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 CaminoPrimitivo 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.
Today we did make it to the cathedral. They had a great self-guided tour through it including the cathedral museum.
We went to the market to look for lamb. Charlie is very fond of lamb. We plan to cook it tomorrow for lunch. We found a booth in the market that specialized in lamb.
We found a phone accessories store to replace our charger that quit working.
We walked in the park again.
We came home and heated up a cod and garbanzo bean lunch we bought at the market. And made a salad. We are enjoying eating at home. But there are so many great restaurants, too. It’s a dilemma.
We rested and went out again, just to stroll around, mostly. Found the Woody Allen statue we had heard was here. Went back to the park. It was actually getting warm so we had zumo de Sandia (watermelon juice), made with fresh watermelon.
Approaching the cathedralIn the cathedral museum, we saw many small status carved from wood, from 12 and 13th century. They were great. This one was more life size and I’m not sure it is of wood. The medium wasn’t really clear on many of them.A very nice woman cutting the lamb for usBack to visit Mafalda in the park. A friendly older man asked if we wanted him to take our photo. We said yes and then he found his daughter to actually take the photos. The plaque verifies that Mafalda originated in Argentina.The streets were full of people sitting at sidewalk bars. Everywhere, on every street.Woody Allen. The plaque at his feet quotes him as saying “OVIEDO IS A DELICIOUS EXOTIC CITY BEAUTIFUL CLEAN PLEASANT QUIET AND PEDESTRIANIZED IT IS AS IF IT DID NOT BELONG TO THIS WORLD AS IF IT DID NOT EXIST…OVIEDO IS LIKE A FAIRY TALE.” WOODY ALLEN PRINCE OF ASTURIAS WADE LAS ARTS PRIZE 2002When we first walked up to the statue, the guy in black was leaning on him. Turned out he was waiting for his girlfriend. I guess they had agreed to meet “at the Woody Allen statue.”
We’ve had a very low key day. Got up around 7:30, had a great muesli breakfast in our airbnb kitchen. We made coffee provided by the airbnb in a little Italian espresso pot. It turned out delicious. We messaged our host and asked what kind of coffee it was so we could buy more and she told us it was Mercadona supermarket brand and it was decaf! We later went to the supermarket and got the non-decaf version. (We are still trying to parse why our airbnb host would provide coffee but only decaf! And also not tell us it was decaf.)
After breakfast we walked to the mercado — an indoor version of an open air market that is open every day. Quite nice. We only bought bread and olives. But we’ll probably go back every day. It’s very near our airbnb.
We walked to the Decathlon store (a ubiquitous store of inexpensive outdoor clothing and gear here in Europe) to find Charlie a fleece of some kind to wear especially in our slightly-cold airbnb. (I brought a coat on this trip but he didn’t.) He found the perfect thing there.
Then we walked to a china store and got a night light for the bathroom. Too hard to find the bathroom down the long dark hallway in the middle of the night.
Then we went to the Mercadona and got some deli food (lentils, paella), coffee (as mentioned above), milk, sidra, etc.
Came home and had a good lunch and the bottle of sidra. I liked it since it was slightly sweet.
It was nice to eat at home instead of a restaurant for a change. And out of the off-and-on rain.
The sidra has made us just want to stay at home and take a nap!
We thought we would visit Oviedo’s famous cathedral (about a 3 minute walk from our airbnb), but I think that’ll have to wait till tomorrow.
Some photos of the day:
Lots of fava beans at the mercado. But we’ll let the restaurants cook those for us. Our errand walks took us through a beautiful large park. Do you recognize Charlie without his backpack? He’s switched to the super lightweight shoulder bag that have taken on every camino since the beginning. Very handy when we are doing things in towns. If nothing else, to carry our raincoats.Pretty fountain in the parkI love snapping photos of people who are posing for photos taken by someone else. Ella and Grubb, do you recognize something here? Mafalda has gone international.Oviedo has some pretty buildingsOviedo city hall (ayuntamiento)Typical buildings in this part of town
We walked 9.4 miles today. 1951 feet elevation gain and 1892 elevation lost. Max elevation was 1332 feet and minimum was -13 feet (but I don’t recall ever being under water — these stats come from Charlie’s tracking app). Most of it was on country paths. Most of it was inland but very near the coast. We did get to walk some right along the water.We had breakfast in Póo, about 1-1/2 miles into our walk. Counter food and excellent coffee.Always great to walk out of the woods to a view like this.We met a friendly donkey. He totally resembled Eeyore. Appropriate for just outside Poo (but pronounced POH-oh).And a thrill to go around the corner and see this sight. A beautiful church on the other side of the ria. Capilla de San Roque.We ended up walking through the woods behind the church. Here it is a little closer.The Camino took us across the sand on this little beach. (Not sure what happens at high tide.)We took a selfie at the next brush with the ocean.Now at our hotel blogging. We decided the bar was too cold. No other place to go in this tiny town.
It was a pretty hike. Most of it on non-paved paths like this one. We are seeing lots of pilgrims.Eucalyptus groveWe emerged from the woods to see this little beach. A mandatory stopping place for pilgrims. We stopped here in 2018 but kept going this year.It was a hard hike today in that there were no places to stop and rest our feet and use the restroom for a very long way. At about 6 miles, we finally came to this tiny grocery store and it had tables out front! We bought some cold water and olives and peanuts. Threw in some raisins we already had and had an excellent break. Except, there was no restroom.Finally, a mile or so later, a bar! Good coffee, good restrooms. Some pilgrims. Some locals (old guys).Not too long before we got to Llanes, we came to an overlook down to a beautiful beach. Maybe next week we’ll come back and walk down to this beach.Finally got into Llanes. Was just starting to rain. This is our pension for the night (Pension La Guia). We checked in around 2:30, headed for lunch, then headed for the laundromat.Two doors down from our pension is this bar. Enclosed terrace. Rain pouring on the roof. Little fireplace making it all cozy. This is where we are as I type this.
Two of the more famous of these regions are Andalusia in the south and Catalonia in the north east. There is a strong independence movement in Catalonia and there was a strong one in Basque Country a number of years ago — not much heard about that now, but I think people there identify more with being Basque than with being Spanish.
We started this trip in Pais Vasco (Basque Country), light green one top center of above map. Moving west, we then walked through Cantabria (dark purple). Today we crossed into Asturias (dark green). If we were going to Santiago on this trip (which we are not) we would go through Galicia. It’s fun to see the regional differences.
Of course, the big difference between Basque Country and most of the rest of Spain (except Navarra which is also a Basque region) is that the local people all speak Basque. They have kept the Basque language alive and well. All signs are in Basque and sometimes in Spanish. Luckily for us, the Basque people are also fluent in Spanish. A 100% bilingual country. The Basque and Spanish languages are completely different except for a few borrowed words. The Basques are lovely people. Good looking. Strong and proud. And kind and helpful. Basque houses are easy to recognize.
Typical Basque houses
The Basques are famous for their pinxos (aka pinchos). They are similar to Spanish tapas but more finger-foody. (Tapas are often eaten on a plate with a fork.)
Pinxos in San Sebastian
The biggest, most famous cities in Basque Country are San Sebastian and Bilbao.
Cantabria is vibrant and beautiful and with wonderful people but it is harder to say exactly what stands out here. It was nice to have overheard-conversations and signs be in Spanish. The biggest city in Cantabria is Santander.
The Spanish call the Atlantic Ocean north of Spain the “Cantabrian Sea”. It is part of the Bay of Biscay. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of independence movement here and it’s not unusual to see Spanish flags here and there. I think the people here don’t mind too much being a part of Spain.
And today we crossed over into Asturias. Asturias is famous for its cider and now the bars are often called “Sidrerias”.
We stopped at this sidreria for breakfast today.
Asturias is also famous for its fabada, a fava bean and sausage stew. We actually had a good one yesterday before we crossed over into Asturias. We are looking forward to eating many more over the next two weeks.
Fava bean stew
The biggest city in Asturias is Gijón. We won’t make it there this trip.
Looking back, saying goodbye to Cantabria. Crossing into Asturias over the ria. Asturias will be the third and final autonomous region of Spain that we’ll be in on this trip. Nice view of the Picos de Europa (which I prefer to call the “Picos de Gallo”) from the bridge crossing into Asturias. This is a photo closeup. They didn’t look nearly this close in real life.Cool albergue. We are seeing more colorful houses here in Asturias.Part of the walk was on a wild (wild!) trail through a moor close to the cliffs along the ocean. Gorgeous weather for it.Second bar stop. With all the sun we were hot and thirsty so got something cold to drink instead of coffee.Strange! Red maple leafs in the spring. They really were this bright red. Where we are sleeping tonight in tiny town of Pendueles.
Looking back at San Vicente as we were leaving town. Those are boats in the harbor.The ria west of San VicenteA house in the country with pretty landscapingFirst coffee and breakfast at about 3 miles. This bar/restaurant was all by itself in the middle of the country (next to a house where I think the owner lived).A house with pretty potted plantsSecond coffee at about 5 miles. It was the best coffee we’ve had so far on this walk. Incredible. Dromedario brand. This bar was next to an old church that was ringing its Sunday morning bells.A shrine along the way (note the yellow AND red arrow that Charlie blogged about)A couple of miles before we got to Unquera, our destination for the days. We saw this same old boat 6 years ago!
It’s hard to pick out photos. There are so many I’d like to share. But, I imagine this is plenty.
We walked from Comillas to San Vicente del la Barquera. Two great little towns.
Crossing ria just outside Comillas. We saw a sign that said “No collecting seafood or bait without a license.”From our table at seaside bar about 3 miles outside Comillas.Looking backPilgrims taking in the viewStopped at this bar at about 5 miles. It’s a hard life.First view of San VicenteThe last two miles on the beach. Low tide. Wet sand.
