Gotta love the Spanish public holidays, there’s plenty of them which means it’s time for another road trip. Destination Gijón, Asturias.

I’m not sure what the deal is with the trains, but they take about nine hours to travel the 280kms from A Coruña to Gijón. Perhaps they go via Madrid! Anyway, it was a beautiful bus ride along the northern coastline looking out towards the Bay of Biscay. You’d miss a lot of the view if you were travelling by car, so I think the bus is a great option and I have to say, it was a bit like being on a plane with WIFI, movies, USB ports and power jacks to charge your phone.

Many of the coastal cities here are located on bays or inlets and Gijón is no different. The Esplanade forms a horseshoe shape around San Lorenzo Beach from Cimavilla to Urb El Rinconín, looking back on the town and out to sea from any point, offering up something new each time you walked it.

My first wine stop was at Cafeteria Mexico Lindo on the waterfront where I was served prawns and croquettes with my wine. Then, as if the view itself wasn’t enough to take in, I was also afforded the exhibition of a buff looking surfer unavailing himself of his wetsuit right in front of me. Not that I’m suggesting for a single moment the gratuitous perving is acceptable but when life offers up sculptured forms, it’s remiss not to be appreciative!

Talking of remiss, when you then spot a sign offering ‘Mexicana and Margaritas’ it would be impolite not to stop in and sample their offerings. Which is why my next stop was at Frida Kahlo for a margarita and nachos. Now I have to admit, when I think of nachos, I’m thinking avocado, cheese, sour cream and here in lies one of the many reasons that travelling expands your perceptions. The house nachos that I received were plain corn chips served with what can only be described as a salsa dip, mainly onion with a bit of tomato and capsicum. Surprisingly very refreshing and went perfectly with the margarita. Who knew!

I also have to mention and give props to the lovely staff and Ivan who humoured me and my atrocious Spanish taking the time to help with my grammar and pronunciation. 

The next morning, I had a great little outing with Albert via messenger, walking along the waterfront and exploring parts of the old town. Stopping for brunch at Taberna Asturiana for a feed of mussels that easily rivalled those I’d had at Lorbé.

Modern technology is a wonderous thing. Although I wasn’t sitting chatting to someone in the seat opposite me, I could at least prop up my phone and talk to Albert while he also got to re-live and appreciate Spanish life. We were sat just off but looking into Plaza Mayor watching people as they came and went to the beautiful market filled with artesian food.

Well, I say artesian food but in reality, to the locals, it’s just food. Back home we would call it artesian but here, they have been eating the good stuff for centuries.

To walk off brunch, okay, the wines that went with brunch, I wandered up the hill to Cerra de Santa Catalonia. Atop the hill is a sculpture called ‘El Elogio del Horizonte’ or Praise of the Horizon’. Here I discovered that the Cantabrian Sea surrounds Gijón, a city which is over 5000 years old. In recent years the council has worked on developing an open-air museum of public art that is dedicated to the relationship between art and territory. Pretty cool me thinks!

I wandered back to my accommodation along the esplanade and here’s where I mentioned it offers up something new each time. High tide, low tide, daytime, night time the picture changes and each is as good as the last. By nightfall the tide was out, and the beach was filled with people, kids and dogs walking their owners. It’s interesting in that when the tide is up, there is no beach, not like back home or Australia where there the beach is smaller but still there.

Here the tide comes right up to the rock wall so there is a distinct window of opportunity to actually be on the beach. No matter the times of the tides, even at 10pm when the beach was barely lit from the lights of the esplanade, people were still out, and kids were still playing on the sand.

Love the Spanish lifestyle, there’s a lot to be said for a culture that lives between the tides and takes time to enjoy a whole day.

That’s Living the ‘–‘.