Batalla.
Battle.
(Sorry for the interruption of the suspense, but it has occurred to me that you should know about this pre-summer trip. That, and Blogger format won't allow me to back date posts.) I went on a pre-organised excursion with a load of pensioners. The mother and daughter who also came aside, I was the youngest on the coach.
Covadonga was our destination. Covadonga is considered the cradle of Asturias, as in 722 King Pelayo, leader of the Visigoths, won the Battle of Covadonga against the Moors. Basically Pelayo is reason why Asturias doesn't look like the south (climate differences aside). Legend has it that his men was so inspired by the Virgen appearing on the battle field, they annihilated the Moorish army. Since then Covadonga has become a site of pilgramage and may people visit the cave where he lived (cueva larga --> Covadonga --> large cave!) and a rather impressive basilica is now up there as well. Also, a large amount of Asturian boys are named after him; if you know a Pelayo, he's Asturian. So, in short I wanted to see the heart of my region, and was tiring of people telling me I should go. The only issue being you can only get there by vehicle, up the winding road into the mountains. So no car, no available friends with car....
I signed up for the trip leaving at 8am from Avilés, which meant getting the 6:30 am bus from Gijón with everyone going home after a night out, and I eventually got home at 10pm. Long day.
First stop, after much tutting over late people and handing out of free boiled sweets to everyone by the organiser, was Cangas de Onís, a small town with a famous Roman bridge:
I attended Mass alone for the first time in the basilica and nearly got sprayed with Holy water, while listening to an enchanting boys' choir group who also played cello and violin.
Went up to Pelayo's cave, where he is also buried, and took a brief sip from the fountain in the waterfall below the cave (well everyone else was, didn't want to be rude or miss out...).
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| The man himself! |
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lagos+covadonga&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fXysU4OwGsm10wW64YDIAg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1299&bih=683
We had an amazing lunch consisting of a trough of Paella to start, a giant plate of beef and chips as main and then some dessert. The old couple opposite me were delightful, and her husband insisted on serving everyone else from the shared plate before himself. I also got asked if I was 'sola' a lot, but they seemed happy to see a young person traveling around the place. We had a brief stop in Llanes (see Puente entry from December 2013 for more on this town) before I trailed back, exhausted to Gijón.
