Yesterday was Matt's mum's last full day here and we decided on a trip to Oviedo to round off her visit. 
Oviedo is the regional capital of Asturias, and a highly-pleasant city to walk around. It has a lovely old town, where you'll find the excellent Museo de Bellas Artes or Fine Art Museum, which has free entry. There are works inside by Dali, Picasso, Goya and many more. The museum itself is situated in two gorgeous, well-maintained buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Despite the magnificence of the museum, I was very upset to find that my favourite painting (by a Catalan artist, Hermen Anglada Camarasa) had been put into storage for an indefinite period in order to show other paintings in the collection - I made my disappointment known, though I doubt this will influence their decision as to when to take it out again. One of my other favourite paintings there is by an Asturian painter, Evaristo Valle, who usually puts a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour into his paintings. It's entitled "Adam and Eve" - the picture is of a bookmark I bought, I hope you can make out Eve's stilettos and the wonderful expression on her face! (Adam isn't on the bookmark but in the picture he's standing facing Eve and hiding a whole bunch of apples behind his back.)
Matt's Mum and I having a rest.
A plant and flower stall at the outdoor market.
After this we visited the foodhall of the Corte Ingles, a large department store. We always visit the supermarket section when we're in Oviedo as it's possible to find foodstuffs there that aren't sold elsewhere. My discovery of Haloumi cheese in the 'gourmet' foodhall last summer made my entire year. It's also the place to go for oats, Colman's mustard powder, Marmite and other British delicacies we've forgotten to ask friends to bring when they visit.
Oviedo is the regional capital of Asturias, and a highly-pleasant city to walk around. It has a lovely old town, where you'll find the excellent Museo de Bellas Artes or Fine Art Museum, which has free entry. There are works inside by Dali, Picasso, Goya and many more. The museum itself is situated in two gorgeous, well-maintained buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Despite the magnificence of the museum, I was very upset to find that my favourite painting (by a Catalan artist, Hermen Anglada Camarasa) had been put into storage for an indefinite period in order to show other paintings in the collection - I made my disappointment known, though I doubt this will influence their decision as to when to take it out again. One of my other favourite paintings there is by an Asturian painter, Evaristo Valle, who usually puts a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humour into his paintings. It's entitled "Adam and Eve" - the picture is of a bookmark I bought, I hope you can make out Eve's stilettos and the wonderful expression on her face! (Adam isn't on the bookmark but in the picture he's standing facing Eve and hiding a whole bunch of apples behind his back.)
Another reason I enjoy visiting Oviedo is the many statues that are dotted around the city. It's always fun when you come across one you haven't seen before, especially when of it's a giant, rounded bottom.
Another of my favourites is this one. I think the baby's great.
Also, in the old town are numerous bars where you can stop for a rest and a drink. This is a common part of Spanish culture that I enjoy indulging in and yesterday was no different. (Although, this pastime has been threatened since the arrival of the euro in Spain which has caused prices to increase dramatically. In a recent TV interview by 100 chosen people the Spanish President, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, made a bit of a fool of himself when asked if he knew how much a coffee cost nowadays in an average bar, his confident answer - 80 cents - was about 50% short of the mark).
Matt's Mum and I having a rest.
After the trip to the museum, a coffee/water (for me) break, a wander round the indoor and outdoor markets and pre-prandial visit to another bar (for a beer), it was time for lunch. Lunch in Spain is the big meal of the day, so we made our way through a three-course meal, bread and wine and wobbled out of the restaurant over an hour later.
A plant and flower stall at the outdoor market.
No trip to Oviedo would be complete without a visit to Woody Allen. I'm pleased to report that the city council has still not replaced the half of his glasses that disappeared over a year ago. I'm still trying to figure out just how they were removed as the remaining half looks melted. On his last visit to the city (about twelve months ago), he noticed the vandalism but stated he was sure the glasses would be repaired very quickly, hee, hee. I wonder when he's coming back.
Aparently he's a big fan of the city - the rather sickening quote on the plaque below the statue reads "Oviedo is a delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, agreeable, peaceful, pedestrianised city. It's as if it didn't belong to this world, as if is didn't exist...Oviedo is like a fairytale". (I'm translating from Spanish here so can't promise it's exactly what he said.) Ugh, you can see why they commisoned a statue of him, they apparently thought he'd earned it with all that brown-nosing. Still, now that the glasses are half-missing it makes a visit to Oviedo even more enjoyable.
2 comments:
Ahh, so that's what the woody allen statue looks like!
Love the woman and baby too -- I've seen something similar elsewhere but for the life of me I can't remember where.
Aha, just discovered your coment. Yes, I do enjoy the woman and baby too, but I think the huge bottom just pips it to the post.
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