It was a bit greyish when we awoke and looked over the Doura River and it was obvious that at some point we shall have rain. Anyway we packed the car in the huger underground car park and then went for breakfast before leaving and our Sat/Nav said about 5 hours which sounded great although on previous trip planning it was longer, perhaps the time difference between Portugal and Spain makes up the difference for the missing hour.
It took us about 45 minutes driving thro hilly roads and gong via lots of small villages until we reached the Motorway and off we went North. After about an hour th sky started getting rather grey and eventually rain arrived and there were some road signs finally in Spanish mentioning snow??? must be incorrect translation on our part but as got higher in the mountains it got colder moving from 12 C slowly down to 1 C and the rain turned to sleet and then soon afterwards quite heavy snow which lasted for about 25 kilometres and so we had to go quite slowly as although it was not sticking, it was beginning to build up on the windscreen and also the outer road lanes as most careful drivers were on the inside lane following each other with good distance between. So we drove I guess for about nearly one hour of these conditions before going down Mountain with the temperature beginning to warm up. What was surprising that on this motorway there were no services for at least 200 miles which we had not noticed and by the time we stopped for a rather late lunch we were both bursting. I think in addition to the snow warning, they should also have a bladder warning.
The drive thro the mountains was most impressive and it would be good to do in decent sunny weather but that's has been the problem that Spain and Portugal had the worst spring for 20 years with still so much rain causing flooding not only on the mainland but also in Lanzarote. We arrived in Gijon for the night and staying at the AC Gijon Hotel, part of the Marriott chain, and we discovered no where as good as the Hiltons we had stayed in. hey did have a restaurant opening at 8 pm but it appeared to list stuff cooked from the freezer like Pizza and burger and so we had a drink in the bar, bought some wine and then went back to room and enjoyed some nice red wine with cheese and biscuits.
As the TV was not fixed to the wall we could connect via HDMI to the pc to watch some stuff on you tube and so to bed
