Friday, 01 August 2008
the outskirts of Luarca
From Foz we ride the N634 in the direction of Gijón. Suddenly, we see a sign on the main road, which refers to an attraction. So we bend off and the road leads into the town of Luarca. There are many free parking signs, but we need to park our big motorhome a bit out of town. Which is fine with us.
We get dressed and ready for Luarca. The closer we come to the centre, the more beautiful the town. It is divided by a river running through the port and into the ocean.
the harbor-master
in the fishing harbor
minor repairs
At the harbour, we discover activities in a hall. Upon closer look we see that this is an auction hall. Many crates of fish are already put on the ground. In each box there is a note with the weight and name of the fish as well as barcode. A quarter of an hour later the auction begins and we are keen to see how this would work?
on the fish auction
Each bidder has a small radio control in his hand. The auctioneer has a reading control, with which he scans the barcode of each box and all data along with the starting price is displayed on the panel. Then the price on the panel starts to count backwards. And the bidders push the price stop through their radio controls. Now the name of the bidder and the final price appear on the panel. (For the calamari in the photo the starting price was 22 Euros). We had never known the price would drop down. This way, the bidders have to have good nerves not to purchase too expensive.
the panel of the auction hall
the railroad bridge Ferrol - Gijón
We leave town and feel a bit stressed from the heat today. Plus, we are not used to such long distances anymore. In one village, we bend off to the beach. The road is then so narrow that oncoming traffic can hardly pass. Before us there is an Italian, who desperately tries to turn his motorhome on the road.. We park ourselves in a curve, so that there is a bit more space for him to turn. He has almost passed when he nearly hits our motorhome. Annette shouts STOP. Herbert now wants to pull back a bit to get yet closer to the roadside. But the Italian just goes on and BANG the scratch is there on our vehicle. We make the Italian pay us 20 Euros for the damage. Now instead to turn on the road just like the Italian did, Annette removes the pegs from a meadow field. Herbert can now drive onto the meadow to turn and leave this place straight ahead. The fright however is still in our bones in the evening. We stay on the motorway and pass Gijón. We are glad when we later reach Villaviciosa for the night.
today's route 189 km
