Sunday the 17 Jun - Tapia to Ribadeo

Woke up at 2:30 to use the washroom and didn't get back to sleep until 4:30. There were  couple of big snorers in the refugio. Oh well. Woke up at 7:30 and Surprize.... Maureen was already up, along with almost everyone else in the place, and almost ready to go. I was up and ready to go by 8. It worked out well.

Nice morning. Sunny. We followed the road 2 kilometers out of town to the highway and then looked closer at the guidebook and realized that the road out of town would take us inland to the old original camino. Maureen wanted to follow the coast trail so we walked 2 kilometers back into town which didn't bother me as it was a beautiful morning and we passed a few things that most tourists might not see, like the cemetery.

Maureen was upset but she got over it soon enough. There were not alot of shells or arrows in town but we did find our way to the trail.
A nice walk up to and along the sea walk, past the very impressive beach, down the road across the river?, it was the smallest river I have ever seen, small creeklet  (is that word?)  a wet ditch maybe.  I don't want to insult anyone who might be proud of their river, but.... really? We followed the route E9 which according to the guide book was the leisure road, the pretty road, the quiet road. And so it was.
The trail was lovely, almost all on quiet back roads, through hamlets and farms and clearly marked with yellow arrows if there were no shells.

The road was alternately flat with fields on either side and no trees or gently curving roads winding through little hills with lots of trees and bush.

We saw herds of dairy cows quietly chewing their cud. One cow came running across the field and followed us for the length of the field. A very curious cow. The whole area seemed to be a dairy sort of place. Lots of small farms with milking barns and all of the accompanying aromas involved with that industry. They do have great cheese in the area.

Actually, everywhere I have been Spain has great cheese. Happy curious cows make great cheese.
 Some bikers passed us and disappeared very quickly. There are lots of ways to travel the Camino. Bike, horse and walking.  So far we had seen bikers and walkers but we never saw any horses that were part of the camino. The countryside of the north coast is very pretty.

 Lots of narrow roads with forks in them to make us wonder which way to go but our friendly arrows and shells kept us on course.
There was an old monastery but i don't know if it was still active as a monastery as it was all locked up.

 We passed some german pilgrims who had left the refugio a little earlier than we did. They had stopped to take a break  at a little collection of houses/farms. I could not see a refugio or cafe but there was a bench.
 We only saw one or two pilgrims on the first two days of our walk and today we were seeing lots. We made plans to meet at a restaurant on a beach and I walked ahead.  I did not get very far ahead though as I kept stopping to take photos.

I went over the rise of a hill and there was this huge bay. The road went down to an estuary, marshy sort of area with a boardwalk.  I took the board walk as it looked like it was going where I wanted to go. The boardwalk came to, crossed over and followed for a short distance a stream with frogs. Hundreds of frogs.

 Very fun. Maureen caught up with me on the boardwalk at the frogs. We followed the boardwalk to a little cafe/store at a campground/ RV park where we had a  bit of a break. The young man was very friendly and happy to serve us . We were his only customers at that time. A bite  of toast and some tea at the cafe and plans to meet at the refugio in ribadeo as I was going to walk ahead at my own pace.

The walk continued through the country side. Small hamlets without any signs to say what they were called.   Narrow lane-ways with high walls on either side that opened up at the gates into farm yards with cows and dogs and cats and old trucks. There were also some pretty nice houses with new shiny cars and beautiful gardens. One had a bird of paradise plant that was huge. There must have been twenty flowers in bloom.
There was one town with a memorial sign /crest of the city? but no shells or arrows. The crest says something like "The past heros of the trade unions gave us our independence in 1776". I could be wrong and probably am so if you can come up with a better translation let me know. I got a little concerned about m direction so asked an old man on a bench "Perdon Senor... Camino? and I pointed the  way I thought it would be.

The old man on the bench nodded so I  said "Gracias" and continued and hoped that he wasn't misdirecting me. He was not.  It is all a matter of trust. The Spanish people seem to delight in assisting pilgrims. Quite extrodinary really when one considers how many pilgrims pass through their towns.
There was more country and there were more cows and then goats.  really pretty goats with nice colours. The country side was lovely and quiet.

Then came the highway. The "Autovia" and the bridge. There is a bridge to Ribadeo across the "Ria" (river) Eo from the Asturias and into Galicia. This bridge is high. This bridge is a Mile long. This bridge is really a test for anyone who is afraid of heights. It is not that I am afraid of heights, I am afraid of falling off and getting killed. Heights are fine with a handrail.

This bridge had a great handrail and a wonderful divider between me and the traffic on the Autovia. It even had a yellow arrow on it, the handrail that is. Yes you have to cross the bridge. It was very windy and long, did I mention that it was long? Did I mention that the traffic on the Autovia is about two feet away from you on the inside, and that even though there was a dividing fence of sorts between you and the traffic, there was still the air pushing you as the larger vehicles went by and there were lots of them. Kind of an odd feeling of the wind pushing you one way and the passing vehicles pushing you another way. I thought of my 4 year old grand-daughter Mary who told me once on the high level bridge that if we fall we will break our bones.

Probably halfway across the bridge I was in the Province of Lugo in the state of Galacia.
I got to the other side with out being blown off, or losing my hat and found my way to the refugio just on the other side of the bridge.
 It was very, how shall I put it, unclean.  Maybe no one had cleaned it yet from the night before but I would not stay there even if it was only 10 Euros.  In case Maureen was game to stay,  I left my knapsack and hat/poncho on two lower bunks and went outside to wait for her. there were maps to another hostel in town with directions so I took one and made plans to check it out.

I had a bit of lunch that I had picked up in Tapia the day before, quinao salad, while I waited and got a nice  picture of her crossing the bridge. When she got there we decided that we would in fact not stay there and that we would go elsewhere in town, but not right away. I went for a wander while she rested after her walk.
The refugio is right on the bay right next to or maybe part of a large park. There was this great observation dock extending well out away from the shore which I went out on. Great views of the bay and the shore.

I followed the path along the shoreline to a fort .  Fort San Damian is a small Forte  with 12 canons built  around 1624 to protect the town from seaward invasion. It obviously worked as Ribadeo is still there.  Ribadeo faces Castropol (in the Asturias where we just came from), across the inlet of the river Eo.  I don't think that the fort would have protected Castropol but maybe it did.

 It was locked so could not get inside to see but it looked very cool from the outside. the path turned into a small road and I followed it for awhile but it did not seem to reach anywhere. I found a map that showed me this little road followed the coast for miles.  I stopped and turned back. Beautiful tall eucalyptus trees with lots of birds that I have never heard before. I could not see them only hear them.

Wandered back to Maureen seeing a giant sun dial on the way. The town itself is built on a steep hill with the old town more or less at the top of the hill and lovely promenade and marina down by/ in  the water.we headed into town to find the hostal. when we were almost to the hostal, Maureen said she wanted to go to information to find out if there were other places to stay. So off we went.  

We reached the Plaza de Espania which  is surrounded by some wonderful old turn of the century buildings. the square had a park with trees and benches and a fountain. There were coffee shops and gifty kinds of shops all around the square but it was not very busy. We found the Information building on the far side of where we had come into the square.

The Information girl was very helpful. Maureen had her call several hotels to see if there were rooms with a view of the water available and then give us directions to the one down by the water that we thought might be the best one. They had a model boat in the foyer that was to scale and very large. If we were so inclined I think we could have rented bicycles there too.

We wound our way back down to the water front through some wonderfully narrow streets and lane-ways. I found my favorite door in Spain so far, just a delightful marvel of architectural splendor.  a few more streets/ back lanes/sidewalks and stairs gong down  and we  found our hotel, Fogar de Marinero, which was pretty nice for only 60 Euros. We settled in pretty quick and went out to get some lunch.

The weather had been getting cloudier all day and as we were going for lunch it started to rain.  Luckily the restaurant, Restaurante Bar Marinero, was right next door so we did not have to go far. Our timing was perfect too. We ordered right before a very large, noisy party arrived and placed their orders. Our conversation slowed considerably as we could not hear each other until thier food arrived and got down to eating.

After lunch Maureen decided to have a siesta and I donned my rain poncho and went for a walk. My mission was to find stamps, a post office or mail box, the bus station and to just look around . There was this very large building on the waterfront which did not look like it belonged there, so of course I went to look at it. Turned out it was an elevator to take one up to a street that was almost level with the square, almost. I wandered back up to the square  past a lovely little old fountain in its own little square. made my way up to the park and found a kiosk who opened just me to buy some postcards but no stamps.  The Post office was closed till monday.

It was raining quite hard so I ducked into a coffee shop and had a cup of tea and wrote postcards and did some journalling.
got directions to the bus station and found it after a bit of confusion. could not make heads nor tails of the schedule as it seemed that the bus from Ribadeo only went back toward Oviedo. Odd. Figured that we could figure it out tomorrow. headed back down to the hotel. It was pouring rain by this time and I was pretty much drowned up to my knees.

Maureen was up and going through her things to try and lighten the load. her backpack was way too heavy she said. We had a good laugh over that and disposing of extra weight. Went for a quiet supper. Maureen managed to get on line and talk to her daughter Teresa. I read and then went to bed early. Nice and warm and dry.