Please forgive my lack of purpose in continuing this blog. I wish that a full schedule, little time, perhaps even impaired digiti could be my excuse, but that would be a falsehood. I'm in the best of health and I've had more than ample t
ime. It has not been time idly spent, it simply has not been applied to the recounting
of my adventures. So, I will not give a day to day chronicle of my recent European junket, but rather a breezy narrative
should suffice. I will include some of my scribbles when I, unfaithfully yet faithfully, scan them. :)
But to continue...
Where did I leave off? Has it already been five months? Incredible that such a little word "time" describes something
so immense. Ah! I remember, or rather, I review my last post: COVADONGA...
Beautiful Covadonga! It was so
spiritually enchanting. One was not really on earth in this viridial mountain sanctuary.
The drive over from Oviedo was a pastoral delight and the drive back was no different. I believe that this is a favorite destination for the weekend warriors as there were many motorcyclists and Domingueros in our way. Can I blame them? The Church gallantly (I say gallant not only for the architecture but because it is the place where the great Don Pelayo with a handful of warriors held off and destroyed the vast Islamic forces that tried to take over Spain in the Battle of Covadonga. If I could find such a hero... sigh...) greeted us from its mountain perch and we headed straight for it thinking that the shrine with the Madonna was within. As we drove up and up and up, we discovered that the shrine was on the other side of a little ravine and open to Nature and all of her elements. We joined a gentle devout throng as it made its way to the little cave that floated over a gurgling water-fall and a
pproached the Virgencita in a sea of blossoms. We left our petitions, descended the long staircase and Isabella and I, engaging in one of the local customs, drank of the fountain that draws its water from the pool under the falls, but not without hesitations be
cause as an old song says:
The Holy Virgin of Covadonga
Has a Fountain bright and clear
And the maid who drinks its waters,
Will be wed within the year.
I could go on about Covadonga, but we were only there for a few hours. For more on Covadonga (http://www.santuariodecovadonga.com/).
Needless to say, we returned to OVIEDO. This was a lively city and Isa and I had many opportunities for algunos paseos de compras!
