Ferrol is where we ended up

By car.

The nice folks at Sixt in Oviedo gave us a sweet deal on renting a Toyota whatever and we took the bike apart (no racks, no saddles, no bars), shoved everything in the back and hit the road.

Driving is such a very different way to see and experience that it struck us immediately.  We covered in 4 hours what takes us 3 days on the bike.  And we climbed 6000 meters and I'm not even tired!  But the point is this: when you drive you miss the little things.  The folks at the cafes.  The people who help you when you open your map and look lost.  The road angels who do small things that make such a big difference.

As ever, we were up early in Oviedo.  Coffee, I'm pretty sure.  We found one cafe that opened before 10 a.m. and got a cup or two.  Cool bar stools:

Maybe if you peddle you get a discount on coffee...

In the quiet of the morning we found that Oviedo is actually a very pretty town.  Lots of beautiful apartment buildings and an enormous central park

Oviedo apartments

Tons of art in the central park

An it turns out that Woody Allen (creep!) liked this city so much that he donated a sculpture of himself to the city.  Why is that not surprising?

The real question is why would they accept the donation?

Anyway, we had to hit the road.  Here's our ride, a Toyota Whatever:

The north coast

Spain's northern coast is a lot like Oregon's coast.  Wild, rocky, rough, and not much going on.  it is beautiful.

At 120 kph, the speed limit on the Spanish super highways, we made it to Ferrol in no time.  Why Ferrol, you ask?  Me too.  The story goes like this,  A few weeks ago, before Lorie and I came down with the plague, we were going to ride the narrow gauge train across northern Spain.  Ferrol is the end of that line.

But silly colds and coughs and time delays changed all of that, and the fact that we had booked a room in Ferrol at the "Parador" in Ferrol (a parador is a state owned building that is a restored old building that has been remade into a hotel, of sorts).  So all things considered, here we are and we're happy to be here.  Feeling a bit better but still pretty bad.

We wandered about town and took some photos.  We knew 0 about Ferro before coming here, except for the Parador.  If you're in northern Spain, Ferrol should be on the list.  We found it to be a nice stop.  A working town with lots of families out doing what families do on a nice afternoon.  That's a better appraisal than a lot of the online sites but we have no regrets.

The harbor

Lots of private boats

And they have fish!

The harbor from above

Ferrol kids having a blast on cool scooters

Generalissimo Franco would have loved this building

Our Paradour; we're in the cheap seats in the back...

 No idea...

Tomorrow we drive the Toyota Whatever further south, drop it off, and hope, hope that we feel well enough to throw our legs over the top tubes.

Cheers.