Day: May 5, 2024

Night excursion

Our Airbnb is in the old town and close to a lot of action. Reviews for it had some complaints about the noise at night. We took this place because it fit our needs best in other ways, fingers crossed our earplugs would be effective enough. The windows are quite modern and “soundproof”. We do hear people talking and laughing and shouting in the streets all night, but it hasn’t been too bad with the good windows and it hasn’t kept us awake.

Things don’t get going until around 10:00 so we decided to try to stay up that late and go out and see what is going on while we are normally asleep. It actually seemed pretty mellow. Just a lot of people out sitting or standing in the street talking. We passed restaurants where people were just starting their dinner. One had a line of people waiting to get in.

Here are some photos. As you probably know, cellphone photos really light things up so it was actually darker than the photos appear. They sky was black, not blue.

Dog joining in the fun
The lights lured us further along the street
We’ve walked by this place several times every day and had never seen it open until last night. It had some delicious looking sandwiches (bocadillas, hence “bocateria”, I suppose).
On the other hand, we noticed old guys playing cards in this bar during the day and were surprised to see them there so late. (Old guys probably younger than us.)
Mom with son holding hands and talking happily
Kids still out playing

Oviedo, where the Camino originated

We saw this very large sign yesterday near the cathedral. I did some research about it:

It is said that the Apostle James’ tomb was discovered in the year 813. Alfonso II was king of Asturias during that time and is said to be the first pilgrim to go to Santiago to visit the tomb. (Not sure if it was called Santiago then since Santiago means St James.) Alfonso II left from Oviedo.

The Camino that begins in Oviedo and ends in Santiago de Compostella is called The Camino Primitivo. It is considered to be the original pilgrimage route to Santiago, making it the oldest known path for this pilgrimage. The term Camino Primitivo translates to Original Way or Primitive Way.

We have heard it is a very beautiful camino but it is a difficult camino. There are long distances between towns for places to rest or sleep and mountains to cross. So, we have not given a lot of thought to doing this particular camino.