After the cleaning chores were done this morning, Rowan and I caught the bus to Oviedo, the provincial capital 25km away.  In true Spanish fashion though the scheduled bus did not arrive. Rather than stress out, we popped into a local cafe & bought the most scrumptious french toast with ham & cheese filling. This fried sandwich made waiting an hour for the bus worth it.  And i discovered what must be the local’s favourite butcher & grocer right next to the bus stop.  Tomorrow i plan to pop in to buy the ingredients to make the local pork and bean stew called Fabada.  This is the same dish I made for the July Camino event, however I am excited to try it using real Spanish ingredients. The visitor centre official who regularly pops by the albergue provided me with a recipe in english,  so Friday night is the night for Fabada. Now that I’ve put it out there, I will have to deliver some photos at the very least. 

After all this talk of food, I need to add that today we went to the same cafe twice.  In a city where you dont speak the language and there are hundreds of cafes, its comforting to go back to a place that feels familiar if only for an hour.  

Oviedo is an amzing city,  buildings dating back hundreds of years, cobbled plazas and a majestic cathedral from 1774.

Plazas with fountains …

And plazas with statues …

Rowan had fun as the model today including showing how to do push ups in the store! BTW he bought the handles as he was so impressed with how good it made him look !! 

A good shopping and sightseeing day, then back on the bus to the albergue, where its full of action. A group of 5 Polish pilgrims had just arrived (rather late at 8:30pm) and Heidi decided to cook them dinner as they looked so tired. They are not the most organised or quick group, so its 10:30pm now and they’re still washing up dishes.  Lights were supposed to be out at 10pm.  The message didnt seem to get through to them. Anyway, my light is going out now. Goodnight.