Heading for the hills

We didn’t get down (up) to breakfast till nine o’clock, but still we were the only people in the dining room. Obviously parador people like a good lie in. Anyway, we packed up and left our palatial room with regret, heading for Oviedo, along the coast to the east.

The day was not promising, grey and drizzly, with low clouds shrouding the mountain tops. Never mind, we thought, there is a specially good art museum in Oviedo, boasting Goya and El Greco. But, of course, not on Monday. Cerrado.

So we made our way round to the cathedral, which is, in fact, a rather imposing edifice, and we paid good money for a tour with one of those recorded voice things that I usually dislike. On this occasion, it was rather didactic and filled with facts you really didn’t need to know. But the cathedral was fun and has a magnificent carved and gilded and painted wooden altar piece, also a delightful cloister.

It was much knocked about in the civil war, and restored since, but a worthwhile visit. After that we wandered for a bit and came across the tourist office, which provided some maps and ideas, but nothing really riveting. However a bookshop came up with a detailed map of the Picos de Europa massif, which we will be visiting tomorrow. So that was good.

The tourist office material did, however, point us to an ancient church on a hill overlooking the city: Santa Maria del Naranco. It is a ninth century pre-romanesque church in a splendid position overlooking the city, and now a world heritage site. It was surprisingly difficult to find, and obviously not a destination for the mass tourist, but eventually we got there, and found another little church of the same vintage close by, San Miguel de Lello. Here are pictures of both.

After that we decided to head on to Cangas de Onis, where our parador is tonight, in the old convent of San Pedro de Villanueve. For the first time, our TomTom let us down on finding the parador, but in doing so took us past the old Roman bridge in Cangas, which was a bonus.

Actually, apparently it is not really Roman at all, but was built in the 13th century. But a nice story, all the same. Fortunately we had spotted a sign further back down the road pointing to the parador, which we eventually located. The main car park in front of the hotel was dominated by a line of British-registered supercars: Ferraris, Mclarens, a Bentley, a Porsche  - all very expensive. Our modest Alfa was relegated to the outer car park.

However, at reception we were once again greeted with cries of: “Ah! Lorna’s friends”, and assigned one of the 11 prestige rooms in the old convent itself, rather than the newer annex. It’s good to have friends like that - thanks Lorna!