Pola de Siero

After saying goodbye to the sea I walked about 45 minutes to rejoin the Camino in Colunga. It was already pretty warm and humid, and after stopping for breakfast I put my umbrella up to give me some shade and sun protection. But after a couple of hours of walking the Camino went off the road and onto the rarest kind of path on the Camino del Norte - a non rocky shaded dirt path beside a creek! It was wonderful to walk on after so much asphalt and stony trails.

I met up with a very nice Spanish woman from Bilbao who patiently talked to me in slow clear Spanish. After a while we met a Spanish man, also from Basque Country, and the three of us walked together into Villaviciosa. They were stopping at the albergue there, but my destination for the day was a donativo albergue a couple of kilometers down the road.

I was warmly welcomed by a young German woman who was volunteering there. I was a bit unhappy that all of the lower bunks were already taken, and had resigned myself to an upper bunk when the owner came in the room and folded another bed down from the wall because it was going to be a full house that night.

The owner was a super nice and engaging guy named Sergio. As we arrived he wrote our names on a board accompanied by the flag of our nationality. He joined in a spirited game of Uno, then made a delicious vegetable paella for dinner, accompanied by a nice salad, bread, and wine, with homemade bread pudding for dessert.

In the morning we were awakened by soft music playing on a speaker in the room at 6:30, then we all sat down to breakfast at 7:00. I haven't stayed in many albergues on this trip, but this was definitely one of the best albergue experiences I've had on any Camino.Read more