I woke up and took a quick walk down the street to check out the view in the morning light. It was still amazing.
Today our destination is Barcia and most of our walk is on farm roads with rolling hills. We will end up back near the coast. John left our Pensión with Hank, our new friend from Belgium, while I stopped at the store to buy bread, ham and cheese for out lunch. It didn’t look like we would pass many services today. I also bought a small bag of olives, a bag of walnuts and fruit. These have become staples of ours to snack on as we walk. It took longer than e pected at the store and I didn’t catch up with John and Hank for over an hour. I enjoyed my solitary walk but was happy to catch up with them for some conversation. . We finally reached Barcia, where we had a reservation at an agriturismo and said goodbye to Hank who was heading to the next town. We were sorry to leave him as we enjoyed talking with him. We checked in and thankfully, the owner offered to let us use her washing machine. We showered and washed most of our clothes and hung them on the line next to hers. The closeline was under a roof which was good as it started to rain soon after I hung them on the line.
The village was very small and there was only one restaurant in town that did not serve food until 8:00 so we headed out for a walk to find the beach and the train station. The FEVE train stops here once a day but does not look like it is used very much. It is located at least a kilometer from town. There was a nice coastal walk that ran along the beach.
At 7:30 we headed to the restaurant, hoping they would let us order food a little earlier than 8:00. We had walked over 20 miles and were hungry and tired. But the bartender told us the kitchen did not open till 8:00 pm. There were several tables of men playing cards in the restaurant and several women sitting outside. We were the only non local people. At 8:00, the owner’s wife came in and promptly waited on us and then cooked our meal. She was very nice and recommended the regional specialty, Cachopo. This is a dish made with two large veal fillets, breaded and fried, and stuffed with ham and cheese. Of course it is served with French fries and some pimentos. We ordered one and split it but still were unable to finish. It was very good but a lot of meat. After our late dinner we headed back to our room and tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately, the owners large extended family was staying in the horreo (house on stilts) that was converted into lodging and their kids were yelling and running up and down the stairs right outside our window well after midnight.
Despite the noise till late at night, it was a great day once again on the coast of northern Spain 😊.