A Flavour of Avilés

Once again, neither of us woke up feeling particularly great this morning, still nursing sniffles, clearly having come down with some low grade cold. My throat was slightly better, E's a little worse. I accompanied her to the conference on a drizzly, grey morning before returning to our apartment to get a bit of office work done. The forecast for an improving day proved correct and I was able to enjoy the afternoon exploring more of Avilés, first the huge exhibition concourse of the Niemeyer Centre, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, and then more of the old town. Aviles is the most photogenic of the three cities we've explored so far. It's helped me re-tune my photographic eye, which I've got out of a habit of using lately. It was fun to have the time to wander and look and wait for opportunities. I haven't done that in a while. In choosing what to blip, it could so easily have been one of many more minimal, abstract shots from around the Niemeyer, but the old town was where I had the most fun. There are so many wonderful public spaces in this old town and the Spanish have such a great sense of style. 

I sneaked into the conference later to see E present a session with poet Peter Wallis reading from his collection Half Other, followed by an interview. She did a great job. We then beat a hasty retreat, having a long journey to our next stop on this tour of Northern Spain, to Caldas de Luna. We got the train from Aviles to Pola de Leno, and from there a taxi, arriving with enough light to see how staggeringly beautiful the mountains are here. Energy levels were, however, still low and it was hard to find any enthusiasm to make a plan for tomorrow. We're trusting that another night's sleep will do the trick.