Day 16 - Spain ..closed for business (again)

It looked like the rain clouds might be disappearing so we headed for La Playa Catedrales, a beach with a series of rock formations on the edge of the ocean beach - think 12 Apostles but not quite as good (according to us anyway). It was very busy, people everywhere, we took the coastal boardwalk until we came to some steps down to the beach. We were about to head down when we were asked for our tickets. Tickets to walk on the beach? No, we don't think so!

We continued the coastal route through Lacura and stopped for coffee at Cudillero, which in the morning drizzle didn't look nearly as interesting as yesterday, and of course because it was "early" (around 10am), almost nothing was open. What is it with Spain and their weird hours?

We then drove along the coast and then inland to Oviedo, by now it was about 2-ish but once again we found ourselves in a city that had closed for the afternoon and as it was raining steadily we couldn't find any reason to hang around. As tourists the "everything shut for the afternoon" thing does seem a bit silly. We haven't quite reached the point of wanting to do sit in bars for hours every afternoon drinking wine and eating bocadillos!

We drove onto Gijon where we had booked a decent hotel and bunkered down against the rain. We had to wait until after 8pm for the restaurant to open but the menu del dia was a good deal, with lots of yummy food, excellent service and a very reasonable price.