hurried, as we were in for a bit of a wait.
My original plan had been to explore Santander before setting off. But the ferry was at max capacity and it took ages to get off and through the Spanish Border Control. So we’d be heading directly for our first stop of the day in Ribadesella, via the A-8 North Coast route.
San Vicente de la Barquera
Due to the long wait at Border Control, we hadn’t been actually driving for long before we had to stop for a break. So I pulled off the highway at the next junction, without really knowing where we were going. The road lead to a lovely little town on the coast called San Vicente de la Barquera, it was ace! It is very pretty and has a really long and quite spectacular bridge spanning it’s estuary. Better still we immediately found a car park ‘Aparcamiento La Barquera‘ that had ‘facilities’ which was a very happy coincidence.
As we’d stopped and I’d paid for the parking, we thought we’d have a look around the town. It was very busy, clearly a very popular destination. I was surprised I’d not come across it while planning the trip. If you are heading along the Northern coast of Spain it is well worth a visit.
Heading toward the town, we crossed another bridge over the river and spotted a castle on a hilltop. As we stopped to look at the castle, we noticed that the river was absolutely teeming with fish! Then we had a lovely walk around the town before heading for the reason it was so busy. There was a medieval market happening in the tiny lanes of the old town, leading up to the castle. There were lots of people in medieval costume and all sorts of arts and craft stalls as well as a huge range of local produce.
The tiny narrow streets of the old town were quite steep, but we persevered up to the castle ramparts. When we got there we had a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside and the Picos de Europa mountains in the distance. Honestly St Vicente is such a gorgeous little town, I would definitely recommend it as a stop if you are in the area.
Having thoroughly enjoyed our great little find, we made our way back to the car and onto our first scheduled stop.
Ribadesella
Ribadesella is a pretty little coastal town and appeared to be extremely popular with tourists. As we made our way into the town I suspected we might have trouble parking up to explore the town. So I headed over the Sella river that gives the town it’s name and headed for the reason for our visit.
No, it wasn’t the lovely Playa de Ribadesella shown above! I was hoping to visit the Tito Bustillo cave.
Unfortunately when we got there, I realised that the sale for our pre-booked tickets had not actually gone through. And as the cave visits are limited to 15 people per hour they sell out months in advance. Slightly irritating, but we still had lots to see so we headed back to the car. (SPOILER ALERT: Our tickets for next year are 100% sorted!!!)
Given the amount of traffic on the main road through the town, we decided to take an ‘alternative route’ back to the highway. So then it was just a matter of navigating our way back over the river … via the tiniest bridge ever!
Gijon
I had read about the city of Gijon before our trip and had thought it definitely worth a visit. We made our way to the Cimavilla (old town) as there were a few interesting places I wanted to visit. I was also hoping we could find somewhere nice for lunch!
When we arrived, I realised that my phone had not been charging, so sadly I don’t have a whole bunch of pictures of this visit. But I’ve linked everything we saw and would urge anyone visiting this area to take a look. Gijon is a great little town and has something for everyone.
Although most of the on street parking is for residents, we managed to find a spot relatively quickly. Having parked up, we headed up towards the Cerro de Santa Catalina, a park and gardens on a hill overlooking the town. Aside from the incredible view, the park also hosts the Bataria Alta de Santa Catarina and the Elogio del Horizonte.
We were quite warm by now, so headed back down the hill to find somewhere cool for lunch. At the Plaza del Muro de San Lorenzo, we passed the Museum of Termas Romanas de Campo Valdes (Roman baths). If you do visit, there is a lovely shaded area here to sit and take in the vast sweeping bay and Playa de San Lorenzo. We took a moment to marvel at the lovely Real Club Astur de Regatas facilities then wandered towards the town.
We headed for the Plaza Major, hoping to find somewhere to get food. But on arriving it was absolutely rammed, so we decided to see what the quaint little streets of the old town had to offer. Our route took us past the imposing Palacio de Revillagigedo and gorgeous Gijon Marina, both of which I’d recommend checking out. Then we eventually found a great spot at La Bull 2 on the Calle San Bernardo to sit and watch the world go by while we recharged.
Overnight in Foz
We had done a lot on our first full day in Spain and we were both looking forward to reaching our first campsite. I had found a lovely little site called FozCamp close to the Praia de Llas that had a wonderful view of the coast.
We set the TentBox up to make the most of our glorious sea view then headed for the little onsite restaurant for a beer. It turned out that they also sold the most delicious local olives. Seriously good!
We placed an order for some breakfast pastries that sounded really interesting. Seemed they did ‘jam and cheese’ croissants, and the owner seemed quite surprised we’d never had them before. But more on that tomorrow … for now, it was time to enjoy our very first Spanish sunset …
Hasta mañana!
