Hotel Spa La Hacienda De Don Juan Llanes

Twas a rough old night as we free camped (including a wonderful fish barbecue) on Oyambre beach, and it soon became apparent that our surf boards were non too happy perched a-top the van roof; this to the extent that they attempted to become detached at around 5am ...

.....or "The Christians Get Nasty Back!" We've driven out from Bilbao about 3 hrs. We drove mostly down the coast--lots like highway 1 down the California coast. Some very beautiful sights....after getting used to driving a car the size of a large anchovy can and the stick shift (which I haven't driven in over twenty years, I'm sure!) I was able to allow the sights to sink it. A few missed turns--thank ...

Left Hector's at 10 am. I was very tired. We hit the road right after getting bread and fruit for breakfast. We ate breakfast and I decided to get some shut-eye after downloading all of the pictures from the day before. Conrad said he would wake me if he saw anything cool. I thought I was just about falling asleep when he woke me up for a "scenic detour". Wow, was all I could ...

... the mountains following the river Cares. Although it is only possible to see the river occasional due to it being too far below the path it is possible to hear it. The walk is about 24 kilometers there and back. Approx 16 miles. We have never been on such a spectacular walk. The path clings to the cliff face hundreds of meters above the gorge and burrows through solid rock. It is very difficult to describe adequately.

Tomorrow 2 10 09 we move on.

We awoke to the sounds the ocean across the street. A stroll revealled the Picos de Europe directly behind us. We toured the lovely old city, took some naps, played in another discovered playground, and set off again around ...

... treeless. The road along the coast would be hillier but has lots of views of the sea and plenty of shade, even though much of it seems to be along the main highway

One day we disregard the clouds and drive along a truly pectacular road to Potes, (heaps nicer than the 'best' village in Spain, Santillana del Mar). Here we manage to get a little walk in while the rain stayed away.

After 6 nights in Pechon we drive to an ...

... but more like something one would grow in the garden. 
 We then left for our camping site, having been chosen for the rushing river and hopefully sufficient white noise it would provide for sleep.  The sat nav was taking us the way of the main highway but we realized there was a two-lane road right next to us for a while.  I took a look at the map and it would indeed be next to us for the whole time.  So we decided to take N634 the rest of the way and it was a lot ...

... facts I must hear, I forget the name, form, and function of the church. Jon tells me it had small windows and acted like a fortress during earlier centuries. No big deal if I let 1 church out the 349292 churches I have seen in Spain out of my grasp....in my opinion. After viewing this church, a couple of us went to a "Sidrería", which is a place where they sell cider...a famous product of the Asturias region. Fortunately, it only cost 2.40 euros a bottle so we got a few of them ...

... the pass at 1280m (4,200ft), then drove back down again. The view going the other way was equally spectacular. We stopped on the way down at a weir where there was a salmon ladder. We did not see any, but did see loads of fishermen at various points, so there were some there somewhere. Needless to say as we came to the foothills it became cloudy again. We had a couple of mornings just wandering around Ribadesella itself ...

... were very open to chatting and sharing life in a small mountain town. At one point I was a spectator of a game called "bollos" which appeared to be very similar in nature to bowling, although they did have some complex rules regarding how to hold the ball and what from you could use to knock down a pin or a combination of pins. I had a great time observing this and was surprised to find out that only the men of the town play this game. The women tend to stay in the house ...