I have just finished walking from Leon to Santiago, via the Camino del Salvador (Leon to Oviedo) and then on the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo into Santiago. Javier Martin and his sister Nieves came up to Leon from Madrid to walk for two days, and it was great. I couldn’t have done it without them. I took notes on the Salvador because there is so little information. And I will also chime in with a few suggestions on the Primitivo forum. All in all, it was a terrific Camino. I think that it’s probably a bit tougher than the Frances, mainly because the etapas tend to be longer. The scenery is unbelievable, some of the prettiest I’ve seen.
By far the best information is on the site of the Leon-Asturias Friends of the Camino, http://www.caminosantiagoastur.com. You should print out their maps.
First of all, from Leon all of the way to Rodiezmo there is terrific marking, you really don’t need any additional sources. I’ve just written up the stages as we did them, but there are of course other options, and you could spread it out into five days, too. So, here are my notes:
DAY 1 – Leon to Pola de Gordon, 36 km.
The first day pretty well tracks the Bernesga River. You turn right when you get to the Parador San Marcos, keeping the parador on your left, and walk on the Avda. de los Peregrinos, through a roundabout with a small airplane on a pole in the middle, straight till you see the first mojon/marker. The markers are wooden and have a stick figure of a walker with a walking stick. The route takes you through a few small towns, some rural areas, not much elevation gain. In the town of La Robla there are several places to eat lunch, we had a good meal in Meson la Bogadera close to the Camino in the Calle Plaza de la Constitucion 9. We carried on ahead to Pola de Gordon where we stayed in a pension, El Arenal, for 15E each. There is also a two star hotel on the highway leaving town. There are a few bars and mesones in town, nothing out of the ordinary, but the meson next to the pension serves breakfast very early, starting at 7 I believe.
DAY 2 -- Pola de Gordon to Pajares, 28 km.
This is a georgeous day of walking.
But to make sense of my notes, you should look at the Leon-Asturian Camino group’s map for the Pola de Gordon to Santa Maria de Arbas stage,
http://www.caminosantiagoastur.com/?Las ... e_la_Etapa
The Camino goes first through Buiza, lots of good marking, all on secondary road from Pola de Gordon, but not busy. (There is also a municipal albergue in Buiza). In Buiza, we also saw a well marked split for Villasimpliz or Rodiezmo. Now if you look at your Friends´map, you´ll see that from Buiza the alternatives they provide are Villasimpliz or Poladura de la Tercia, Rodiezmo is not on either of the paths they mark. If you take the option to Villasimpliz, you will be on the N630 for many kilometers up to the Puerto Pajares. We chose the other option, which took us to Rodiezmo, not to Poladura. (It was a BEAUTIFUL walk through the mountains by the way).
Once we got to Rodiezmo we got a little messed up. Those nice wooden markers stopped (hopefully they will be continued soon). We kept going straight out of Rodiezmo, when probably we should have taken a left to somehow get to Poladura de la Tercia. But we found arrows, and after flailing around in a field for a while, we saw a wide dirt track that obviously went to a town, so we took it. It took us to Villanueva de la Tercia (also on the Friends´map), and from there up to the pass we were on the N630. So we then had 5 km on the highway (not terribly busy, but it was a Sunday) up to Santa Maria de Arbas del Puerto.
This means that there’s a stretch from Rodiezmo through Poladura de la Tercia up to Santa Maria de Arbas that we didn’t find. But no matter how you get from Rodiezmo to Sta. Maria de Arbas, in that town, which is about 1 km from the Pass of Pajares, you have to arrive in Arbas. So I don´t know where the trail from Poladura de la Tercia (the Friends’ map says it´s PoBladura, but there´s no B) meets up in Sta. Maria de Arbas.
In Sta. Maria de Arbas del Puerto there is a church and a meson that was closed. The church there is in emergency work to keep it from falling down. Mass on Sunday is at 1 and we were there about 15 minutes before so we were able to go inside. It is quite beautiful inside, if you like romanesque, that is, but I imagine it is usually closed.
From Sta. Maria, you stay on the highway for another km or so, and you hit Puerto de Pajares. That´s the highest point of the highway, beautiful views, and there´s a bar with decent sandwiches, etc. We ate lunch there.
Leaving the Puerto de Pajares, you are on the highway for another half km or so, then there´s a turn off to the left.We took the turnoff, because the alternative was to stay on the N630. It´s a steep downhill walk for a couple of km, but it’s off road and pretty. After a pretty steep descent you will arrive at another branching of the camino. Going straight will take you down to San Miguel del Rio at the bottom of the valley on the river (very pretty but no place to stay). Going to the right will take you to the town of Pajares (not the Puerto de Pajares) where there is an albergue.
The albergue is in the house where the teachers used to live. It´s a very nice albergue, the hospitalera is very nice, and they have coffee and some bread for you for breakfast. The showers are very hot, there’s even heat. I was all alone here because Javier and his sister had to go back to Madrid, but the albergue is right in the town and you can lock the door so I never felt at all nervous. There´s a meson on top of the town (on the highway) with food.
DAY 3 – Pajares to Pola de Lena (28 – 30 -32???)
If you are in the albergue of Pajares/Payares, you have a choice to make. The albergue is on the east side of the valley, where the highway N-630 and the train are. You can stay on that side, going up to get off the highway to Flor de Acebo, Romia de Arriba, Navedo and La Muela. Or you can go down to the river at the bottom of the valley, to San Miguel del Rio, cross over and stay on the other side of the valley with no N-630 and no train. Both of these routes come together at Puente de los Fierros. I went back down to the river, crossed over and stayed on the west side of the valley till Puente de los Fierros. Here are the instructions if you want to go that way:
Turn left going out of the albergue and the road goes up to the highway. After about a minute on the highway, you will see the "Leaving Pajares" sign (Pajares with a red line diagonally through it) -- the path to San Miguel del Rio is right there on the other side of the road (the side you´re on). Take the path, it takes you down a couple km, a little steep at times, through beautiful countryside. At San Miguel follow the arrow to the sign for Santa Martina. At one point, when you are close to Santa Martina, you will see that the scallop shell points you straight ahead, not to Santa Martina, but if you go that way, you will wind up going back up to the N-630 highway (which you just left at Pajares) to take the camino on the N-630 side of the valley. I highly recommend that you stay on this side of the valley (with no trains and no highway), it´s lovely.
When you get up to Santa Marina, circle around the church at the end of the village and you will come to a stone path on the right side. It goes up pretty steeply. This is a very nice walk to Llanos de Someron and from there you get on the very rural road (maybe 4 cars passed me in 4 km) which takes you down to Puente de los Fierros. This is where the two sides of the valley meet up.
In Puente de los Fierros, you have a choice, which is essentially the same choice as at Pajares/Payares. You can either go on the “right side” of the valley (meaning along the N-630) or you can stay on the “left side” and enjoy a beautiful rural walk. The split comes before you reach the actual bridge in Puente de los Fierros, you will see on the left hand side two yellow arrows, one pointing up and indicating “Fresnedo” -- that’s the one to take for the off road route. The other direction says La Frecha, I believe and it will take you along the highway. This is very clear on the caminosantiagoastur.com website.
I would say that it´s hard to think of any day of more beautiful walking on a Camino, maybe with the exception of a few days on the coast of the Camino del Norte. From Pte. de los Fierros you basically walk on the side of the hillside up to Fresnedo, a little hamlet with a few residents. There, you get on a beautiful track, the path is through hardwood forests with incredible views. Along the way there´s a pretty little tiny chapel of San Miguel (closed of course) but it´s a nice rest spot. It took me about one hour to get from Fresnedo to Herias (there´s supposedly another town along the way, Heros, but I never saw it, it may have been a couple of closed up and falling down houses I passed through).
The path has been recently cleared, it´s a wide track, and the marking is excellent. You have to remember you´re in Asturias and that the use of the scallop shell as a directional signal is reversed from the rest of the Camino. In Asturias, only in Asturias, you go the way that the smaller side of the scallop is pointing, not the way all the radiating lines are pointing (this will be crucial at a couple of points, particularly one after Herias).
In Herias I had a nice long rest at the lavadero (the clothes washing place) and conversations with two of the 6 year round inhabitants of the town. From there it´s only about 15 minutes to Campomanes, so when I got to Campomanes I didn´t feel like stopping again. I bought some food in a grocery store hoping to find a place a ways up the road to stop again. But in Campomanes, you´ll find stores, cafe-bars, places to stay,etc. From Campomanes there´s only one way to Pola de Lena, on the old N-630, but there is very little traffic, so it´s fine. When you get into Vega del Rey ( few km outside of Campomanes) keep an eye out for a pedestrian bridge over the highway. It´s off to the right after a warehouse/workshop place with a bright blue roof called Talleres Prada (but they have buildings on both sides of the road). If you want a very short (5-10 min.) little hike up to a great picnic place and a beautiful pre-romanesque church, built in the middle 800s (unfortunately closed when I was there), take this overpass. The church is vey nice, and I was sorry it was Monday, and thus closed. But the outside is very pretty (underline very), and it was a great picnic spot. The building has a lot of very stout buttress-like columns, I read that most are not for support, but mainly decoration. In fact, the church has 365 corners if you go all around the building (I took this on faith and didn’t count them!).
Hours of Santa Cristina de Lena church: 11-1 and 4:30-6:00; closed Monday (have to call Maria at 985-490-525 or 609-942-153).
From there it took me about an hour to walk into Pola, the albergue is up by the train station, it´s on the second floor of a building with lots of social services and association offices. It´s very nice, if you arrive during business hours, there will be someone sitting at a desk right inside the door. She will give you the key to the inside and outside door, the shower has tons of hot water, and there is internet on the main floor at a youth center, and they are very nice to pilgrims. If you arrive on a weekend, when this building is closed, you have to go to the police for the key. But it´s really a very nice place, so I´d highly recommend it.
DAY 4 – Pola de Lena to Oviedo (33 km)
This is a long 33 km, a LOT of pavement. There are essentially no tricks or difficulties on this segment, it´s all pretty well marked.
I left Pola de Lena in the dark, and since the next 6 km were right on a narrow highway with small or no shoulder, my headlamp was essential. Actually it was a good idea to leave in the dark, because I don´t think the scenery was too spectacular. No bars open in Pola before 8 am, I was told.
So, it was 6 km on highway to Ujo (no turns, just straight ahead). There is a much remodeled romanesque church right off the camino, and turns out the confiteria right on the square there had one of the best croissants I´ve ever had (or was it just rabid hunger after 6 km without food?).
In Ujo, you get on a path that goes right along the river. It´s used by many townspeople, and is pleasant, but paved. There are many spots, though, where a dirt path has been worn on the grass on the side and I always hopped over when I could.
In Mieres, they take you across the pedestrian bridge (I think ít´s the third bridge in Mieres (?). Then the arrows sort of disappear, but as you come down off the bridge, just head straight on the street named Manuel Llaneza. When it dead ends, into a T, head left onto Teodorio Cuesta. You will now keep going straight for a while, past a church, past a plaza with a statute of a guy pouring sidra from up over his shoulder. You will pass a cement plant or some such thing on your left. At one point I saw a scallop shell on the left side of the road affixed to a bar that would seem to be pointing you to the left. Ignore it. Almost at the end of town, there´s a big sign to the albergue in Mieres. I was told it used to be a school and has been recently converted. It´s about 50 meters off the camino, I would estimate.
When the road turns to Altu del Padrun, you now have a 4 km hike up on the secondary road. It´s not a strenuous walk, just a gradual ascent. Once up there, there´s a clearly marked scallop shell to take you off on a dirt track and you now start alternating between tracks and roads.
In Olloniego, you can either go over the car bridge over the highway or follow the scallop shell and go towards the train station and take the tunnel under the tracks. Either way, you will then turn left and go down the main street of the town, out of town, passed the medieval bridge in a field that has lost its river, there is no water running under it.
As soon as you cross the Nalon river, you will see the shell pointing you to a track that goes up. About a km up, and then you come out on the road and you´re next to a place called Centro Reto. I just plopped down on the grass in the shade and ate my lunch right there.
After the Centro Reto, there are more tracks going up, more ascent, nothing too bad. In a few minutes you will see Oviedo -- but do not be misled into thinking that it´s all downhill from here, like I did!
Here the shells take you off and on secondary roads and off and on wide or narrow tracks. The paths are brambly in places, sometimes quite narrow, but they have a fairly nice grade of descent, and then just for good measure they throw in a couple of short ascents as well. There are no problems with finding your way. Soon you will be in the city and the centro historico is not far from where you come in.
Once in Oviedo, you have a ton of choices, I decided to stay in a pension, Hostal Arcos and took an extra day to visit the pre-romanesque churches on Mt. Naranco. There are about 20 computers in the municipal library and free internet.
If I were to do it again, instead of taking a second night in Oviedo, I would have left the city around 9 or 9:30 in the morning, walked up the 4 km to visit the churches, and then continued on the Camino to Escalampero, a town about 8 or 9 km outside Oviedo which has an albergue and a couple of restaurants. That gets you started on the Camino Primitivo, and I’ll post some notes there also.
All in all, I thought this was an outstanding walk!
By far the best information is on the site of the Leon-Asturias Friends of the Camino, http://www.caminosantiagoastur.com. You should print out their maps.
First of all, from Leon all of the way to Rodiezmo there is terrific marking, you really don’t need any additional sources. I’ve just written up the stages as we did them, but there are of course other options, and you could spread it out into five days, too. So, here are my notes:
DAY 1 – Leon to Pola de Gordon, 36 km.
The first day pretty well tracks the Bernesga River. You turn right when you get to the Parador San Marcos, keeping the parador on your left, and walk on the Avda. de los Peregrinos, through a roundabout with a small airplane on a pole in the middle, straight till you see the first mojon/marker. The markers are wooden and have a stick figure of a walker with a walking stick. The route takes you through a few small towns, some rural areas, not much elevation gain. In the town of La Robla there are several places to eat lunch, we had a good meal in Meson la Bogadera close to the Camino in the Calle Plaza de la Constitucion 9. We carried on ahead to Pola de Gordon where we stayed in a pension, El Arenal, for 15E each. There is also a two star hotel on the highway leaving town. There are a few bars and mesones in town, nothing out of the ordinary, but the meson next to the pension serves breakfast very early, starting at 7 I believe.
DAY 2 -- Pola de Gordon to Pajares, 28 km.
This is a georgeous day of walking.
But to make sense of my notes, you should look at the Leon-Asturian Camino group’s map for the Pola de Gordon to Santa Maria de Arbas stage,
http://www.caminosantiagoastur.com/?Las ... e_la_Etapa
The Camino goes first through Buiza, lots of good marking, all on secondary road from Pola de Gordon, but not busy. (There is also a municipal albergue in Buiza). In Buiza, we also saw a well marked split for Villasimpliz or Rodiezmo. Now if you look at your Friends´map, you´ll see that from Buiza the alternatives they provide are Villasimpliz or Poladura de la Tercia, Rodiezmo is not on either of the paths they mark. If you take the option to Villasimpliz, you will be on the N630 for many kilometers up to the Puerto Pajares. We chose the other option, which took us to Rodiezmo, not to Poladura. (It was a BEAUTIFUL walk through the mountains by the way).
Once we got to Rodiezmo we got a little messed up. Those nice wooden markers stopped (hopefully they will be continued soon). We kept going straight out of Rodiezmo, when probably we should have taken a left to somehow get to Poladura de la Tercia. But we found arrows, and after flailing around in a field for a while, we saw a wide dirt track that obviously went to a town, so we took it. It took us to Villanueva de la Tercia (also on the Friends´map), and from there up to the pass we were on the N630. So we then had 5 km on the highway (not terribly busy, but it was a Sunday) up to Santa Maria de Arbas del Puerto.
This means that there’s a stretch from Rodiezmo through Poladura de la Tercia up to Santa Maria de Arbas that we didn’t find. But no matter how you get from Rodiezmo to Sta. Maria de Arbas, in that town, which is about 1 km from the Pass of Pajares, you have to arrive in Arbas. So I don´t know where the trail from Poladura de la Tercia (the Friends’ map says it´s PoBladura, but there´s no B) meets up in Sta. Maria de Arbas.
In Sta. Maria de Arbas del Puerto there is a church and a meson that was closed. The church there is in emergency work to keep it from falling down. Mass on Sunday is at 1 and we were there about 15 minutes before so we were able to go inside. It is quite beautiful inside, if you like romanesque, that is, but I imagine it is usually closed.
From Sta. Maria, you stay on the highway for another km or so, and you hit Puerto de Pajares. That´s the highest point of the highway, beautiful views, and there´s a bar with decent sandwiches, etc. We ate lunch there.
Leaving the Puerto de Pajares, you are on the highway for another half km or so, then there´s a turn off to the left.We took the turnoff, because the alternative was to stay on the N630. It´s a steep downhill walk for a couple of km, but it’s off road and pretty. After a pretty steep descent you will arrive at another branching of the camino. Going straight will take you down to San Miguel del Rio at the bottom of the valley on the river (very pretty but no place to stay). Going to the right will take you to the town of Pajares (not the Puerto de Pajares) where there is an albergue.
The albergue is in the house where the teachers used to live. It´s a very nice albergue, the hospitalera is very nice, and they have coffee and some bread for you for breakfast. The showers are very hot, there’s even heat. I was all alone here because Javier and his sister had to go back to Madrid, but the albergue is right in the town and you can lock the door so I never felt at all nervous. There´s a meson on top of the town (on the highway) with food.
DAY 3 – Pajares to Pola de Lena (28 – 30 -32???)
If you are in the albergue of Pajares/Payares, you have a choice to make. The albergue is on the east side of the valley, where the highway N-630 and the train are. You can stay on that side, going up to get off the highway to Flor de Acebo, Romia de Arriba, Navedo and La Muela. Or you can go down to the river at the bottom of the valley, to San Miguel del Rio, cross over and stay on the other side of the valley with no N-630 and no train. Both of these routes come together at Puente de los Fierros. I went back down to the river, crossed over and stayed on the west side of the valley till Puente de los Fierros. Here are the instructions if you want to go that way:
Turn left going out of the albergue and the road goes up to the highway. After about a minute on the highway, you will see the "Leaving Pajares" sign (Pajares with a red line diagonally through it) -- the path to San Miguel del Rio is right there on the other side of the road (the side you´re on). Take the path, it takes you down a couple km, a little steep at times, through beautiful countryside. At San Miguel follow the arrow to the sign for Santa Martina. At one point, when you are close to Santa Martina, you will see that the scallop shell points you straight ahead, not to Santa Martina, but if you go that way, you will wind up going back up to the N-630 highway (which you just left at Pajares) to take the camino on the N-630 side of the valley. I highly recommend that you stay on this side of the valley (with no trains and no highway), it´s lovely.
When you get up to Santa Marina, circle around the church at the end of the village and you will come to a stone path on the right side. It goes up pretty steeply. This is a very nice walk to Llanos de Someron and from there you get on the very rural road (maybe 4 cars passed me in 4 km) which takes you down to Puente de los Fierros. This is where the two sides of the valley meet up.
In Puente de los Fierros, you have a choice, which is essentially the same choice as at Pajares/Payares. You can either go on the “right side” of the valley (meaning along the N-630) or you can stay on the “left side” and enjoy a beautiful rural walk. The split comes before you reach the actual bridge in Puente de los Fierros, you will see on the left hand side two yellow arrows, one pointing up and indicating “Fresnedo” -- that’s the one to take for the off road route. The other direction says La Frecha, I believe and it will take you along the highway. This is very clear on the caminosantiagoastur.com website.
I would say that it´s hard to think of any day of more beautiful walking on a Camino, maybe with the exception of a few days on the coast of the Camino del Norte. From Pte. de los Fierros you basically walk on the side of the hillside up to Fresnedo, a little hamlet with a few residents. There, you get on a beautiful track, the path is through hardwood forests with incredible views. Along the way there´s a pretty little tiny chapel of San Miguel (closed of course) but it´s a nice rest spot. It took me about one hour to get from Fresnedo to Herias (there´s supposedly another town along the way, Heros, but I never saw it, it may have been a couple of closed up and falling down houses I passed through).
The path has been recently cleared, it´s a wide track, and the marking is excellent. You have to remember you´re in Asturias and that the use of the scallop shell as a directional signal is reversed from the rest of the Camino. In Asturias, only in Asturias, you go the way that the smaller side of the scallop is pointing, not the way all the radiating lines are pointing (this will be crucial at a couple of points, particularly one after Herias).
In Herias I had a nice long rest at the lavadero (the clothes washing place) and conversations with two of the 6 year round inhabitants of the town. From there it´s only about 15 minutes to Campomanes, so when I got to Campomanes I didn´t feel like stopping again. I bought some food in a grocery store hoping to find a place a ways up the road to stop again. But in Campomanes, you´ll find stores, cafe-bars, places to stay,etc. From Campomanes there´s only one way to Pola de Lena, on the old N-630, but there is very little traffic, so it´s fine. When you get into Vega del Rey ( few km outside of Campomanes) keep an eye out for a pedestrian bridge over the highway. It´s off to the right after a warehouse/workshop place with a bright blue roof called Talleres Prada (but they have buildings on both sides of the road). If you want a very short (5-10 min.) little hike up to a great picnic place and a beautiful pre-romanesque church, built in the middle 800s (unfortunately closed when I was there), take this overpass. The church is vey nice, and I was sorry it was Monday, and thus closed. But the outside is very pretty (underline very), and it was a great picnic spot. The building has a lot of very stout buttress-like columns, I read that most are not for support, but mainly decoration. In fact, the church has 365 corners if you go all around the building (I took this on faith and didn’t count them!).
Hours of Santa Cristina de Lena church: 11-1 and 4:30-6:00; closed Monday (have to call Maria at 985-490-525 or 609-942-153).
From there it took me about an hour to walk into Pola, the albergue is up by the train station, it´s on the second floor of a building with lots of social services and association offices. It´s very nice, if you arrive during business hours, there will be someone sitting at a desk right inside the door. She will give you the key to the inside and outside door, the shower has tons of hot water, and there is internet on the main floor at a youth center, and they are very nice to pilgrims. If you arrive on a weekend, when this building is closed, you have to go to the police for the key. But it´s really a very nice place, so I´d highly recommend it.
DAY 4 – Pola de Lena to Oviedo (33 km)
This is a long 33 km, a LOT of pavement. There are essentially no tricks or difficulties on this segment, it´s all pretty well marked.
I left Pola de Lena in the dark, and since the next 6 km were right on a narrow highway with small or no shoulder, my headlamp was essential. Actually it was a good idea to leave in the dark, because I don´t think the scenery was too spectacular. No bars open in Pola before 8 am, I was told.
So, it was 6 km on highway to Ujo (no turns, just straight ahead). There is a much remodeled romanesque church right off the camino, and turns out the confiteria right on the square there had one of the best croissants I´ve ever had (or was it just rabid hunger after 6 km without food?).
In Ujo, you get on a path that goes right along the river. It´s used by many townspeople, and is pleasant, but paved. There are many spots, though, where a dirt path has been worn on the grass on the side and I always hopped over when I could.
In Mieres, they take you across the pedestrian bridge (I think ít´s the third bridge in Mieres (?). Then the arrows sort of disappear, but as you come down off the bridge, just head straight on the street named Manuel Llaneza. When it dead ends, into a T, head left onto Teodorio Cuesta. You will now keep going straight for a while, past a church, past a plaza with a statute of a guy pouring sidra from up over his shoulder. You will pass a cement plant or some such thing on your left. At one point I saw a scallop shell on the left side of the road affixed to a bar that would seem to be pointing you to the left. Ignore it. Almost at the end of town, there´s a big sign to the albergue in Mieres. I was told it used to be a school and has been recently converted. It´s about 50 meters off the camino, I would estimate.
When the road turns to Altu del Padrun, you now have a 4 km hike up on the secondary road. It´s not a strenuous walk, just a gradual ascent. Once up there, there´s a clearly marked scallop shell to take you off on a dirt track and you now start alternating between tracks and roads.
In Olloniego, you can either go over the car bridge over the highway or follow the scallop shell and go towards the train station and take the tunnel under the tracks. Either way, you will then turn left and go down the main street of the town, out of town, passed the medieval bridge in a field that has lost its river, there is no water running under it.
As soon as you cross the Nalon river, you will see the shell pointing you to a track that goes up. About a km up, and then you come out on the road and you´re next to a place called Centro Reto. I just plopped down on the grass in the shade and ate my lunch right there.
After the Centro Reto, there are more tracks going up, more ascent, nothing too bad. In a few minutes you will see Oviedo -- but do not be misled into thinking that it´s all downhill from here, like I did!
Here the shells take you off and on secondary roads and off and on wide or narrow tracks. The paths are brambly in places, sometimes quite narrow, but they have a fairly nice grade of descent, and then just for good measure they throw in a couple of short ascents as well. There are no problems with finding your way. Soon you will be in the city and the centro historico is not far from where you come in.
Once in Oviedo, you have a ton of choices, I decided to stay in a pension, Hostal Arcos and took an extra day to visit the pre-romanesque churches on Mt. Naranco. There are about 20 computers in the municipal library and free internet.
If I were to do it again, instead of taking a second night in Oviedo, I would have left the city around 9 or 9:30 in the morning, walked up the 4 km to visit the churches, and then continued on the Camino to Escalampero, a town about 8 or 9 km outside Oviedo which has an albergue and a couple of restaurants. That gets you started on the Camino Primitivo, and I’ll post some notes there also.
All in all, I thought this was an outstanding walk!
, angulero has just posted a link to another video that describes how the exterior restoration led to the discovery of three new windows, two probably original, one from centuries later. Pretty amazing.
