To continue our Asturias weekend, we spent Sunday exploring Oviedo. The capital of Asturias, Oviedo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its many Pre-Romanesque architectural buildings (mostly churches). The city truly is beautiful, and despite the rain, made for a lovely stroll.
We walked through
Campo de San Francisco, a huge beautiful park, which though green, had bare trees. I can imagine how pretty it must look in the spring.
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| With our umbrellas! |
As I mentioned before, we were all part of the same student organization during our university days. The organization was called University of the Philippines Círculo Hispánico, or UPCH for short. So we attempted a picture making the letters. :)
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| UPCH |
We continued through the park, and at this point we began to start noticing the many sculptures of Oviedo. We saw this one below, and several more in the park.
After exiting the park, I remembered that there was a Woody Allen statue, and a quick search said it was nearby. Woody Allen came to Spain to film
Vicky Cristina Barcelona in Avilés and Oviedo in Asturias (aside from Barcelona). He fell in love with the city and was awarded the Premio Príncipe de Asturias, which is awarded to individuals or entities with notable achievements in different fields.
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| Woody Allen statue in Calle Pelayo |
Woody Allen was given the award for his achievements in Art, and upon receiving the awards he complimented Oviedo saying:
Oviedo is a delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, pleasant, peaceful, pedestrianized city. It's as if it doesn't belong to this world, as if it could not possibly exist... Oviedo is like a fairy tale.
I must say I agree with him, as I truly loved strolling around Oviedo. We continued walking around and encountered more sculptures. Some of my favorites, below:
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| La Maternidad (Motherhood) in Plaza de la Escandelera |
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| El Viajero (The Traveler) in Plaza Porlier |
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| Esperanza Caminando (Hope Walking) in front of the Teatro Campoamor |
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| La Gitana (The Gypsy) in Calle Gascona |
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| La Regenta (depicts the main character from the novel of the same name) in front of the Cathedral |
Enough of the statues now, here's another shot of the Cathedral and the Plaza de la Catedral.
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| Plaza de la Catedral |
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| The gardens beside the Cathedral |
Enjoying our stroll around the city center. I love the look of the rain on the paved paths...
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| Such a pedestrianized city |
...and the beautiful buildings. The architecture was stunning!
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| Such beautiful buildings |
For lunch, we headed to the famous Calle Gascona. The street is known as "el bulevar de la sidra" (cider boulevard), and is lined with many restaurants where you can enjoy some sidra (more on that later) and a good meal.
I forgot the name of the restaurant, but we had another menu del día for €15.
This time around I tried some
arroz caldoso con bogavante (a soupy rice with lobster and flavored with saffron) for my first plate, and
lechazo (young lamb) for my second.
On to the
sidra or cider, another Asturian delicacy. This traditional drink is made from locally-grown apples, and is traditionally sold in local establishments called
sidrerías. Many Asturians gather in
sidrerías for food and gossip. In the
sidrerías, the
sidra is poured in a special way called
escanciar. The bartender raises the bottle of
sidra high above his head and pours it into the glass below. This method is supposedly necessary to produce the best flavor from the
sidra.
Furthermore, only about an inch of sidra is poured into the glass, and you have to down it in one go; you shouldn't let it stand. We ordered one round of sidra for each of us, and drunk it up as the bartender handed us the glass.
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| With my sidra, which I promptly drank right after the photo |
We strolled around the city a bit more, then in the late afternoon decided to relax back in the apartment. Then after dinner I caught my 10:30pm bus back to Valladolid. (I had work the next day, though the others had Monday off because of Día de Andalucía).
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| Thanks for the fun weekend :) |
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| Bye, Asturias! |
Such a great relaxing weekend in beautiful Asturias. One for the books. :)
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