June 9, 2018

This morning I left Santiago De Compostela on route to the city of Oviedo. I should mention at this point that last night we attended evening mass and the Butafumeiro was used after the mass, i will include a video of this event in today’s blog.

Our original group, Lawrence, Michael and I went in three different directions. Although this was somewhat a sad moment, this is very much part of the Camino- you meet people, travel together and share stories and then the time come to go in our different journeys. As has been the usual case Santiago put some rain this morning. Yes we has showers in this city today. My bus ride took just over 5 hours, which included a break for morning tea of about 25 minutes around 11.30 am.

We traveled over very fertile country and crossed many viaducts and bridges. The views of the northern Spanish coast were magnificent. We arrived in Oviedo around 2.25 pm.

Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. Continuing the Camino theme my hotel today is named San Juan, a small pension type of accommodation situated in the old town – or casco viejo in Spanish. This part of town has many narrow streets that have clearly been around for many centuries and have seen important historical events during this time.

Oviedo is said to have played a significant role in the pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela, as it is said that king Alfonso II completed this pilgrimage, and subsequently many other people followed his trail. So this was the original Camino. There is saying in Spanish that goes like this:
«Quien va a Santiago y no al Salvador, visita al criado y no al Señor»

The old part of this city has many of its streets as pedestrian only streets, which make exploring this part of the city so much more pleasant. The architecture for a relatively small city amazing, it is very well maintained. Another important aspect of this city it is its many sculptures- i have included a number of photos in today’s blog.

I visited the cathedral San Salvador, and joined a tour. This impressive church has both pre Romanesque an also baroque and gothic architectural styles. Its decorations both internally and on its exterior are very ornate. There are a lot of similarities with a similar church in the city of Toledo. I later walked in the city’s main park and also visited El Corte Inglés – similar to David Jones- to buy something for tonight’s dinner. Tomorrow i will take a bus to see the Santa Maria de Naranco palace – situated about 4 kms from the city. In the afternoon I plan to find the Mafalda statue.

Oviedo was featured prominently in Woody Allen’s movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.