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France/Spain 2011
Day 9 - 25th March - Oviedo (Part 3)
I saw more young people in Oviedo than in the rest of Spain thus far. This is how I knew it was a university town.
How much is that hammie in the window?
"Clinica dental"
Nice sign for the business
Short skirts start young. The pre-teens' were even shorter (I didn't see bona fide teens in uniform)
Calle de Juan Botas Roldán
Cute thing
Dog biting toy
Church at end of Calle del Fierro
Pirated Asterix - "Asturix"
GAH
They had t-shirts for "adulto" and "chica". Nice to know Adult and Girl cuts are different.
Covadonga, cuna de la reconquista
("Covadonga, birthplace of La Reconquista")
Apparently it is still kosher to talk about the Reconquista!
Rey Jamon, with a LOT of chorizo
Hams. The pig looks very happy
Alcohol to get cooked in by cannibals
More pork products
A model of Baba Yaga's hut! And a ham slicer.
Old women at a Corseteria (corsetry)
"El auténtico Reductor"
A product that will never sell in Singapore
An interesting juxtaposition. This is called catering to the market!
Wedding couple, where the girl's tatto is showing. Tsk.
Bells. This was not just the hourly chime, or the boring Big Ben tune.
Church at Plaza de la Constitución
Town Hall, also around Church at Plaza de la Constitución
"Kebap King", the first kebab shop I'd seen in Spain.
Plaza de Diego
"BBVA" building, a bank
Cathedral of San Salvador
Over the portal
The outside of the cathedral was quite plain but inside the altar piece and other decoration was quite elaborate but it was dark so it couldn't be seen properly. Not even after I paid 0,20€ for illumination.
There was a San Geronimo. So he was not just an Indian Chief.
John Paul II also came on the way to Santiago.
The quality of Spanish Gothic is inferior to French Gothic. Unfortunately there is very little in Italy so it is hard to compare, but Milan Cathedral, say, was much better. Of course perhaps things are better in the more touristed parts of Spain.
Unfortunately, because of visits to the pork shop (Rey Jamon)and a supermarket, I was unble to visit the Cloisters and the Museum of the Cathedral. Luckily the Holy Chamber was open.
Inside they had a cloth with the supposed face of Jesus ("Santo Sudario"; "The Holy Sudarium"). Notice how the image looks different from the Shroud of Turin. Strangely enough for "probably, the most studied holy relic in History" together with the Shroud of Turin, I'd never heard of it despite coming across the latter very often.
There was also some stuff from before 1000.
Statue of La Regenta (from some Spanish novel) and Cathedral.
Gyrating cow. This was disturbing.
Calle Altamirano
Something happened here in 1808 (something to do with the French invasion)
Street
I can't remember why I took this.
Shell on the floor, marking the Way of St James
A lot of places opened at 8pm for dinner, but we were hungry so we went somewhere that opened earlier, which had many nice things.
There were several chillers with baguette slices with things on top:
The second round didn't taste as nice, unfortunately.
Bacalao piece
Potatoes with two sauces
Jamon platter with bread with tomato and olive oil
This was jamon iberico, but though good it was far from the quality of the stuff that Hum Sup Guy had gotten for me.
Octopus with paprika. This was quite bad.
Stuffed Peppers with Cod
During dinner, 2 people from a certain demographic group wandered by and tried to sell us stuff. It's a big city phenomenon.
Tarte de Santiago (Almond)
Questionable claims
Per litre price for wine!
Spain is very mountainous. No wonder the Moors couldn't conquer it.
I was wondering how the Spanish conquered Latin America with siestas and the sort of opening hours they keep in Spain, till I remembered this tiny thing called "smallpox".
More people spoke French in Spain than English. But all of them said they only spoke a bit of French. Bah.
The bread in France is generally better than in Spain, except in most Parisian restaurants.