Santander/Austurias

We arrived this morning in Santander, Spain (7/4) after a great ride on RyanAir, europes cheapest airline (more like a cattle shipping buisness). When the plane landed everyone applauded in amazement that the plane actually made it. Santander is a beautiful city on the coast of Northern Spain. We took a boat ride and enjoyed our day walking around the small metropolitan area waiting for our train to Gijon. It was an overnight ride and we got our first taste of sleeping on the train. Both being jetlagged, sleeping was no problem for the most part. We arrived in Gijon in the morning and ate breakfast and walked on the beach before getting on another train to Aviles, just a 1/2 hour ride inland. The mountains here are amazing and the town of Aviles is very old. We met the Bass Professor (Andrey Feygin) of the Univeristy of Oviedo here and I had a 2 hour lesson with him. I played Koussavisky's Concerto for him and seeing as though he is Russian he had some interesting things to say. He is a good player, though doesn't quite stand up to the amazing teachers I am used to. I learned that Austurias would be a great place for a begining professional, but not the best for study. After a good lunch we parted for Oviedo and spent some hours exploring. We both liked the town very much. Tonight we are sleeping on the train to Madrid.