An unexpected delightful day by the grey Bay of Biscay!

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Well it rained steadily all night and most of the morning. The sky was dismal, no breeze, humid, not cold just depressingly dull! We had planned to pack a picnic and have a hiking day today but decided it might not really be much fun; wet dogs, wet grass, slippery coastal paths and hazy mist instead of the promised panoramic views. So we decided to have a lazy morning and then drive around to see what we could find of interest towards lunchtime. We found San Estaban de Pravia, an old and historic port, still very gentile, with graceful old late 19th/early 20th century houses bordering the harbour and some very smart tapas bars. The tapas themselves were not truly brilliant (the squid was a bit tough) but the service and ambiance were very nice indeed! Doggies had to stay in the car!

San Estaban de Pravia stands at the mouth of the Rio Nalon and it is an old and historic coal port, where the coal from the Asturian mines used to come by rail to be loaded onto ships for exportation (mostly to the rest of Spain and also to Portugal). The industrial architecture has been carefully preserved and restored and the old cranes are an attractive feature of this wealthy little town. It is delightful. One review says that the ends of the town are not attractive but the middle is "cute"! Ugh!!! Someone perhaps is missing the point of it all here. Just a tad! The "ends" of the town, i.e. where the wonderful industrial architecture has been so carefully preserved, are superb. San Estaban is not "cute" but it is well worth a visit!

The sea today was wild and the beach, which normally we are told is a huge expanse of golden sand, was non-existent. It was very dramatic and wet and misty in the spray. The photos are not great but we shall probably not get a better chance to photograph this coastline, according to the forecast, so we are putting them on the blog anyway.

After our tapas lunch we headed up above the harbour to an old hermitage, the Ermita del Espiritu Santo (Hermitage of the Holy Ghost) because it has the most wonderful view across the bay (well on a good day it would be truly wonderful)! This hermitage is at the end of the coastal walk that we wanted to do today. The walk starts at our local beach, Playa de Aguilar and ends at the hermitage after four and a half kms of cliff pathways, so a nine km round trip. Hopefully, weather permitting we shall do it tomorrow (although as this blog is being typed the rain is beating down heavily again on the caravan roof and the hills are shrouded in mist again like they were this morning). If this rain persists all night tonight, like last night, then we might well be bogged down in the mud tomorrow and not going anywhere!

Just looked online and seen that it is 27 degrees in the Alicante sunshine right now (6 p.m.) !!!

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