Day 18: La Franca to Llanes

September 29, 2022. We arose from our tidy little apartment at the usual time and headed off for the gas station -Carrefour combo about 1 km down the highway. It’s so surprising to have an elegant bar, restaurant and deli in a gas station off the freeway, and to be open all day! We had a double cafe con leche and a sandwich to get us started. We headed west along the highway and soon the promised rain began to fall, but only lightly and intermittently. We climbed the highest hill of the day starting from under a highway support tower and then crossed a small highway to find ourselves on a winding horse path above the crashing waves of the Sea on the rocks below. The view was breathtaking. We were soon joined by a Czech woman who spoke good English and we walked together for a while.

The rain was intermittent and moderate at first, but steadily gained strength. At Pendueles we decided to stop for a break at a bar and had orange juice. We were glad for a respite from the rain. We headed out again, knowing we had 14 km to go, and we could divide that into two 7-km segments. These 7 km were a bit miserable, just following the N-364 local highway in a steady rain. Our boots were beginning to slosh but were were still reasonably dry in the core areas. We sat under a rail bridge where the highway metal barrier was dry and had an orange. Now only 3 km into our lunch destination of San Roque. We calculated the possibility of picking up a filling Menu of the day meal there but were early. We decided to wait the 40 minutes to be served the 1 pm fixed price meal, and did not mind sitting in the warm restaurant while it poured outside. Some Germans came in and they had some trouble ordering. I decided to let them all work it out as my German is not very good. It wasn’t that long before 1 pm arrived, and I ordered fish soup, pork chop, local cider, ice cream and a little sip of liquor at the end. All of this was 13 Euros and we planned it to be our main meal of the day. Evening will be some yoghurt, granola and leftover pasta salad from lunch. We are convinced that the mid-day meal is the key to successful and economical eating here.

We pushed on into Llanes the last 4-5 km through a steady and constant downpour. The city of Llanes looked beautiful and part of me wanted to sightsee, but my desire to get dry and warm won out. We found our hotel, another luxury hotel severely discounted which made it economical. Unfortunately, with heavily scented sheets will trigger Alice’s asthma and bother her all night. We hung up our wet clothes around the room to start the drying out.