To Oviedo via Lugo — An Elegant Sufficiency

Our travelling companions posed as pigrims for one last time as we checked out of our lovely hotel here in Santiago de Compostela. We were on our way to Oviedo - quite some distance - so we planned to break our journey in Lugo, a Roman city around half the way there which my Hero was rather keen to see.

It wasn’t easy driving east with the sun in our eyes but around an hour into our journey the mist came down - possibly altitude related.

We were almost in Lugo by then, thankfully, but getting into the old town wasn’t that easy. Fortunately we were able to find one of the gates in the city wall and thought we’d take it from there.

Spotting the unmistakeable blue P sign just beyond it confirmed we were on the right track.

Even if the place itself was just a scrubby piece of land

and the pathway down into the town felt a little dodgy. That wasn’t helped by the sight of a couple of people disappearing into one of those semi-derelict buildings in front of us, though when I said how seedy this all felt to me, my Hero thought that perhaps I was being over-imaginative!

I thought he was probably right. I’m reading Amor Towles Lincoln Highway at the moment and maybe the colourful characters in the book had seeded themselves in my subconscious. Even so, the three women hanging around a small square just around the corner didn’t seem quite pukka to me, especially the one in the very short, low-cut dress. I decided that yes, it was my imagination and put it to the back of my mind.

We were fairly near the cathedral by now and the plaques on the pavement confirmed that we were following the Camino. Actually, around this part of Spain nearly everywhere is on the route of one of the Caminos it seems. for there are several accepted routes.

It was still a bit damp underfoot and that low cloud lingered.

Right on time, though, as we arrived in front of the cathedral, the sky brightened and a patch of blue appeared. For the first time here in Spain, we paid an entrance fee and went inside, following a German tour group.

The interior of this 12th century cathedral was beautiful, though the lighting tested my photography skills to the limit. Here’s a link to the website where the glorious colours of the stunning interior are far more effectively reproduced.

The city has grown close to the cathedral, leaving no breathing space around it.

The Archbishop did have a little open square in front of his Palace however (though shame on whoever left that bright red cup on his steps, though!)

Just around the corner from here was the main plaza, which seemed to be waking up a little, it being nearly lunchtime and all of that.

Here was the first mention of the Roman history of the city - except for the walls, of course. We couldn’t read the tiny inscriptions on each plinth, so can’t offer details sadly.

We did, however, manage to find the column in Plaza Santo Domingo which commemorates the capture of Lugo by Augustus in the first century AD.

We felt that earned us some kind of reward in the form of a cafe stop!

Returning to the car, we passed through the same small square where the same three ladies were still standing and where my Hero not only expressed surprise that he had not noticed them earlier, but also agreed that on this occasion, my imagination had probably led to the correct conclusion!

We realised now that we hadn’t really paid any attention to the principal Roman feature of Lugo, the walls. Neither of us felt the urge to walk along them - I guess that living somewhere with a long and very rich history spoils us. Not that we ever take it for granted.

So my Hero paid the man in the shed his two Euros for the car park and we set off towards Oviedo, taking the spectacular route along the Autovia del Cantabrica, which at times seemed to be mostly made of bridges and viaducts.

We left the Autovia to take a look at Ribadeiro, thinking that we’d have another opportunity to take a look around on our way back to A Coruña later in the week, as on this sunny Saturday afternoon, everyone was here on the harbourside. We rejoined the Autovia again, enjoying the views from high up there on the bridge.

Every few km there came another viaduct, each one more spectacular than the last it seemed. The landscape here in Asturias - we left Galicia behind a short while ago - is almost Alpine in character.