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Day 1 (4/10/2026 Oviedo-Escampiero)
So much to cover and so little time to write. For now I’ll load the pictures and a few short comments, and edit/elaborate later.
Before leaving Oviedo today, wanted to attend the mid-day mass in the Cathedral of Oviedo/San Salvador, which was held in the side chapel (Capilla de Santa María del Rey Casto). It was cozy yet quite full (about 50-60 people in the middle of the day, and not even lunchtime in Spain).
I had also signed up for the church’s Gothic Tower tour at 1pm (all the previous day’s and morning’s tours were sold out), where the old clock (no longer working) and the oldest working church bell (La Wamba from 1219) in the West/Christendom (probably the world too – I don’t think it’s being marketed optimally) along with other “newer bells” from the 16th Century were housed and survived through tempests and wars. It was a fun walk up 45 meters (147 feet) in 184 spiraling steps. The old clock machinery (no longer working as it kept getting delayed and hard to keep recalibrating the time every day manually) and the views from the top were quite amazing, and the tales about the ancient carved graffiti were fascinating too.
Leaving the city of Oviedo and entering the wooded green area took about an hour. The city had some impressive metal scallop shells pointing the direction of the Camino. The signage of the Camino is typically very good once you enter Galicia, the comunidad autónoma (sort of the equivalent of a state in the US) where Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage destination, is, thanks to state sponsorship. However, typically, the signs before you enter Galicia are just yellow arrows painted along the way by locals or bootstrapped signs put up by good local neighbors to help the pilgrims along the way. Oviedo’s signs and Asturias’ (the comunidad autónoma where Oviedo is the capital of), in general, were as good as Galicia’s, again demonstrating the seriousness that Oviedo’s people treat the Camino pilgrimage with. After all, it was their highly respected King Alfonso II that started this whole pilgrimage craze.
The narrow smaller pointy end of the scallop shell provides the direction of the Camino and this scallop shell is also the symbol of the Camino.
Once out of the city of Oviedo I was surprised how fast and drastically the scenery changed to breathtaking green and the abundance of animals along the way brought continuous smiles to my face (made me continually reminisce the Camino del Norte I did in 2023. The sights were very familiar as that path took me through the same comunidad autónoma of Asturias, but along the beautiful coast).
The walk ended, being greeted warmly, as I was struggling in the last uphill, by an older couple taking a stroll opposite downhill: “Ánimo, buen camino, que ya casi llegas a tu destino de hoy” (Come on, good camino, you are almost there at your destination today!). They were a cute loving couple like in the Up Disney animated movie.
The sunset view over dinner was amazing but the dinner steak was a little disappointing (the callos tripe stew was savory and their arroz con leche dessert was decent):
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