Day 19: Gijón to Avilés, Alone

Today got off to a sad start.  We took a cab to the train station so Tina could catch the first train to Madrid at 7:10.  The only café in the station opened at 6:30, and we were the first customers. Two crappy coffees and two of the worst tortilla españolas you ever tried.  If the Hampton Inn made tortilla,  this would be it. I digress.

I've known Tina for over 40 years and I've never seen her this upset.  She had her heart set on finishing the Camino.   

When she boarded the train, I started my walk, 25 kilometers to the town of Avilés.   It was 7 AM. By this point,  the late night partyers were gone, and it was just me and the street cleaners. I knew from the Buen Camino app that I was on the right roads, but had no visual confirmation until I saw this on the other side of the street:

It's a big enough city. I walked through forgettable neighborhoods of apartment houses until I reached this.

The slash means you're exiting a city or town. Well, what followed was why the guidebook call this the ugliest part of the entire Camino:  an industrial wasteland that went on for about an hour of brisk walking,  about 5 kilometers.  The books actually advise you to take a bus or train and skip it.  Not me. 

The only thing missing was that crying Indian from the commercial.  At about 8:30, the path became rural and eventually the noise of the steel mills faded.

There were seemingly endless eucalyptus forests obviously planted by man.  And lots of corn. And horses.  And cows.

Did you know that mommy horses have what look like udders?  I did not get a picture,  but it was fascinating. 

Fortunately, this continued for quite a while leading me to believe that the guidebooks were being unfair.  At about 9:30, I took a break in the town of Santa Eulealia to refill my waterbottle.  There's really nothing there except a church (locked up, of course) and this:

It's a historic lavadero,  a place where the town's women would gather to do their laundry.  We always hear about laundry beaten against a rock at the side of a river... This is much more civilized.  It's a four sided stone tub, under a roof, and each side has multiple work stations with essentially stone washboard.

I also saw them setting up for a fair or party.

This was not a big town.  In fact, there would be nothing sizeable for 20 of the 25 kilometers. 

The rural views continued for another hour, and then you got back to this:

and this 

and this

This is where the joke about the crying Indian was supposed to go.  This day really was adding up to be a walk through the Spanish rust belt.  Plus,  for much of this, I was walking on the shoulder of a highway.  

After 11 AM, I became aware of footsteps behind me. It was Mark, the Englishman we met yesterday at Pepito's.  He walks so fast.  We chatted briefly before he went ahead in search of a place to stop for a refresco.

I found my refresco at 11:30 in the town of Trasona, about 4 kilometers outside Avilés.  They even gave me some free cheese as a tapa.

These factories just kept going, right into Avilés.  As I was approaching the city, Mark overcame me again.   He'd stopped for coffee and Spanish Omelet,  but now his legs were starting to hurt.  I don't know how he walks so fast.  Now he seems to be paying the price. 

We walked into the city together, and i left him at a park bench along the river to make some phone calls to try to arrange for a bed somewhere. 

Avilés is an old port city, with a medieval center.  It's really pretty nice once you get beyond the rust belt.

City hall on the Plaza de España.  I ate lunch a block from here.

I'll bet you're curious about lunch.  Let me say that eating out alone is very difficult for me.  Just picking a place is hard.  I found a Galician restaurant with outdoor seating and had:

Padrón peppers as an appetizer.  One out of 20 is supposed to be spicy. Followed by:

zorza! This is real peasant food.  It's essentially delicious, deconstructed chorizo sausage with French fries.  (The fried egg came as a surprise.)  I haven't ordered zorza since 2006.  (I'm not kidding.)

Already did laundry and shopping.  I've been texting Tina who's going to get the ankle checked out tomorrow morning.   

For me, tomorrow is scheduled to be really long: 37+ kilometers.  I'm going to stick to the plan, leaving early.  I'm not going to push it the way Mark did today.  I'll let you know how it goes.