Monday Oct 17. Llanes to Celorio. 5.5km 1.5hrs. Travel Rest to Ribadesella.
We left Hotel Don Paco at 8-ish in the morning, after I backtracked as I thought I left something on the bed (later, I found I had packed into the bag).
Getting out of Llanes was easy and within 1km or so. We were soon in the countryside and some residential estate. We had booked a bus from Celorio to Belmonte de Pria to be able to spend the night at Ribadesella. The bus ride would saved us about 15km walking and 700 feet of ascent. We had 2.5 hours to walk the 5.5km from Llanes to the bus stop in Celorio, with lots of buffer.
We took a coastal route vs walking on the road. While the coastal scenery was much more limited, it was nonetheless more enjoyable walking in the countryside than on roads.
As we neared Celorio, it started to drizzle. Oops…I had forgotten to check the weather forecast app and assumed it was a dry overcast day. We shared one small umbrella and hustled to the bus stop.
That’s when I realized that I had again made an assumption from previous travels that I was heading for a bus depot. It was actually a bus stop on a major road outside the town center. Using Google Translate, I managed to confirm with a Spanish lady waiting at said bus stop that the Alsa bus would be stopping at said bus stop. Celorio was too small to have a bus depot.
Using Google Maps, I queried the options to Ribadesella as I wanted a back up option for a taxi all the way to our final destination for the day. Lo and behold, it was the same bus that I had booked!
We then discussed and agreed to take the bus to the final destination, rather than getting off at Belmonte de Pria and walking into Ribadesella. The driver charged us the difference to get to Ribadesella by stopping at our Belmonte bus stop and showing us on the meter, the additional costs. We gladly paid the difference.
Getting into Ribadesella earlier at 11-ish allowed us to spend some prayer time at the Iglesia Santa Maria Magdalena before it closed for the siesta hours.
We had 1/2 menu of the day, which was just right (we had been eating the full menu of the day and we were getting ‘stuffed’), A 1/2 menu means one selects from either the first or second course; the rest of the daily menu is still offered (bread, dessert, water or wine). Though if one has a healthy appetite, the cost difference between 1/2 and full menu (at this particular restaurant) was only Euro 3.
For us, a Rest Day can be a Travel Day especially when there’s inclement weather or terrain that’s too taxing for us. It’s important for us that the Physical is secondary to the Spiritual.
Journey Within 