Our Day in Aviles - St Augustine's Sister City

Trip Start Oct 02, 2009

Trip End Oct 24, 2009

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Flag of Spain and Canary Islands Avilés, Asturias, Spain and Canary Islands
Monday, October 5, 2009

We did our usual mapless approach to a town - try to guess which was is the city center, make lots of wrong turns and then ask a taxi driver. We managed to finally find a parking space right underneath city hall. We called our host Hector and he told us to meet him at 6 pm at the Aviles Bar. At the tourist office, they gave us some good information and a map. Then, it was off to the mayor's office to deliver Conrad's special delivery of two packages of Datil Daddy's beef jerky from home. Through perseverence with the security guard who didn't speak any English, Conrad understood that the mayor was out meeting a trade deligation from Angola but that her secretary would be there shortly.

Goverment Building

We ate lunch on a bench outside while waiting. And then, an angel appeared, or more precisely Angel (pronounced An hell), the mayor's secretary. He was very nice and showed us Pedro Menendez's swords and explained a model of the city from the 13th century. He then showed us the office of the mayor, Pilar, whom Conrad had met last February in St Augustine at the Menendez Ball. We expected lots of antiques and a large oak desk, but instead we saw lots of glass and modern design chairs. But this is perhaps emblematic of the modern city of Aviles, which is a big industrial center of iron and zinc. The old area of town is very picturesque but it is surrounded by blocks and blocks of tall apartment buildings.

Main Aquare of Aviles

Main Square

Stained Glass in Government Building

In a light rain, we walked to statue of Pedro Menendez so that Conrad could get his picture taken in front of it. He brought along a copy of the St Augustine Record so that we could snap a picture with it and submit it to the "Take the Record Along" when we return. In the park, we realized that it was very similar to the Plaza de la Constitucion at home.

Conrad & Don Pedro Menendez

Complete with a crazy lady talking to herself on a bench, and a man taking a dump in the middle of the park!!

We wandered to the Fransiscan church which holds the mortal remains of Pedro Menendez. Unfortunately, it was closed to the public, so we only looked at it from the outside and took a picture of the plaque.

Church

Sign at Church

Then, we made our way to Bar Aviles to meet Hector. The guys had a beer and we all chatted. Then our evening of bar hopping began. We went to another place and then eventually made our way to Corazon del Diamante, a bar where Hector's girlfriend works.

Corazon de Diamante

Apparently, Hector does PR work for the local bars. He said he does it because "everybody knows him". At the Corazon we had, amongst the 3 of us, 6 classes of wine for which we paid 5 euros. (about $7.50).

It was at this bar that Conrad found Jesus. Jesus has a nickname that sounds like 'juice'.

Conrad y Jesus

He's a guy about the same age as Conrad and they talked for about 30 minutes on the good wines available in Spain, Jesus gave Conrad a list of his favorite wines which Conrad keeps in his wallet, after all it's not everyday you get a list of wine recommendations from Jesus.

Once Hector's girlfriend arrived, we went for dinner at 10:00 pm. Hector brought us to this little place where the bartender made an old man move and give us his table. The place was a cidreria, which is an apple cider joint. The province of Asturias is famous for it's hard cider. They pour the cider from the bottle as high as they can lift their arm into a glass which they hold as low as possible in their other arm. This is done to oxygenate the cider. I tried it and didn't like it that much; Conrad thought it was ok.

Jamon Serrano

We had jamon serrano, Conrad's favorite, some type of sausage (linguisa),

Sausage

Nasty Cheese

Dinner

and a beef dish for dinner that neither of us can remember what it's called. It was sort of like cordon bleu but flat and with beef instead of chicken.

After dinner, we tried some shots that are typical Spanish digestifs. THe guys had the herb flavored and the girls had the honey flavored.

After finishing dinner, we took a walk around town and went to another bar. Here, they had my favorite drink, Batida de Coco. I had it straight on the rocks and I was very happy. We made our way back to the Corazon for more drinks. Conrad & Hector had some red & blue concoction made of red rum (REDRUM) and blue curacao.