Day 5 - Oviedo

On most trips that we take, I am already burnt out on traveling at 4 days. So when we first committed to 10 days we knew it was going to be rough. We figured that by the night of day 5, we would definitely need a nice place to stay and relax. So we found a deal on Booking.com and put ourselves up in this place.

After getting unloaded and parking the car in a tiny underground garage, it was time to explore the beautiful city.

The unique buildings didn't feel very Spanish to us

Jumping in the park

The university

Hanging out in the old plaza

old

We liked the clock on the cathedral tower (which you can barely see in this picture)

sleeping kitty

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cider barrel

Oviedo is the capital of the principality of Asturias, and Asturias is the largest producer of cider in Spain. So clearly we had to make our way over to Calle Gascona aka El Bulevar de la Sidra (the boulevard of cider).

This little gem was recommended to us by a friend as a good place to eat.

We ordered the Tortos con Picadillo y jamon, which is puffed up little corn tortillas with chorizo or cured ham on top. Delicious!

I enjoyed myself a cheap bottle of cider, which actually isn't supposed to be drank in it's normal state. Normally it is poured from great heights to shake it up or they have special electric dispensers to get the flavor moving.

The next day on our way out of the city we headed up the mountain for a little hike.

We saw a bunch of these as we were walking and driving through Asturias. They are called hórreos and were used to store grain. It seems like people keep them around today just for aesthetics. To me they look like mini houses on stilts.

The first destination on our hike was a Roman Catholic church, San Miguel de Lillo. Unfortunately it was in the process of being re-roofed. Can you imagine re-roofing a building built in 848.

The next stop, also built in 848 was the church Santa María del Naranco. It is a great example of pre-Romanesque architecture. We weren't able to go inside but Sarah made it up the stairs for a quick picture.

You can see the inside in Woody Allen's movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which was filmed in many areas of Oviedo. Javier Bardem was totally here.

Next up is Cangas de Onis!

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Day 5 (scenic route) - Ribadeo, Luarca, Salinas

In between all the major cities that we knew we had to visit, the professors at the school listed a bunch of smaller cities that we had to pass through. We didn't really do much research before the trip so a lot of times we went into a town not knowing at all what to expect.

Ribadeo was a sleepy town that had some nice views of the ocean.

Cool abandoned building

We were really sad to see some graffitti where it shouldn't be.

Luarca was a super sleepy town that we only spent about a half hour in. It was definitely beautiful, with a train passing by up on the mountain and a lazy river weaving through the middle of town.

Hello? anybody? We think this was the main plaza.

We spent awhile looking for a place to eat but then decided to buy some sandwich stuff at the market.

Then we were back on the road.

Our last short stopover was in Salinas.

The weather was a little dreary but it made for some cool pictures.

We found a strange sculpture garden to have a little fun.

I would live here

This guy is dedicated

Shout out to Salinas, California!

Next up is Oviedo!

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Day 4 - A Coruña

A Coruña (0r La Coruña to the rest of Spain outside of the province of Galicia) was another one of our favorite cities. We arrived not knowing very much about it at all. So we drove around until we cam across this little gem.

The Tower of Hercules is a lighthouse built by the Romans that has been in "continuous" operation for 2000 years. Of course there has been much work done on the structure and it looks very different today, but it was very interesting to check out.

We are not sure what this statue was about.

Fortunately it was free to enter, so we started out tour in the museum underneath the tower. We were able to see the old Roman foundations but I wasn't able to walk comfortably

Up the steps

Sweet view of the city at the top

Looking out at the Atlantic and the compass rose below the tower

We decided to take a walk around the tower near the ocean

We really enjoyed the waves

Sarah enjoyed the sun on the compass rose. There were pictures of different random things supposedly representing the different Celtic peoples. (The area was once inhabited by Celtic tribes.)

We decided to have some beach time since the weather was so nice. So we found a spot below the tower.

After a little beach siesta we had to head out to check out more of the city.

This lady must have been pretty tough. In 1589, English forces were trying to take control of the city. Her husband, whom she was following into battle, was killed by a crossbow. She killed an English banner man and with her shout of "Quien tenga honra, que me siga" ("Whoever has honour, follow me!") and led the charge to drive back the English.

Ice cream break!

Kids playing soccer in nearly every plaza.

Heading out of town, we drove up a hill to a nice park and observatory. The observatory was closed but a lot of people were out enjoying the nice grass and sun.

Big guns

Looking back towards the Tower of Hercules

We like to think that these guys were mobsters.

Then it was off to find our camping. It was a little outside of town, and a little hard to find. But it really was right by the beach.

We were the only ones really camping. The trailers seemed like there were just left there and we only saw 2 people go into one of them.

The beach is right behind this fence. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves, but it got REALLY cold.

Next up.....Ribadeo, Luarca, and Salinas all in one post!

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