We don’t mind as it is not cold and the landscape in this area is beautiful. After an earlier breakfast I drove us (interesting car!) to Ribesdella to see the limestone cave. The tour of the Neolithic painted cave was full so we visited the massive limestone cave instead with a friendly commentary in Spanish which I translated about 5% of!
Afterwards we drove onto Oviedo which was actually a lot larger than I had expected. I met the challenge of finding parking and working out how to pay the ticketing system and we set off, lunching at my favourite department store - El Cortes Ingles - for only €10.95 for 3 courses and a drink! Some retail therapy for Colin and then a convoluted route through the town up to a church built in 800AD - what a shame we couldn’t get on the tour but a fascinating building none the less. During our walk back to the car from the town centre we came across this fascinating statue - a lot of Googling finally came up with this - Plaza del Carbayón is famous for the artistic composition called “Monumento a la concordia”, a sculpture by Esperanza D'Ors, depicting three naked men and three naked women, placed in pairs. This composition reflects the brotherhood, common efforts and team work.
The rain steadily got heavier as we returned to our hotel until it was an utter downpour when we headed out to dinner. Wednesday seems to be half day closing for many places which was to our advantage as we discovered ‘Siete Puertas’ - a superb restaurant with a menu del dia and excellent ‘rosada’ (rosé) wine.
We move on tomorrow to a little hamlet called Cosgaya in the Picos - Llanes has been a lovely unexpected start to our trip.
