Camino: Spain, day 8

Blogged by Kim;

Following the slightly odd end to yesterday(!), we had a great night sleep, a good breakfast of fruit, Yoghurt, cheese, toasted bread and jams fresh orange juice, coffee, next to a warm open fire.

Room where we ate looks like a converted barn very nice.

Peregrinos had eaten on a large table and one group was just leaving.

Host was friendly and offers a free pickup and drop off service to camino route about 4 km away.

A surreal experience. If you've seen the film "The Way", I wonder if his name was ‘Ramon’ if you catch my drift...

The heaters in our room managed to dry out our clothes well. It was throwing it down when we woke up but thankfully as we left today it stopped.

It was though God had parted the clouds, there was black stormy skies on one side of us and sunny blue skies where we were riding.

We read of severe lightning storms all over Europe killing people this weekend so I said to Don look for the blue clouds and first sign of flashing and I'm stopping for shelter!

However, all was well and the ride through ‘Asturias region’ was stunning, mountainous climbs, twists and turns, picturesque villages, giant wind farms on top of the hills, we were high in the clouds several times. If the roads had been wet it would have been very challenging.

It stayed dry thankfully except for a light shower and then we saw the sea and coast of Spain.

We arrived early today only a 2.5hrs ride. Most days our rides have been 6+ hrs.

We had a fantastic welcome from the owners who were still cleaning our room - as we were so early!

They came to the car park, collected our bags and made us a hot drink with chocolates.

The hotel is 19th century and was converted in 2010. The owners don't speak English so Kim's pigeon Spanish was fine and got us by.

We walked down the road and found a cafe set on the north of Spain camino route. (There are lots of different Camino routes.)

There was about 10 peregrinos in the cafe and 1 young boy who looked about 20 was on his own and looked tearful. Motherly instincts we went to check he was OK and offered to buy him some food but he said he was fine so wished him ‘buen camino ‘ and our blessings.

Nice meal and wander around ‘ Villapedre’.

Tonight, is our final hotel stay and we will be heading to Santander tomorrow morning to catch the 3.15pm ferry back, a mini cruise, there's a Michael Buble tribute act on board. Don is so excited! Lol!

Riding update (from Don):

Yesterday we covered 192Km in fairly challenging conditions.

The total distance covered on our trip so far is: 3131Km.

Holly (our Honda Crosstourer Highlander) had been good as gold on the entire trip, never missing a beat- well done girl!

Very pleased that I got Russ Tappenden (Portsmouth's own MC tyre genius) to fit a pair Mitchelin Pilot Road 4 Trail tyres shortly before our Camino. Very sticky & trustworthy tyres!