Day 15 - Siesta + public holiday = empty streets

A coastal drive to Asturia today with no plans of where we were going to spend the night. Our first planned stop was Llanes but as we drove through it seemed quite busy with tourists so we decided to keep driving.

Ribadesella was very busy in the port area of town and we couldn't find a parking spot so we crossed the bridge and found a park on the beach side. There was a large promenade with a good beach and we walked along looking for somewhere for lunch. It was more overcast than we were used to and the homes along the promenade were very grand, in fact so grand that there weren't any cafes just a couple of kiosks.

Back in the car we drove onto Lastres and we start seeing El camino de Santiago signs along the road, this is the northern coastal route, which is not as popular as some of the others routes. Hotels and hostels also advertised the camino sign with the yellow and blue scallop shell. We were searching for a lunch stop and the first place we came across as we just entered the town was a panaderia
with a queue out the door along the street. We drove on looking for a park just like everyone else on the road, we climbed higher and higher until we were on the outskirts of town, too far away to park even if we found a spot. We didn't see another panaderia in town, now we understood why there was a queue along the street.

We drove on again surprised by all the eucalyptus plantations until we arrived in Gijon, which was a decent sized city where we could find a park and somewhere to eat. We found an underground carpark near the promenade and started walking looking for somewhere for lunch as it was now 2pm. It was quite cool and incredibly quiet, was it because of siesta that everywhere was closed? We finally discovered that it was a public holiday, but we did find a little cafe. The beach was lovely but the weather wasn't keeping up its end of the bargain today. From Gijon we decided we had better find somewhere for the night and chose the town of Ribadeo.

Back in the car this time to Cudillero, when we arrived it was as if the whole town was asleep, there was barely a soul to be seen. We followed the tiny, winding road down until we turned a corner and found touristville, at the end of the road there was a village square bustling with eating places and gift stalls. There was even enough parking for cars and buses. We decided it would be a nice place to have lunch tomorrow on our way back to Oveido.

We arrived into Ribadeo and went for a walk to find somewhere for dinner but as it was only 7pm every place was closed. We chose a steak restaurant that opened at 8pm, unfortunately the rain then started so we skidaddled home hoping it would stop by 8, but of course it didn't, it got worse!