Thursday 14 Jun - Madrid to Luarca

I woke at 630 and quietly packed what I could with out making any noise. Made myself a cup of tea that had a slight coffee taste as I used the coffee maker to heat the water. Read  "Wicked" until Maureen woke up around 730 and then packed all my noisy things. crinkly packages and such. Had a nice spinach and cheese omelet with fresh tomatoes for breakfast.  

Maureen had bought way too much food.
  She packed a few things that she wanted and I packed up the pasta and sugar for the first refugio that we stayed in that had cooking facilities. I had a shower and then read until nine. Did the dishes with Maureen and we were set.
Took down the garbage about 910. Our apartment was on the top floor, but there was an elevator so it was OKay. I waited while Maureen paid and at 920 we left for the station. 

Caught the metro  at the plaza del Sol and we were at the station at about 1010 am. Our train loaded at 1040 out of gate 19. There was a moment of confusion on the platform when I didn't understand that we had to put our bags through the security scanner on the platform but it passed quickly and without incident. 

We found our coach #9 and our seats 5 c was mine  and to our great pleasure discovered that the economy class on the train is pretty darn nice.  There were big comfy seats and movies to watch  with free earphones and  those little fold down tables to write or eat on. 
The train left right on time.

 Madrid is in a dry areA Like the Quesnell area or on the way to the grand canyon except there were very pretty little villages along the way,  but our train did not stop. 

It was the express. It was electric and very quiet. Poppies along the tracks.  Pretty forests with little round trees and each tree with its own little round shadow. Very surreal.  very much like paintings I have seen but never thought were from real landscapes. Wrote in the journal to get caught up but Maureen was chatty.  She said that I could give her a copy of my journal. I say no. She can keep her own journal on this trip. We are each having our own camino with our own journals. The towns went past. Maureen went for coffee. I had some omlet and crackers with cheese and tomatoes. 

Took some photos.  Was not sure what exactly I was seeing sometimes. Was it a soccer field or a bull fighting ring? The train had started to go up and I started to count the tunnels  Old farmhouses, rivers, farms and fields. Valencia? Balencia? Old train sidings with old buildings. Villaon Brales.  twin towers. Wind mills generating electricity. Very man of La Mancha.

Villada with its graveyard. We did not stop at the small town in the middle of the fields. Where are the farmers? I do not see little houses in the farms. Do they all live in towns and go out to their fields? I went to the bar car for some water and chips.  Maureen is sleeping. Twenty tunnels so far.

Towns with gardens out back and cows- brown cows and Holsteins. Leon comes and goes and we are really starting to go up now. La Bobla . Hills and mountains. 

I stop counting tunnels after  75. Short ones and long ones. There must have been over a hundred tunnels by the end of the trip. We are very high now and I try to get a photo in-between the tunnels. 

The Cantabrian Mountains are beautiful. Rugged and steep with little roads switch backing up the sides to little farmhouses. Horses and cattle on the steep slopes where there is grass growing. but it is mostly rugged rock. 

We start to go down. We pass a power station? Coal? There had been something about the coal miners going on strike.

We reached Ovieda at 350 pm. A very nice gentleman on the train told us how to get to the ALSA bus station. He told us twice. Once on the train and once outside the train station when we thought we might take a cab. ALSA was about one block away. We walked. 

I had printed out our timetable for the buses and good thing too as the ticket seller did not speak any english. She was very helpful though. She let us know that we could catch an earlier bus than the one I thought we would have to. It left at 530. But somehow we thought she meant that it was leaving at 430 and so when the bus pulled in at 430, we tried to get on and the bus driver thought we were two crazy old lady tourists . Then I thought my watch was wrong by an hour but in the end it all worked out. 

I bought some post cards and a lovely polka dot scarf for 5 Euros. while we waited we had iced teas.
The bus did leave at 530 and it was the express but it did stop at quite a few places so I can only imagine what the regular run would be like. The bus was nice a regular bus but had no washrooms on it.
Luarca is the most lovely fishing village I have ever seen. Of course it being the only fishing village I have ever been in might give one reason to question the validity of the prior statement. 

But it really was a beautiful little town.  It is located at the bottom of a very steep ravine with a river running trough it right on the coast. the roads coming into Luarca are steep and switch-backed.
We found and checked into our lovely 2 michelin star hotel and our lovely room with a view.  The lady at the front counter was very helpful and so, after semi settling in to the room, we set off armed with the knowledge that there was a museum down the wharf that held the world's largest giant squid (dead I am sure) and an abundance of good restaurants. 

We wandered around finding the museum but it had just closed. The jetty was grand and the harbour was full of colurful boats of many sizes.  The Restaurant that we chose to eat at had very good food but the waiter was a little rude. In his defence, if there can be one for a rather rude waiter, there was a soccer game on and so I think that he would really rather have just been watching the game and not have been bothered with those pesky english tourists. We ended up being joined by Glenn from England who works with the BBC on the Olympics and live feed with computers and stuff. He was on holidays before the madness all began. Who could blame him.  He was going surfing as it seems the coast of Spain is famous for its surfing? 

After dinner we, as in Maureen and I,  had a nice walk to the beach, through the town and then back to the hotel. The helpful lady at the counter asked if we would mind writing her a note  why we were doing the camino and gave us directions to the camino in this town. It is just up the street and around the corner. Very easy to find.  I paid for our stay and she stamped our credentials. Our first stamps it was very exciting.
Sleep came easy after a very busy day of sitting and enjoying the scenery of Spain.