Oviedo

April 21-24
Edited and done May 19

Dear Friends and Families,

After a leisurely Sunday breakfast, we left on our two to three hour drive west to Oviedo. The start of the drive was back along the 30 kilometer twisty road from Potes toward the Bay of Biscay. This time we had the top down and were even more aware of the rocks hanging above our heads, but the drive really was spectacular and driving with an open convertible was the best part, despite the cold.

We detoured once into a small seaside village, but decided not to stay, maybe because we have gotten saturated by cute villages. In any event, we wanted to move along to settle in for the day.

Oviedo is a largish city and we were staying in the Husa Gran Espania, an oldish hotel in the even older center of the city. The room was plain, but the parking convenient. Our last two city stays involved considerable walks with luggage, so a simple elevator ride was appreciated.

After check-in, we continued our Spanish routine: lunch between 2:00 and 4:00 pm, followed by a rest, and then a walk about town. The fish lunch was great, our best fish so far. The walk showed us that we have a lot to see, although Sunday was clearly not a day where the streets were completely full. We look forward to similar walks on week days.

Soon it was Monday morning and we were doing our slow-start thing: breakfast in an almost-empty dining room, write this diary, read the "paper", plan our day.

In fact, our day fit our now-standard pattern: walking in the streets, lunch, siesta, more walking. We saw the El Fontan Market, a nice gallery showing of an artist named Javier del Rio, streets with a variety of elegant buildings, and street statues, lots of street statues.

El Fontan Market, from fruit to horse meat

Buildings from various periods, some restored, some not yet.

Statues, lots of statues. Mostly every day people from days past.

Tuesday was planned for an "art fix" and that was our main accomplishment, in addition to eating of course. First, I added more statue pictures to my collection, but the best part was the tour of the Fine Arts Museum. I am not the fan of art that Marianne is, but I enjoyed this display of Spanish and other European masters. Part of this was due to the wonderful space provided by the old palace, which provided plenty of space for both art and art fans. The museum was also a bit unusual in that it allowed photography, something I appreciate because it forces me to look at details and specifics. Here are some of what caught my eye.

Masters Miro, Dali, Picasso

Local scenes, including a pilgrimage

More local scenes and details

Magnetic magic

As for our other main attraction, food and drink, we again enjoyed the 1pm to 3pm lunch hour, this time sitting in a sidewalk cafe ("El Antiguo") since the weather has gotten just enough warmer. After our Siesta, we expanded our culinary experience and finally sampled "sidra", the local apple wine. The taste is as bad as the Applewoi back in Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt, but the ceremony was interesting. No one pours their own wine. It is always poured by the waiter from a bottle held as high as possible into a glass held as low as possible. It's a bit messy, but good theater.

I have added one church picture, just to keep up the European tradition. In fact, Oviedo has several famous churches and we managed to miss them all. Maybe we are finally getting church-saturated? Just before the final goal of the most famous pilgrimage path in Europe!

Now, Wednesday morning, it is time to pack up and drive to the end of Spain, the northwestern end.

John and Marianne

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