Saturday 16 jun - Navia to Tapia de Casariego

Woke at 6 to darkness so thought maybe I could go back to sleep but no. Quietly got up and dressed  and started to go out but realized it was raining out so changed my fleece for my rain poncho. Good thing too as it was raining pretty steady.
Walked down to the park and across the grass to the lagoon.

Followed the path around the lagoon to the boardwalk and crossed the lagoon on the rather cool wooden bridge. Very long, out to the really great beach. On a sunny day it would be even better.
The rain was coming in off the ocean with mist and wind.  A Light house up on the cliff  was just visible and houses across the bay from the lighthouse must have had a magnificent view on a clear day.

Spent a bit of time out on the concrete wall that keeps the river from washing away the beach or maybe the beach from clogging up the river.  I was the only person out there.
Walked back into town following the river walk. There were the oddest fish I have ever seen. They were slowly swimming upstream in the river with their mouths open just above the water line. It looked like they were catching anything that might be floating downstream. Very odd feeding behavior.

 There were birds. small brown birds and gulls of course. I only saw one boat go out and that was earlier, not when I was walking back to town by the river. Walked into town and it wasn't as far as it seemed the day before. Aaw some young revelers out closing a night club or something.

All dressed up and nowhere to go and they were not drunk. They went into a bar and ordered coffees. I kept going I was looking for the bus station to see what time the buses left. After asking a cab driver where the bus station was I found it. Could not make head nor tails of the schedule though. (maybe 1225 and 1925 to Tapia) went back and found a coffee shop , the Bar Antolin, that was also a  bakery and a chocolate shop. Those are the best kind of shops to find.
I had a tea and a fresh croissant, bought some chocolates for Maureen and I later, used the washroom, wrote in my journal and some postcards.

I found the remnants of a medieval wall that was very interesting. I found the  cathedral which was very cool but locked. I found the Post office after wandering around for about 30 minutes. It is behind the information building about two blocks and is closed on sundays. But I did find a mailbox and mailed the postcards that I had ready.

Went back to the hostel  at around 920 only to find Maureen was locked in the room?  I had taken the key so I could get back in not thinking that one would need a key to get out. We had a breakfast of semi burnt toast and tea, got our credentials stamped and paid for our stay. La Hostal Restaurant La Mariana might have been recommended in the guide book but I think that I would recommend it for large school groups as there are lots of rooms.
The bill worked out to only 62 Euros for 2 which is cheap enough for what we got I suppose. the beds were comfy and dry.

We walked into town  past the ugliest duck I have ever seen. Walked up to the ALSA station and decided that we did not want to wait for the bus so headed back into the center of town. The Cathedral was now open so we went in. I said a few Hail Mary's and lit a few candles for Bill.  got some pictures.  Nice church. We went into town to catch a cab to Castro de Coana and made arrangements with the cab driver to come back and pick us up at 2 to take us to Tapia de Casariego.
Castro de Coana is about 5 km south of Navia.   Castros  were the most common type of celtic/Iberian settlements at the end of the Bronze age, consisting of  80 circular dwellings  arranged haphazardly over a hillside surrounded by moats and palisades in the Navia valley. It dates from the Iron age,  pre roman, with the first archaeological digs taken place there in 1877.

We got there and it was still misting out. Paid our 7 euros left our packs behind the counter and walked over to the settlement. It was so cool.
None of the buildings had walls touching each other. Some had little kind of entry areas before the main circular interior . Of Course none of the buildings had roofs but I could imagine what it must have been like. It was very Conan.
Then too, the people were smaller then so the walls would not have to have been as high as for us today.
We went through the on-site museum which had many of the finds that had been unearthed there and showed what the site would have looked like and what they would have been doing in the area for the last 2500 years.

 it was very interesting. We picked up a few things a the little gift shop. I got a bracelet with a stone from the area. Very cool.
While we waited for our cab I sprinkled a bit of M&D there. They would like that.  Our cab came and took us to Tapia. the rain stopped and about 1 kilometer from town Maureen asked the driver to stop and let us out so we could walk into town? OK.
Tapia is another lovely little fishing village. I have to admit not as lovely as Luarca, but very nice.

We had to find the police station to get a key for the refugio. the guide book said it was by the harbour. so we walked all around the harbour but could not find the police station. we must have looked like we needed help because two young teens came up and asked  in english if they could help us. of course we said yes. Gillermo (William) who was 16 and Maria (Mary) who was 15 checked with their parents who seemed to think that was fine and so they took us to the police station which is up two roads from the harbour.

We never would have found it easily. It seems they spend every summer here with family . They are from Gijon. (Pronounced HHeehon) I never did get the pronunciation right. They interpreted for us our requirements to the police man.  The police officer had to call someone who had the key and asked Guillermo and Maria if they could show us where the refugio was. they happily took us there. they were great. I am sure that they must have an assignment to write when they get back to school on how many pilgrims they helped over their summer holidays.

Maria helped me with my spanish . when she found out that I was a vegetarian she wrote it down for me what to say so that the servers would understand. "Soy vegetariana, no quiero carne, ni pescado. Estaria bien ensalada o pasta, como arraz. vedura, queso a huevos." which means I am a vegetarian, I do not eat meat or fish. I will eat salad, pasta and rice with vegetables, cheese and eggs.
they took us to the refugio and said "buen Camino".  there were two floors  to this refugio.  the main floor had 6 bunks , two washrooms one guys, one gals with showers and sinks and toilets enough for two or three to be busy at the same time.
Upstairs were 7 more bunks. We each got a lower bunk  on the main floor and  I took the pasta and sugar that I had carried from Madrid and put it on the kitchen table.  We got changed into dry clothes as most of what we were wearing was damp from the rain that morning. Hung things out on the line to dry.
The refugio is located at the edge of town right on the ocean with its own stoney beach. Absolutley breathtaking. The sun was now shining and drying everything up very quickly. we walked into town t find a restaurant on the wharf. I had tomato ensalada with ewes cheese. very yummy.

Wandered up to the sea walk above the town, well actually the town was up there too, all along the ocean. Stunning views and lots of little beaches. there was a naval memorial and a salt water pool right on the ocean.  I had to use the washroom so Maureen and i split up and I went inland while she went along the wall back the way we came.  I found a washroom, a store where I purchase some fruit and postcards, a church with a very cool stained glass window and on the way back to the refugio, an optical illusion sidewalk.

I went down onto the beach and made an inukshuk and sprinkled a bit of M&D there. Maureen showed up just when I was finishing the inuksuk so we poked around the beach and collected sea glass. very small pieces of sea glass, not big enough to make jewelry . maybe a mosaic, a very small one. we will see what I can think of. When it started to get dark we went back up the stairs to the refugio and i wrote postcards and read Wicked.

fell asleep pretty quickly but did not get a real good sleep as I was woken up by snorers. I had ear plugs in when i went to sleep but for some reason when i woke up in the middle of the night to use the washroom I took them out. not smart.

Friday 15 Jun - Luarca to Navia

Woke at 5 but  black as black outside so went back to sleep till 6. the sky was just starting to lighten I was ready by 615 and was writing in journal while Maureen who hates getting up early was getting ready. by 630 we were on the Camino. we thought we found the stairs that our hotel lady had told us about, just up the street and around the corner, but we were wrong. one small false start and then we found our first yellow paint arrow and were on the right track. 

The climb up the stairs/road was as bad as we thought it waa going to be. We did stop a lot to “take pictures” and it was very picturesque with lots of flowers, cool doors, ocean views  and old buildings. I figure we went about 1 kilometer in the first hour and it was all-uphill.

Once we reached the top we increased our speed to Maureen’s’ walking speed of about 2 kilometers an hour.  She has short legs.  Another part of Luarca is on the top of the plateau. not for too far though. 

We continued through the country down small country roads/ byways/ paths.  We passed an old ruin of a church and stopped to take a few photos. . We felt great and there were good signs most of the way.   We paid attention and followed our guidebook from the confraternity of St James. Sometimes the little guidebook was a little confusing  and as there was construction of a new highway and so some of the landmarks/turns/ paths were not there or detoured from it made for a few challenging places to figure out which way to go.

 We passed many little farms and forks in the road. our guidebook told us of a restaurant that we could get breakfast in so we found that had a mother nature break and a bite to east. we had arrived just minutes before a busload of elderly tourists so beat them to the food and the washrooms. 

We went back where we departed the trail, not so far, and  continued our walk past farms and fields and another pilgrim (our first pilgrim that we had seen) came by who volunteered to take our picture. thanks. He walked a lot faster than us and so was gone from our sight in just a short while. our walk consisted of looking for arrows and shells. in the province that we were currently in you were supposed to follow the direction the base of the shell was pointing in. luckily there were arrows as not all of the shells were showing us the right way.

The markers were sometimes very different from an arrow painted on the road, a shell  or arrow on a wall, to a cement block with shell and arrow and milage.

We found the roman road that was very cool. and definitely a walk in the woods. Some bicyclists passed us riding down a steep gravel path. 

I know I could not do the Camino on a bike. My anatomy would hurt too much and I would be walking the bike more than riding it I think.

After the roman road it was a little scary. as we had to walk along a pretty busy highway that had no shoulders!  At first I was very reluctant to go at all but then a pilgrim came walking down the side of the highway (facing Traffic) and after “Buen Caminos” continues on his way. we followed him. Somehow in my brain, dieing on the highway with someone else was OK. 

Maureen went first and I took up the rear but Maureen walks with her head down and so when Maureen followed the inside rocky path along a cement divider with the highway on one side and big rocks on the other (the fellow up ahead followed the highway side and followed it around a curve and was soon lost to sight) I mentioned that maybe this wasn’t the best way to go and that we should go back to the highway and go on the highway side. “It was not far”. Maureen said “ we just have to go a little ways over these rocks and we can go around the end of the divider and then walk along the highway again “ 

Almost right at that moment, she fell, twisting around, falling and landing on her backpack, in-between the big rocks and the cement divider. I was in shock it happened so fast. She had not twisted or broken anything and did not seem to be hurt at all. I pulled her up and we continued on our way over the rocks and around the divider.  I think that if she had been walking alone she would still be there, wedged in-between the rocks and the divider, out of sight of the highway traffic. 

She was so lucky not to have hurt herself and to have been traveling with someone. She scared me to death.

We continued on down the highway to the path that cut back up the hill and took a break at the house that loves the Camino. Maureen met the lady from Austria who had walked very far on the Camino. The path continued through the country. we were off the highway and that made me happy. The trail wove its way back and forth through the country, often beside the highway and then veering away from it again. 

But none of the highway walks that we did from here on was as scary as that first stretch.

We stopped at Villapedre for water and a break at a cafe that was very used to pilgrims. At this point Maureen said she was ready to stop. I asked how far it was to Navia and was told about 5 kilometers. mostly flat, no big hills, very pleasant. Convinced Maureen she could do it and off we went again. It was noon and I figured that if we could go a little faster, we could get there in about an hour and a half.

We followed our signs down into a wooded valley and came to a stream. I thought “ this isn’t too deep and it is not very wide so we won’t get very wet” Maureen says “why don’t we take the bridge?”  Bridge? What Bridge? There off to my right, just in the shade of a big tree is a little bridge across the stream. We took the bridge.

On through the woods we persisted, passing farmers fields, walking small country roads and into some woods again. As the day progressed the wind had started to pickup. 

We continued along the trail through small groups of houses, not towns, across a train track, past some orchards(? ) over another train track and by the time we had a break  at 2 pm behind an old church building, out of the wind,, it was practically at gale force.

Came to the highway again and followed it till we found our sign.  we passed some what appeared to be bus stops and Maureen said she would wait there for the bus if she knew what time the bus was coming. 

We went down a dry trail to  another stream but the bridge this time was some  stepping stones. It was very cool and out of the wind too. Up the other side to the farmers field and when I went to take a picture of the small dead black snake, right when I snapped the photo, my hat blew off. It was so funny.

 At 215 when Maureen said that she had to slow down as she was so tired, I left her. We were only a little ways from Navia and I told here I would meet her there. I could not walk any slower.

 I scooted off and it was a nice walk  but very windy. Reached Navia in about 30 minutes It was a ghost town Had the plague hit ? Had the town been evacuated for some disaster warning? No, it was siesta time. I found the info place and I found a cafe that was open. I took off my pack that I had carried for 8 hours and had a coke. I figured that I needed the sugar to replenish my stores and give myself some energy again. 3o minutes later I walked back to the road that I had followed into town and there came Maureen. 

We went to the Information building and got the directions for the Refugio that we wanted to go to. it was another 10 minute walk through town to the beach. We proceeded to the Refugio.  I walked ahead and went in to see about getting a room. The woman  who did not speak any english and couldn’t understand my spanish said I should wait. Wait? OK, not sure what that was about but went out to wait.  When Maureen got there went back in and again asked for a room for the night. Then she understood understood. I was not here to eat, I wanted a room. 

She took us to the second floor of the three story walk up to the farthest corner of the building away from the stairs  and gave us Room 207, a small clean room with a view of the soccer field and skateboard? park. Once we threw off our backpacks Maureen said she wanted to lay down immediately for about 30 minutes until I mentioned there was a tub.  

 The sky was starting to fill with clouds and it was still very windy but  after showered/bathed, we changed into something more comfortable and went downstairs around 6 to have some wine before dinner. 

We sat outside, as there really was no where to sit inside, and  had wine, out of the wind somewhat.  We thought that they knew we wanted dinner but they did not bring us a menu, just wine, so at 8 oclock we asked if we could have dinner and they set us up a little table in the dining room. There was no menu and when I said I was vegetarian they brought me chicken soup with big bones still in the bowl. I had a salad with canned tuna mixed in and Asparagus soup that I believe was a knorr instant mix.  

I picked out the tuna  and finished my dinner and went to upstairs to bed around 930. Just as I was falling asleep idreamt that Maureen goat a strap of her packpack caught in something and she started to fall off of a high bridge. I woke up screaming NO. I did not get back to sleep right away as my heart was hammering out No! No! No! No! in my chest. 
It looked like it ws going to rain. around 10 I fell asleep and slept very well. 

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.