At the point where the Primitivo splits from the Norte, I briefly remembered last night’s talk with a French woman who has walked many different routes over the past 10 years. She thought I could and should do it. So I became part of the 25% turning left.  And then I went up and then down into Valdedios to see the monastery and then straight up to see the same monastery from what the guidebook calls a hilltop (translation: punishingly hard place to get to). Rain, chills, mud, but … quite nice really. I am the only one in a beautiful, new, municipal albergue in Palo de Siero.

In Villaviciosa after a fairly easy (but with some slippery patches of mud as a reminder) walk, first in a  light rain,  then in warm sun, from La Isla. Highlight: getting into a church built in 921 CE that still has some original coloring on ceilings and walls, along with an original stone baptismal font. (Wait out front of the house next door until the woman on the second floor sees you, opens her window and asks if you want the key to the church.)  Oh, and also when I asked two road workers if this road goes to Villaviciosa and they said, yes, in 3 km, and I asked,  “And Santiago?” and one guy said, “Just 1 km more.”

Posting on 4/19 because no wi-fi in La Isla last night. Walked with Nichole again on Monday. Met several peregrinos who had come up here from the frances because it was too cold. In Colunga now, 4 km into a short 20 km day.

Nichole and I walked out into a gentle,  persistent rain this morning in Llanes. Got off the marked track a couple of times, once having to walk on a railroad track which dumped us out right where the Way took us through a tunnel onto the road we needed. Good eats and drinks, including sidre (cider) which the old men at the bar thought we drank well (which meant all 3-4 ounces the server pours for you goes down all at once). We are staying in a house with a sign on the road that says,  “Pilgrims, you may stay here” (and Manfred, who lives here, said that in 10 minutes the bell will ring calling us to dinner at his and Bigitta’s dining table downstairs).

In Llanes sitting across the table from Nichole in an unplanned but happy meeting in the local albergue. Beautiful walk above the beaches in an on and off cool rain, finishing off with a 6 km walk very high on a steep hillside (but below a fancy golf course) past an old hermitage and a newer church and then down into town. The Camino del Norte app on a German fellow’s phone took us directly to the door.  And five minutes after we got inside, lightning shut off the computer and the skies opened with a flood of rain. We admired it from inside.

Cool and rainy at the beginning and end. Pavement pounding all day with a long uphill on the N-634 highway inyo Colombres. Talked with Karen in San Vicente in the middle of the day.

Lots of inland roads and trails to get to another beach town. In Comillas after my first 30+ km day.

Lots of inland roads and trails to get to another beach town. In Comillas after my first 30+ km day.

Left the wonderful all-volunteer albergue in Guemes after breakfast. Walked cliff tops and beaches to finally catch the ferry to Santander. Left Liza there for her return, via Barcelona, to her daughter, an artist in residence in Paris. From Santander to Requejada and a great little municipal albegue, keys from the bar across the street, from which I am, of necessity (only wifi in the neighborhood), writing.

Andando en las playas. Dos! About 10 km of beach walking in the rising and warming sun. Interrupted only by a climb up and over and down a rocky point with very steep sides more suitable for goats than old men in packs. Ask to see the pix. Then through small towns and fields to Guemes where we prepare to enter the wifi free zone of the best albergue on this route.