Author: marionvermazen

This morning after breakfast we went for a walk around the Cangas de Onis Parador.

Then we drove to Covadonga which is just up the road. It is apparently the site of a battle in 722 that started the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors. It is also a sight where the virgin appeared to a king of the Visigoths. This area became the seat of the Asturias Kingdom.

From Covadonga we had to drive around the mountains to get to another beautiful valley in the Picos de Europa Mountains, Fuente Dé. The drive was supposed to take about twohours but it took closer to three because of road construction.

Before we got to the big delays we stopped to buy groceries for our picnic dinner.

Our drive today was about two hours. Before leaving Corias we were able to look into the church. It was open because they were preparing for Mass. The church is a part of the monastery and so it’s built into the Parador building.

About half way through our drive we saw a sign for the caves of Peña de Candamo. According to Google they have great prehistoric art. Unfortunately the visitors center was closed and you can only enter the caves on a tour.

At the Parador of Cangas de Onis we had our welcome drinks, played some cards, and then went for a walk about two miles up the river to the actual town of Cangas de Onis, where we stopped for coffee.

Cangas de Onis has a magnificent Roman Bridge. We crossed it and walked back to the Parador on the other side of the river.

We had a great Parador dinner.

Today we had a four hour drive from the Parador de Santo Estevo in Galicia to the Para de Corias in Asturias. We saw a lot of beautiful and interesting scenery along the way. The weather varied from pouring rain to sun.

A lot of the road today was windy, narrow, and mountainous. About 20 minutes after leaving we stopped at this great vista point.

Later we saw a sign for a Roman tunnel and had to check it out. According to this website the Romans built the tunnel in the second century A.D. to get at the gold brought down by the Sil River.

Our next stop was Las Medulas, an area where the Romans used water to wash away an enormous area of mountains to get the gold out of the soil. They built extensive tunnels then filled them with water at high pressure and collapsed the mountains.

After stopping for groceries, we finally arrived at the Parador of Corias. The monastery’s size is the third largest in Spain. A sign in the lobby says that the Oseira Monastery that we visited yesterday is the largest.

The Corias monastery has beautiful big hallways and rooms. The library is gorgeous.

We had a picnic dinner in the room and played cards.

Today was our second day at the Parador de Santo Estavo. It’s a beautiful Parador and it was nice to be here two nights. This area is called Ribera Sacra (Sacred Riverbank) because there were so many monasteries in this area.

Jo Ann suggested that we go to the monastery of Oseira today. She brought a Rick Steves map of northern Spain with her and Oseira is on of the highlighted places to visit. It is one of the large and beautiful monasteries in this area and it is still a working monastery. The monastery was first established in the 12th century. We took a guided tour. The tour was in Spanish so we didn’t understand much of the tour but we got to see a lot. I bought a guide book which helped.

Back at the Parador we had a picnic lunch and played cards. Then we went out to explore the ruins behind the Parador. There are ruins of a Celtic Castro and of the monastery kitchen.

It is a lovely area. There were lots of birds singing during our walk. I have never used Merlin to identify bird songs before but Jo Ann was doing it so I gave it a try. I think it’s really fun.

This morning we checked out of the Parador of Muxía and drove two and a half hours south east to a little town near Ourense where we are staying at the Parador of Santa Estevo. On our way we stopped at another wonderful spot for a picnic lunch. This time we were overlooking the Miño River.

After our arrival at the Parador we had our welcome drinks and then played cards for a bit. Then, after a bit of a rest, we took a mile and a half hike from the Parador to some abandoned Muiños (mills). It was a beautiful hike with great views and lots of wildflowers.

For dinner we ate in the Parador dining room.