Thursday 23 November 2017

Thursday 23 November - Covadonga and Cangas de Onis

Where's Bertie? He's in the allocated motorhome parking in a large car park in the town of Cangas de Onis (exact location: 43.35227, -5.12577)
Weather: Mainly sunny, with varying amounts of high-level cloud.

After a quiet night in car park P4, Bertie was relocated early this morning to the religious complex that sits at the top of Covadonga, but we didn't set out straight away as I discovered that the wifi of the nearby Gran Hotel was completely open. Half an hour later, we had everything downloaded that we needed, and the quiet car park had been transformed by the arrival of the first few coachloads of tourists.

Whilst they all started their tours, off we headed, back down a little way, to ascend a hill on the other side of the valley. Why we chose to go up that hill, together with a clutch of photos of the outing, can be found on our walking blog, by clicking this link although for anyone not inclined to click, here are a couple of snaps:

The basilica at Covadonga and Cruz de Priena (the hill we went up) beyond

Lots of lumps and bumps in the Picos over there

Lunch and a few household chores (when we start transporting quantities of grit into bed on the bottom of our feet, it's time to sweep the floor!) preceded our look around the basilica and the chapel constructed in an open cave on the hillside, accessed via a tunnel. By then, it was approaching siesta time, the coaches had gone and there were just a handful of people about.

Chapel in a cave

The basilica itself was surprising for how incredibly plain it was on the inside - not the norm for Spanish churches at all. It was an anti-tardis too, in that it seemed so much smaller inside than out.

Cangas de Onis is a town that sits only about a quarter of an hour's drive away from Covadonga and we came here not knowing if we would find one of the four motorhome spaces free in what is described as an 'oversubscribed Aire'. All four were available.

We took a good walk around the town this afternoon, finding it to be much bigger than expected. It's clearly a touristy place too, although quiet at this time of year.

I'll finish with some photos specifically for Kay and Kev. Look at the prices of these three properties near here, which may be described as 'in need of renovation' to varying degrees.



(note: if you click on any of the photos they will open up bigger)

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