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France/Spain 2011
Day 9 - 25th March - Valdediós (Part 2)
Dog outside church
Alley from the previous night
Street from the previous night
Exhibition in a building in Santillana del Mar: "sexe en piedra" (Google Translate processes the whole sentence as "stone cock" but individually it translates as "sex in stone")
We went in to have a look at a very nice restaurant (a Parador - which means it was quite high end) which promised "a journey through the history of the cuisine of Cantabria in the form of bite-sized portions to savor the culture and tradition of its products".
Atas menu of La Mesa Pasiega
Atas interior
Unfortunately it only opened at 1:30 (it was 12:40 and we had more things to do).
So we ended up having a non-atas lunch: tortilla with tuna and mushroom, bocadillo with omelette
Ham platter mmm ("Tabla de Ibericos")
Hanging hams
Our next stop was Valdedios - the Valley of God.
Unfortunately it was kinda hard to find so we stopped nearby at Villaviciosa for directions. The tourist office was on siesta so I walked around and someone had a coffee.
Church
Calle Valle Ballina Y Fdez
Cars on road
Fountain
Wavy mediterranean decor - I'd seen this in Macau. IRL there was a deadache-inducing 3D effect.
Church at the end of Street
Official Pilgrimage drink of the Way of St James. By the Coca Cola Company.
More of the old town's streets. I was told it looked like a rich version of Mexico.
We went to the slackest tourist office in the world for directions: open from Tuesday to Saturday from 12-2pm and 3:30-5:30pm. Damn, I want to work there! (it's in the culture of the area - one monastery in Valdedios was open from 11-1 in November to April)
Around the tourist office we found a guy who'd cycled from Germany and was going to Fisterra in Spain (near Santiago). He projected he'd take a year in all.
Having directions, we set off for Valdedios.
Baba Yaga's Hut
This place is only "1% cultural"
San Salvador de Valdedios - side view. It's pre-Romanesque.
San Salvador de Valdedios - front view
Unfortunately, it - the old church - was closed, and so was another of the churches - the new church (from the 13th century) - we wanted to visit.
Lucky I could peek at the new church.
Door
Arch and door. The glass is the real door, not the wood.
There was a board with pictures of both churches. There were many pictures of the new one (the one whose keyhole I peeked through) and very few of the old one. So I concluded the new one was nicer and the old one probably had nothing inside.
From a touristic video
Old church
Cross to crucify highwaymen on
We ran into a dead cat on the roadside. It was quite surreal.
Valley of God. It was the most beautiful valley I'd ever seen in Spain, so it was worthy of the name.
Valdedios through trees
Obscured by foliage
My heart wants to beat
Like the wings of the birds
That rise from the lake to the trees
Then we hit Oviedo. And were brusquely reminded that we were in a Third World country, as there was a pair of people going up to cars and cleaning windscreens. Just like in Jakarta.
Damn ugly statues
Sea urchins
More hams
Huge lettuces
Huge courgettes
Pastries. They were not bad but French ones were better. They were very cheap though - 12 bite-sized pastries cost 1€.
Our car told us when gear changes (in either direction) were needed. So it was pseudo-auto.
At one point there was a bridge over our highway - for cows. Uhh.
There were signs reminding us to turn on - and off - our headlights for tunnels. Even when the tunnels were very short and the car spent less than 2 seconds in them.
There were petrol stations with 2 grades of diesel and 1 grade of gasoline. How odd. So once I paid more for diesel than for petrol - because I pulled in to the more expensive diesel pump.
Driving in the shadow of mountains is nice.
Southern European blondes are dirty blondes. Because they're bottle blondes.