Turning Water Into Wine

After we bused to Oveido and checked in, we all met in the lobby for our tour of the Oveido Cathedral.  REI had again arranged a private tour with a guide who is an expert on this.

As a side note, I've been impressed that REI has added such cultural and historical tours -- first the cave, and now this.  Yes, I know we paid for it, but it is still a nice addition -- the REI days of this trip are not just about hiking, but are about pre-history, history, culture, and, of course, great Spanish food and vino!

Anyhow, our guide (whose name escapes me) walked us quickly over to the Cathedral, with a stop to point out the brilliant university building, built in 1574, the town hall, and one piece of public art, a sculpture representing Indianos, people who went to South and Central America to make their fortunes before returning to Spain.  Some succeeded, some did not.

Then we walked up the street to the Cathedral Square.  The full name of the basilica is The Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Saviour or Cathedral of San Salvador (Spanish: Catedral Metropolitana Basílica de San Salvador, Latin: Sancta Ovetensis), which is far more information than you needed.  Before you act impressed, recognize that it is info that I copied straight from Wikipedia.  

I was not blown away by the outside -- although it is an interesting story.  The top was severely burned by a lightning strike, so while the cathedral was begun in 1388, the tower was rebuilt in the 1500s.  

Once we went inside, our guide took us to the oldest, most important part of the Cathedral.  It holds three major relics.  The most important is the face piece, which is said to be the part of the shroud that covered Jesus's face while he was in the tomb.  Turin, of course, lays claim to the body and face part of the shroud.  It's a bit confusing to me, but apparently there are two shrouds of his face, and one is in Oviedo.  In the famous words of Johnny Carson, "I did not know that."  (When you read the Carson quote, please say it the same way he would have. . .it works!)

It also has the famous Cross of Angels and the Victory Cross.  Both links are worth reading, unless you don't give a crap about history, in which case keep going.

Then we went down to the Cloisters, which is always an amazing part of these basilicas/cathedrals.  Next was the first part of the church, which was a very stark, beautiful lower part of the building.  From there we went back into the the main cathedral.  The main cathedral was not very striking, except for the stunning carved wooden altarpiece, which was covered in gold, and the 14th statue of Jesus. 

Oh, and the huge jug believed to be from the wedding of Cana.  Yes, we saw one of the six HUGE jugs that Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine.  Scientific tests confirm it comes from the day of Jesus, and the "jug" -- sorry, that word does not do justice to how big it is.  Even if it was NOT used at Cana, it's still quite the historical treasure.

After the cathedral, we had a free night.  I had re-injured the same toe that I managed to mangle in Utah, so I was not in the mood for much walking.  I also had a bunch of work to do, as well as blogging.  We then met two couples in the lobby at 8:30 pm to go to dinner at La Guaranta, touted as a good place for meat and paella.  It was not even a ten minute walk to dinner, so let's say we got there at 8:40 pm.  The restaurant was pretty empty, but by 10 pm it was relatively full.  

It's pretty funny that 8:40 pm is considered too early for dinner by most Spaniards.  I had the classica paella (shrimp, bay scallops, and mussels), while Carol had the mountain paella (pork, vegetables).  It was great, and dinner, with two bottles of wine (shared by nearly all) was only 50 Euros per couple.

I do have to say, the paella there is not as good as Carol's paella, for which I am lucky.  Carol makes her paella several times a year, and I will be in Oviedo once in my life, no matter how much that creep Woody Allen likes it there.   (It's amazing how the article just glosses over the fact that he is a deviant.)

The best news about eating leisurely and late is that you don't have to worry about what to do after dinner.  There really is only one option -- go to bed!