12th October (sunny and hot) 300 km....by car

Good old Mum.  She sure knew what she was talking about.  This morning, I expected nothing and in a way was dreading the second breakfast we had already paid for.  Pete was in the same state of mind, and yet we really enjoyed it….because we expected nothing.  We found they had the good old egg and potato tortilla, cold, but they also had a microwave.  So we microwaved these and they were delicious.  Yesterday, we had found the coffee and the hot milk belatedly.  Today we were on to it and enjoyed delicious milky coffee all through breakfast.

After a noisy night, where, for a Thursday, something must have been going on in the old town, because even at 2am, the revellers were still acting up outside. The odd few were still at it at 4am. The one thing we did discover about the hotel was that it certainly doesn’t have double glazing and that it definitely needs it. Pete had developed a migraine last night, just before bed. He’d been watching Wales v Spain on the tele (so not surprising) and the picture had been very wavy. He was glad to hit the hay as he was partially losing vision. 

He had problems this morning again over breakfast.  A bit worrying and back in the room, he lay down on the bed for a while with a pillow over his head until he felt better. (No, I was not holding the pillow over his head!)  Not good though, especially as he is down to drive for the weekend and I can’t because I didn’t bring my license.

Time ebbed away until we were checking out at 11.15am. Aside from last night, it was a lovely hotel, with a great location. After picking up a map for our journey from Tourism Info, it was around to the train station to pick up the car. Forms signed, we took the bikes around to the car park to begin loading. What a job that was. It was a good thing that I’d scored some of the hotels discarded cardboard to protect the car and the bikes from any damage on our journey.  We have a black Toyota which looks a lot like Pete’s Mazda at home funnily enough.

After a bit of juggling, we were off. The streets were relatively quiet which was handy for Pete as he was driving a manual, left hand drive. Once clear of the city centre, we thought it would be a nice ride on the motorway toward Santander. We did not account for an accident further up the road and the fact that it was a national holiday in Spain today. Every Spaniard was on the roads today, so what a baptism by fire for Pete, who hasn’t driven in Europe for thirty three years.  We were stuck in that traffic jam for about an hour and wouldn’t have been much slower on our bikes!

Feeling refreshed after a swim at Castro Urdiales - needed that to wash the stress away of getting out of the city!

It seemed to take forever to get away from Bilbao with that accident, but once clear we zipped along at a cruisy 120kms per hour, which is the speed limit over here.   Pulled off the highway to the coastal resort of Castro Urdiales for a swim as we were roasting hot. Pete due to nervous energy and me because it was twenty eight degrees. Found a place to park, which was a feat in itself on a public holiday, then found a gorgeous beach and a toilet to change in, before getting a swim in a cool sea with a temperature of around fifteen degrees. Main shops were closed today, but some smaller outlets were open so we picked up some stuff for lunch and a drink.

The northern coast is full of beautiful bays like this one - very glad we are not climbing all the way out of each one on our bikes!

We cracked into our cold cokes but agreed to save our sardines, tomato and bread until we found a picnic area worthy of such luxurious eating.  Well, that picnic area never eventuated and we found ourselves back on the A8 motorway and needing to make up some time so rattled off some miles and thought we’d save our sardines for dinner.

We turned off the motorway to Cangas de Onis where we stopped for an ice-cream and Pete grabbed some Doritos because he was starving as it was now 5pm and we’d still had no lunch.

Followed the signs to Covadonga Monastery which I imagined was some little known monastery in the hills as I had only discovered it’s existence by clicking on the name on the map and this amazing photo pops up.  Back in NZ when I’d been spending my evenings planning our route on the 2D screen, I thought this would be a nice side trip.  I am so glad we are not cycling this portion of the trip.  The mountains are one thing, the traffic is another.  It would have been thoroughly unenjoyable on a bike simply because of the traffic and the fact there are no hard shoulders on these roads.

Cangas de Onis

Of course the fact that today was Spain day didn’t help the traffic situation and also the fact that Cangas de Onis was having some massive festival.  Obviously everybody who was going to the evening festival, had decided to drive up to Covadonga first.  It was about a 10 km drive up this road and along the way were five parking lots.  We managed to get a park at lot number 3 and walked the remaining 2 km up to the monastery with the rest of the hordes.  It was an amazing sight, set off particularly well with the rocks behind highlighted by the evening light.  But if you ever come here, pick a week day.

The Picos de Europa Mountains loom in the distance

We can see Covadonga as we start the walk from Carpark number three

Getting closer

Back in the car it was now 6.30pm and still no place to stay – I had been googling the past two days to find somewhere but we figured we’d see a campground open, but we didn’t.  As we headed south to Cain, the road got more and more mountainous, skinnier, twistier and turnier, with a raised lip at the side to stop you falling into the gorge below.  The scenery was spectacular, but Pete did not get a chance to enjoy it as he had to concentrate so hard on the driving. 

I got a few photos out the windscreeen but with dying light and movement, they
did not do the area justice.  It was a dicey drive and we were just glad to get through
it in one piece.  It would have been great on a bike as the gradient was good, but
only if there were no cars on the road.

We pulled over into a carpark outside a hotel in the middle of all these rocks – just a hotel, nothing else.  There was a woman outside and she spoke English, but told us the hotel was closed for the season.  I asked if we could sleep in the car in the carpark outside and she said yes we could.  I was rapt, but Pete was worried we still had too far to go and knew we would not get much sleep in the car, so we ventured further into the mountains.

About 10km further on we came to the village of Oseja – it seemed crazy you would actually have people living up here.  It was a settlement of about a hundred buildings and we pulled into the first hotel – full.  She recommended one up the road, so we pulled in there.  They were also full, so as I was leaving, I smiled at a woman and she spoke a little English and we established I was looking for a place to sleep.  There were about ten people outside this hotel having a drink and suddenly they were all involved in trying to find us a place to stay.  Cellphones were out, I was speaking into a translator and options were coming forth.  In the end, the woman who spoke English (a Romanian woman called Rodika), said they had a place, they were getting it ready and it would be about half an hour.  So we had a beer and a wine…..then another beer and wine.

Pete here - The wine was a house vino, whilst the beer was a 1906. Didn’t expect anything of it as Julia had just been handed the beer, but it was very nice, certainly the best drop I’ve had while in Spain. About an hour later and after chatting with different people, we were introduced to Sophia who took us next door. Talk about our luck being in. She told us through Rodika, the Romanian lady and her son Eddie, that we were to be in the house which was not yet finished for guests, but they had made an exception. We had the whole house, not that we used or needed it, but it was available to us. When they said it wasn’t finished, we thought, walls not in, plaster not done, but no…..it was just the odd lightshade not on, picture not hung. The place was immaculate and all to ourselves. Once installed, we munched on some baguette and jam with a cuppa, before having the best sleep I’ve had since we left NZ. What you need to understand, is that this village is in a gorge, high in the mountains with nothing to disturb anyone. The dogs only bark at anything out of place, like a theft, but who is going to travel out here to nick something. It was that quiet that you could honestly hear, the literal pin drop.