We left our alburgue with less sleep than we would have liked. While the albergue was clean and organized, the beds were close together and the top bunks were quite high. The bunks all had curtains, outlets and their own light which was nice, but I was pretty warm up near the ceiling and felt a little claustrophobic. We had the included breakfast of toast and jam with coffee and headed out. The town was still quiet at 8:00 am when we left and it was a pretty walk out of town.
We passed numerous beaches on our way and the only people in the water were of course surfers. I didn’t realize there was such a strong surfer culture in northern Spain.
As usual when hiking on the coast of northern Spain, we seemed to always be walking uphill – even near the ocean. We hiked up hill for quite a way and as we reached the top, the most amazing views spread before us. The snow covered Picos de Europa was on the left, a beautiful village was in front of us in the distance and magnificent views of the Atlantic Ocean were on our right. I truly couldn’t believe the view and wondered why I had never heard of this place. I took a lot of photos but they don’t do it justice. John called it is “wow” moment. The most amazing thing was that cows were grazing on this beautiful land and there were no people around. And no high-rise hotels. I’m sure it is busier in the summer. But still….
We could see the medieval church of San Vincente de a Barquera in the distance for quite a while – for at least 5 k We finally crossed the bridge into the city, took a requisite Camino photo and stopped for a coffee and tortilla. We saw several friends from the hostel the night before in town. They are much quicker walkers than us.
We soon left Cantabria and entered the Asturias region. We hiked inland for a time thru the forest but eventually made our way back to the coast. We came to an intersection where we could choose to walk for a time along the road or choose the coastal route. We chose coastal. The trail as t marked but we could see the path crossing cow pasture and running along cliffs near the coast. We could see that a couple we met from Hungry earlier stopped at the same intersection but they chose the road. The scenery again was beautiful. We did lose the path a couple times – I think because it’s early in season and grass had overgrown sections. It was a bit scary at times as there was a sharp drop to the ocean on one side and thorns and large cows to the left. At one point, we were not sure how we would get thru one of the gates as there were several cows in the way. They seem quite docile but they are very large and there was no where to go on the right but down a cliff. But as we got closer they let us pass by without a problem. I have decided I really like dairy cows. 😊. The mother cows take such good care of the little ones.
we arrived a little before they opened. John decided on a siesta while I went to check out the village of Pedentues.
The albergue was the best we stayed in so far. There were only 11 beds and it had such a welcome vibe. They did a couple community loads of laundry for us. We were allowed to wash clothes worn that day. It is always nice to have laundry done by machine. We had a delicious community meal with new friends from Hungry, Argentina, Italy, Barcelona, Japan, Michigan, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and of course Germany. At dinner we received notes of encouragement written by pilgrims there the day before. Of course we paid it forward by writing out own notes to pilgrims coming the next day. The albergue was donativo which means you pay what you can for services offered.
it was a special experience and we slept well.
