Plan B avoiding the rainy mountains

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing."  Sir Ranulph Fiennes 

I headed out this morning in good spirits after a good breakfast.

I pretty quickly covered the 7 km from where I stayed last night Palatin and arrived in the city of Grado. There are two churches along the Camino in town that I plan on visiting. Capilla de los Dolores and the Iglesia Parroquial de San Pedro. Chapel was closed so I walked up the street to San Pedro. It was just a couple minutes past 10 when I walked in and found the 10 a.m. Sunday mass. I can take a hint and  stayed for mass.

After leaving the church the temperature seem to drop a bit and a misty rain started. I kept moving on and came to the monastery of

Cornellana. In my early planning I thought I might stay the night here. It sits at the junction two rivers which made for a suitable place to build a monastery. 

The San Salvador monastery has operated for  1,000 years this year. Operated in the earlier centuries as a Cluniac order. At that time it was one of the most important monasteries in Asturias and a key stopping point for pilgrims along the Camino Primitivo. It remains an active Benedictine monastery.

The monastery has the reputation for being haunted. An attraction for some and others  move on quickly.

Salas

Almost everything there is to see or do in Salas is centered around the Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, a 16th century church whos tower  is now a museum for pre-Romanesque pieces.

I don't have a lot of pictures because the rain persisted throughout the day with the temperature rarely getting above 50. I had to walk in most of my warmer clothes and was wet from the inside with perspiration due to the climb and the outside from the rain. I took a quick shower put on my remaining dry clothes and went to bed.

When I woke up on Monday, all my clothes from the previous day were still wet and it was raining. I put on some dry clothes, some wet clothes and started out.

The Misty Rain persisted with temperatures in the 40s .After walking for about 2 hours feeling sorry for myself I saw a cab with a fellow Pilgrim getting in. I'd already decided to try to find a way out of the weather so I split the cab and went back to the Grado.

I thought about spending the night in Grado but decided to sit down and have breakfast and coffee to make a decision. The bus lines and trains are very limited from here going west towards Santiago. I decided to take a bus back to Oviedo where there's a train station, a bus station, and an airport.

I booked a place for a couple nights and was able to wash and dry all over my clothes. I spent two days in Oveido seeing the rest of the town and enjoying a long tour of the cathedral.

Now for a few days I play tourist trying to get back to the Camino west of the mountains. In the morning I leave by train for Leon. The train follows the Camino San Salvador route through the heart of the mountains going south. 

Connections are a bit challenging So I plan to spend two days in Leon and then take the train in Lugo. In Lugo I can pick up the Camino Primitivo again and walk the last 100 km to Santiago.

Got to be flexible when trying to do the Camino, and it helped to be in a country where most bus and train fares are less than 10 euros between cities. A 3 euro bus ride erased 3 days walking.

I'm still enjoying everything about Spain. I'm being challenged with having to speak in Spanish.  Very few people in this part of Spain speak any English. 

I'll keep you up on further plans as they change.