Camino del Norte 2024

One thing we’ve noticed about Asturias (vs. Basque Country and Cantabrica) is that the houses are more colorful. I really enjoy that. Some photos:

I blogged too soon. We went back to the beach today and saw this.

Yesterday we noticed on a tourist map that there was a bufone at a beach only 2 miles from Llanes so we decided to walk there at high tide when the bufones are at their glory. (Charlie mentioned bufones in a previous post.) When we were nearly there, I asked a man who was walking up from the beach if he knew where to find the bufone. He said there were no bufones at this beach. We certainly didn’t see any. But, he said “merece la pena” (it’s worth the trouble) to do the steep walk down to the beach.

I got a thrill hearing him say that (“merece la pena”) as it is one of the phrases Pimsleur teaches in their Spanish audio courses. It’s fun to hear the native speakers say something you’ve learned. (I’ll digress a little here for those interested in learning Spanish: The Pimsleur Spain Spanish course teaches “merece la pena” but the Pimsleur Latin American Spanish course teaches “vale la pena.”)

Of course, it was another amazing beach. We cannot believe how many stunning walks there are along this coast. We cannot believe this area is not as famous as, say, Tuscany, but, we are glad that it isn’t yet spoiled by tourism. The Spanish people know about it and flock here in the summer to get away from the heat in central and southern Spain. But this time of the year there is very little tourism.

We decided to walk back there again today at low tide. But there was not a huge difference between high and low tide this time. (Only about a meter.) It was still worth the trouble to visit the beach again.

You would think a picnic table with this kind of view would be used a lot but you would be wrong.

This was the bar at a hotel above the beach we visited today. Yet another amazing beach around Llanes, with three little islands.

Someone saw us taking the selfie and offered to take one of us. I like the selfie better.

I suppose this is a standard thing to do in harbors like this but I had not seen it before. The boats are moored to docks that float up and down with the tide.

Javier is our airbnb host.

He’s the nicest man. A real sweetheart. He met us the first day and showed us around and gave us instructions for things, not too much, not too little.

Shortly after he left after showing us around, we noticed the door mat:

I messaged Javier and told him we got a kick out of Route 66 on his doormat (didn’t think to say it that way then) and told him we lived on Route 66.

He wrote back saying that was “fantastico”. He said he is a motorcyclist and makes many trips through Europe and Africa and he wants to do Route 66 on his motorcycle.

In case you have any preconceived ideas about motorcycle riders, Javier also owns and runs a beautiful home goods store here in Llanes named “Mi Casa” (photos below). And this airbnb is amazing. Very pretty and comfortable.