Gijón is a coastal city just 30km from the capital of Asturias, Oviedo. They are of comparable sizes and I chose to stay in Gijón because I prefer the sea. The city sits against green hills and snowy mountains further away, those are part of Picos de Europa.

City against the mountains

My BlaBlaCar driver wondered why I’d come here and said the city is industrial and not nice. At least I was reassured about my Spanish skills because our long conversation was in Spanish.

Indeed, I found Gijón quite unremarkable at first glance. The city feels provincial.

Streets

The bus station has a slick old sign. Unfortunately, it lacks any other relevant signs.

Bus station

A piece of street art with overlapping faces on a weathered wall touched me. I associate it with something deeply human: the quiet desperation of realizing the fragility of life.

Faces on a wall

Windows facing the ocean form an ocean of their own, that flows from building to building.

Windows

The ocean is fantastic and the city has a nice long beach. Even surfers come here, or at least one did when I was there.

Ocean

It’s possible to walk far along the coast. Different monuments and sculptures, often modern, are placed along it.

Coast

Such as Elogio del Horizonte. When I first encountered a similar coastal sculpture in Donostia, Comb of the Wind, I didn’t understand it. The concrete and rust, evoking a feeling of burden – why is it there? Gijón was the last city on my Northern Spain trip and I finally got it.

Elogio del Horizonte

My head spun from it.

Experiencing art