well...Di was hanging out of the hotel room window long before I was...

and with a much better camera was getting the low cloud cover better than me...

I'd like to say we were up and about early but we weren't...

definitely bike gear on day today...travelled in with just combats and a tracky top on yesterday it was that nice...

my turn now...my little Nikon A900 just does the job and is much easier to carry in a bike jacket pocket...

looks a lot colder that it was yesterday...

trying to get a better view of those steps that I actually walked down and then back up again yesterday afternoon...

so...this is where the day could have been a total disaster...exhaust snapped right on the entrance to a service station...bad luck and good luck rolled into one!!..

waiting for a recovery truck to come and rescue us..."what3words" is a game changer...no guessing where you are...been using it for years as a lorry driver...

took roughly 90 minutes from my original phone call - 30 minutes of that in conversation with the breakdown team - for the recovery truck to arrive...may have been sooner...

I had told the operator that I wanted taking to Gijon and that I would - hopefully - be able to get a new exhaust at the Vespa Village!!..the recovery driver - via a translate app - said he could get it repaired for me and would I rather be taken to a workshop!!..so here we are...

the guy welding took the exhaust off himself...I took the heatshield off as it's new and I didn't want it damaged...firstly he put three tacks on the exhaust to make sure it fitted and then welded it up...forty Euro's lighter and just a few hours after the original breakdown I'm on my way to Gijon (and home eventually)...top job...

nice clean workshop...heat shield still looking new...

what an absolutely brilliant job...

in hindsight advancing to Gijon would have been a disaster...just two dealers on site selling spares...ancient spares & bathroom tat...nothing for modern Vespa's...nobody doing repairs...the recovery driver saved mine and Di's weekend...and a whole lot of hassle had the scooter not been repaired...

so...while I was inside getting the scooter sorted Di was outside taking a few pictures...lot's of scooters using the "A" roads to get to Gijon...

the garage was just to the right of the yellow & brick building...

right there...up the side of the restaurant...

the name of the town is Villaviciosa...just a smidgen over ten miles (closer to Gijon) from the service station we were rescued from...