What a day! Taxi picked me up on time and off we went, I, dressed in rain gear, to the Shell Station of yesterday. The driver thought it a strange drop off, but I knew the path went right by there. And it did, under a tunnel and all. I don´t even know what to say about the navigation today except that for the most part it was just AWFUL.
The absolute worst was coming into Aviles, but more of that later.
Here is a taste of the scenery:
At one point, as I was wending my way through the outskirts of Gijon, a woman in a bright little yellow car gestured to me to go down the hill as I was heading up. 99% of the time when natives point the way, they are correct—it is easy to spot the Camino walkers. I thought that maybe there was a roadblock up yonder, but, no, the lady in the bright little yellow car was simply wrong.
It is very disconcerting to have to cross RR tracks when they are not marked on the map:
It rained and then it didn´t and then it did and this looks like Kansas in the Wizard of Oz only it isn´t. It is just an ominous cloud announcing that yes, you will have to put on your rain gear AGAIN soon. Anyone remember the cute little book called Mickey and Molly, you know where Mickey puts on his blue trousers and Molly puts on her blue skirt and red shirt and so on and so forth, and then they take them off and go to sleep under and red and white blanket (or something like that)? Well, it was like that, only not so cute.
At one point when the drizzling started and I was taking our the gear AGAIN , I was thinking that I was overreacting but four cyclists pulled up and did the same! Then they asked if I would take their picture and I am so mad that I didn't take one of them using my camera because they were so nice and looked so smart in their black tights and black, red, and yellow tops, even with their ponchos on.
Eventually the industrial cityscape turned country side:
which allowed me to contemplate these drops of water on the roadside growth. I determined that the drops looked better from the other side, like jewels, you know, but that would not have shown up in a photo.
This bucolic intermezzo was downgraded because of some major puddles. One was so deep and wide that the water went down into my boots and I had to slog in sopping wet socks and boots for several hours yet. It was not a puddle where you would dare to take off your boots and go barefoot because the path was full of large stones and as I learned, a cut in the foot is not a good thing to have.
Crossing from one highway to another was a ditch. Fortunately, there was a plank:
You see that there multi-wheeler? there were many many many many of those today, a-roaring by:
This warren of roads on the approach to Avilés was utterly horrendous because some of those roads are over the other roads and none of the apps make the distinction and cars and truck are whizzing by and you are trying not to get killed. Finally, as I was kind of a wreck on the upper level, I figured that maybe I should not be there and remembered a metal ramp that descended between two or maybe three highways and thought, "Aha! It be there for a reason." And it was! From then on it was just plain unpleasant, but not scary.
Avilés has its charm, to be sure, but my hotel is not in the charming area.
Two women out for a shop:
Not the Guggenheim Puppy, but pretty flower thingees were along the main square:
And the sidewalks look like this:
Hmm, I was thinking, this was the home of Saint Teresa, but no, that was Ávila, not Avilés!
When I checked in to the hotel, the receptionist did not even ask for my name! You hand over your passport, and you become your room number! As I approached my room, I saw the cleaning people and asked if I might have a couple of extra rolls of papel higiénico (toilet paper) to stuff my boots that were llena de agua (full of water). They did oblige. Then I pulled out of the suitcase my spare pair of insoles congratulating myself that I had indeed taken one for the right foot and one for the left foot!
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