Having spent several days now just relaxing, we decided that it was time for another culture fix! We had a little bit of a lie in because we had been kept awake for quite a while in the night with heavy rain. It’s quite noisy on the van roof! We headed off into the town and had breakfast in the little café.
I popped to the tourist office to find out a bit more about the cave trip that we were considering for tomorrow.
We then headed up the hill to the castle. It was more than worth the 2€ entry fee as there was the history of the castle itself, an exhibition about the famous transatlantic flight in the ‘pájaro Amarillo’ plane which had made an emergency landing nearby in 1929 on Oyambre beach after a transatlantic flight which was destined for Paris.
Then on the bottom level was a fantastic exhibition of cave photography by Juan Ignacio Montero Martín which motivated us for our visit tomorrow!
We then walked along towards the church, passing the former hospital of mercy which is now the town hall. It was built in the 16th century to welcome the ill of the town. The town was an important point on the Camino de Santiago and therefore had numerous hospitals and shelters for the pilgrims. The hospital della Concepción built in the 14th to 16th centuries used to be a stop off point for pilgrims on the route. They would’ve crossed through this door known as door of the pilgrim door. We then realised that this is the starting point of the Camino Lebaniego, which ends at the Monasterio de Santiago Toribio where we went the other day when staying in the Picos de Europa – we’d just left out the difficult, character-forming part in between!!! 🤣
The Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles at the other end was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. The old medieval town had a complete fortified enclosure comprising the castle and the wall that surrounded the old high citadel. Most of this is conserved to this day.
We stopped off for ice cream on the way back down and got back to the campsite before the heavens opened again! I did some laundry, which is now enough to last until the end of the trip! I had a chat to our neighbours in the campsite who gave us lots of hints for the onward route.
The weather took a turn for the worse in the afternoon, and we decided to have dinner in the campsite restaurant. It was fairly busy and quite good with plenty of choice.
However, with the weather came some photo opportunities of the fantastic view we had across to the town.
Words of the day:
- Cucurucho = cone
- Tarrina = tub
Gracious me, SO much rain. It sprinkled a lot here yesterday evening which made us so excited and the plants too.
Jack has sent us a email, it is his birthday today and 30 degrees in London, where he will be playing football later.!!!
We are sure you will make the most of the days you have left.
Feel sure Dave will like the cave photography. Jx🤸♂️🤸♂️🐖🐖
Fabulous photos
Thanks!