Fireworks 🎇

 

We were rudely awoken at midnight by the sounds of boom, bang, zoom, boom and bang again, and it was nothing we could blame Louis for 🤣

Fireworks were being launched somewhere nearby in Laredo and they thought it would be entertaining for it to continue for 30 minutes.

Better than thunder I suppose, they didn't bother Louis much after the initial bang. 

But thunder has him getting quite distressed.

Anyway apart from that it was a great place to spend the night so close to the beautiful Laredo beach.

We set off heading west and the drive along the coast was through amazing countryside, very green, ferile farmland and lots of forests.

Many areas had pampas grass growing wild by the side of the roads, covering some of the embankments.

Pampas grass lined roads

We passed the Picos de Europa on our left with towering peaks soaring towards the skies with many of the summits obscured by localised cloud.

The Picos rising in front of us

We decided to give the Picos a miss, as spectacular as I'm sure they are, and I'd done a bit research on them and identified a few places I'd like to visit. 

But we've had lots of mountain experience on this trip already in the Pyrenees and with all the difficulties mountain roads bring, I thought better of it.

It was very enjoyable to see them from a distance though, safe in the knowledge I'd not be crawling up there in second gear with Ed running out of puff.

I thought this Bull was a symbol for Andalucia, but it's on a hillside here ?

Maybe they have some bull fighting up here too.

Through the forests of Asturias, it could easily be Austria !

So we arrived at our chosen destination for tonight in Gijon.

We're on a motorhome aire, no services but free of charge. 

Like last night, the parking is a bit tight but we're close to the beach again with just a palm tree garden between us and the beach promenade.

We had a walk along the front this afternoon.

Gijon promenade art, she has a very pained expression.
Online comments suggest she lost a child but there's
nothing written nearby to confirm this. Maybe a fishing accident ?
This is a link here to the story behind the statue, thanks to Sheila for the research 

 

The port city of Gijon in the distance

Gijon park art, I've no idea what it is

Once again thunder storms are forecast, but once again they haven't arrived - yet lol.