After such a great first day in Salinas The next morning we agreed that this was so lovely we’d stay another night and my hotel room was duly extended.
This gave me two opportunities, firstly to use Spanish railways and secondly to use said train to go back to Aviles. To be honest I was slightly nervous about the train as I was pretty sure there would be no ticket office at the station, which was a halt more than a station. This proved to be true but the good news is that I wasn’t arrested for not having a ticket and therefore didn’t spend a night or more in a Spanish jail. Instead, one of my fellow passengers waiting at the station was the train guard, who sold me a ticket while we waited and she explained how the ticketing system worked.
The “station” was essentially a platform and a shelter both of which had seen better times. The train that arrived was in comparison, clean and modern. In 6 minutes I was alighting in Aviles and the first point of order was breakfast. So up to this point I didn’t realise that coffee in some cafes automatically comes with a couple of Churros. So I ordered a croissant, the size of a baby’s head and then, again, had more food to eat than I needed. All good though.
One of the main reasons to visit Avilés was to see the church of Thomas of Canterbury and as this was just by my breakfast stop seeing it was the first activity of the day.
There’s been a convent of this site since the late 17th century, but the current church was only consecrated in 1903 and some of the stone from the convent was used in its construction. It was open to visitors but a service was about to start and with the congregation filing in, I only took a quick couple of photos. The organist was playing, however, so I was able to enjoy 5 minutes of quiet reflection listening to the music.
One of the other main attractions of Avilés is the Oscar Niemeyer Centre, a futuristic complex of domes and a tower that host concerts, exhibitions and live performances. It is the only work in Spain by the Brazilian architect and was inaugurated in 2011. It’s very white and if you climb to the top of the tower to see what’s there, it’s a closed restaurant!! Good coffee though in the cafe and in a reasonably sized cup. It’s amazing in its design and is at odds with much of the surrounding area.
A further walk around the city led me to the Convent of San Francisco del Monte (as opposed to the man from……). This dates back to the 14th century and was open so I spent a few minutes soaking up the atmosphere which taking more photos. It was beautiful and very quiet.
Avilés has an old part to the city which I then explored taking many photos, before starting the train journey back to Salinas to enjoy more coffee and walking which included revisiting in bright sunshine a set of “sails” that hadn’t looked as good the day before in cloudy skies.
Dinner was to be in a different restaurant on the beach front, but it was closed! As it’s “off” season here now, there seems to be a feeling of “today I’m having a day off” if the owners so wish, with a neighbouring cafe being open one day, closed the next and then open again!
So I went back to La Luna, had an excellent pizza and retired for the night. 11.5 miles walked, 24.5k steps!
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