Six years ago, in 2018, the other side of the temporal gulf, known colloquially as “Covid”, we met Mr and Mrs Oviedo. Of course that isn’t their real name. (They are now very good friends, but we didn’t really know them at the time.) They got the nickname for deserting their caravan for a couple of days to visit Oviedo. A city some 130 kms to the West of Oyambre. A city which appears not to be served by a single camp site. Hard to believe, but this IS Spain, not France. So they recklessly abandoned their caravan on pitch 615 and booked a hotel in the city and left us waterlogged on a nearby pitch! How irresponsible!
Well, we are sitting on pitch 615 now. With a week of wet weather forecast. We’ve never visited Oviedo. It’s looking like better weather over there. So we do the totally RESPONSIBLE thing and book a couple of nights at the Exe Oviedo Centro Hotel. I say responsible. We turned off the gas and heating, and we left our neighbours in charge of a camper AND a caravan. They really entered into the spirit of things. They told other nearby campers that we had broken down at distance and would be back in a day or so. As soon as the car was fixed.
I narrowly missed booking a Parador in Gijón by mistake. I was looking for a Parador in Oviedo and was directed to one in Gijón. There isn’t one where we wanted to be, and this was the nearest. Luckily I realised just in time that we would be at least 30 kms from where we wanted to be and didn’t book it. As a consolation, I promised to take Glenda for an executive coffee there en route to Oviedo. By the way, we have always pronounced Gijón more or less as it looks with a “G” as in Glenda and a “J” as in John. No chance! This is Spain after all! The nearest I can come to the local pronunciation is “Hee-honn”.
When we arrived at the Parador Nacional El Molino Viejo, it looked totally closed for the winter, or the year … or forever. However, it transpired that we were trying to get in the back door which just happens to be on the front.
Fortunately the front door (round the side) was open for business. Two excellent coffees, beautifully served and at a very reasonable price!
The beach is only a few hundred metres walk away through the Parque de Isabel La Católica.
A lovely park with pergolas, rose-covered walkways and a lake with two black swans, dozens of ducks and a crocodile! And, in the trees behind, hundreds of roosting egrets. This close-up shows them slightly better.
The beach was backed by a fairly ugly collection of apartment buildings. Not for us. So a quick photo …
… and we headed back to the car. It was starting to rain anyway!
And so to Oviedo. The recommended access route to our hotel was from the A66 into the South of the city. Seemed odd ‘cos the hotel is located to the north of the city centre. We had a bit of a heated discussion about this, Glenda, me and the sat nav. Let’s just say we all had different views about the route. In the end we compromised. I turned off on the wrong road. Glenda “requested” the hotel’s route be reinstated. The sat nav got us to junction 29 of the A66 and “Glen nav” took over with oral instructions. I did take the wrong exit from one busy roundabout (perverse to the end!). This was corrected by a right, right, right and right again! “Now just take the pesky road I tell you to take!”
Generally speaking, I find the car’s navigation lady is much more polite! And totally unflappable. But, and I have to admit this, often not completely right! Sometimes disastrously wrong! Glen nav has had to intervene on several occasions to stop me towing the caravan over narrow mountain roads!
Anyway we got to the Exe Oviedo Centro Hotel and sunk the car half a mile underground in their car park and left it there for the duration!
The city is very “walkable”. However, getting from the hotel (our room marked) …
… to the cathedral …
… in the advertised 10 minutes would be a challenge! Especially as the direct route takes you right through the retail zone!
Well, if I said there were 2,000 shops selling useful stuff like dresses, shoes, spectacles and trousers, it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration! I probably won’t even be allowed to say that anyway! (Well, that did slip past the sub-editor!)
First things first! We need food. The Mesón La Comtienda was recommended by the extremely helpful hotel receptionists. It lived up to its reputation. The starters would be meals in their own right at home!
A lovely mixed salad with chicken and a “stretchy cheese” concoction.
Some of the buildings and interiors in town:
Inside the Catedral de San Salvador.
The Puerta de Cimadevilla.
The Heladeria Puerta Real – a speciality icecream emporium! My kind of shop!
Oviedo Town Hall from the Plaza de la Constitución. Just like Brixham Town Hall, not!
The Basilica de San Juan el Real outside …
… and in.
During a brief shopping interlude, I broke away for a walk in and around the central park, the Campo de San Francisco. Where I found this Roman church, the Iglesia de San Isidoro.
There was a sign saying BYO umbrella because, while the doorway was mainly finished, they hadn’t got the roof sorted yet – nor the walls come to that!
Other more recent, spectacular buildings included: The administrative centre for the Pricipality of Asturias …
… more of the administrative offices across the street …
… and Starbucks HQ!
We ate lunch on the second day in a cider bar, in Sidrería Tierra Astur, in the “cider zone”. This is a group of streets on the northern edge of the historic centre.
But why do they insist on pouring the cider from such a great height? I guess by spilling lots, they get to sell more cider! How cynical! Actually, the waiter is performing “escanciado”.
According to the Internet, a proper Asturian cider pour is captured at the top of the inside of the glass, held at about a 45-degree angle. It’s the collision of liquid on glass that promotes liveliness and effervescence in the beverage. Traditionally, Asturian cider is drunk in “culines” (gulp-sized servings), so a proper pour needs only to be a mouthful’s worth, not a full glass.
I still think it’s a way to sell more (flat) cider!
An interesting couple of days in the central and historic parts of the city. We aren’t really ” city people”, but this was a good visit. Now for the complications of getting back to base. Why is nothing ever simple on our travels?
By the way, I fibbed about the crocodile!
The problem with “Sat Nav’s” appears to be an international problem. We had a similar problem last week and only by the intervention of “BNav” and similar comments, were we able to get to our motel in Toowoomba.
You are visiting some very picturesque places !!