Day 5 - "Sidre es gasolina!"

Pola de la Rena => Oviedo 33km

San Salvador was coming to an end so quickly but had still felt epic. We packed up our bags at the crack of dawn for the last time. The night before had been a fairly late one, we were treated to some live music in the town square courtesy of the town's fiesta. One benefit of a quiet Camino where only a few people are in the Albergue is that you get given the Albergue keys and there's no curfew, felt a bit naughty coming back after 10pm!

We smashed the first 13km in a couple of hours with the help of some drum and bass on Neil's phone. Then progress slowed after we reached the first bar stop. The region  of Asturias which we are now in is famous for Sidre (Cider) that has be poured into a glass from as great a height as possible. There is great ceremony surrounding the pouring of Sidre and in almost every bar an old man will come up and show you the "proper way" of doing this. Whilst on Camino, 95% of Neil's fluid intake is Alcohol, "mi gasolina" in Scanish. Expecting the last half of the walk to be on the flat through urban sprawl  at two bars we ended up getting through 7 large bottles of Sidre (I probably had one pint out of those bottles). However, after our lunch stop San Salvador threw one more mountain at us and Neil was on the struggle bus. I kept entertained though by his cracking one liners ("That would be a nice photo....if you can be bothered"), we also gushed a little about all things Camino and how they've added to our lives.

We made Oviedo as the Sun was setting. The arrows seemed to disappear but we had the luxury of hundreds of people around to ask directions. Then we were there!

Both of us decided the actual arrival at the Cathedral was an anticlimax as it was closed and we couldn't get our certificate. We also didn't end up seeing the other three Pilgrims we had befriended and they have now carried on to walk to Santiago on the Camino Primitivo. Contact details have been swapped though so we will continue to follow them.

Depite the anticlimax this Camino has been incredible. The scenery was breath taking, the company was very special and I didn't have to go hungry being a vegetarian. Today we got out San Salvadorana certificates and got to see the Cathedral again. In some way it wasn't untill I sat on the fountain in the square with a sketch pad taking in this beautiful Cathedral, thinking back on the memories San Salvador had given me, that I truly felt I'd arrived.