Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Abandames

Bike Route: Ribadesella to Abandames, 40 miles, 2900 feet of climb

What a fun day! I was worried because on Monday we traveled just half the distance and climbed half as much, and it took us HOURS. But our route today was lovely, the ride was fun, and we arrived at our hotel early. Abandames is a tiny village in the mountains, with just one little tavern with a few groceries and no restaurants. The manager, Tamara, is a young woman from Madrid who worked in Paris for 5 years, and she was wonderful. The hotel served a small dinner in the garden, so we ordered pimento, blue cheese, and tuna salads with crunchy biscuits.

We started out along the ocean. It was another cloudy day, but it didn't actually rain.

Our hotel in Abandames was an old fortified manor home with six guest rooms. Our room was the keep--where the lord and his family hid when the manor was attacked.

We like biking the secondary regional roads. They have little traffic and reasonable grades--rarely above 4 or 5 percent.

We continue to bounce on and off the Camino de Santiago, and every day we see lots of hikers with their packs and walking sticks.

Spigots all along the Camino offer potable water. This one just outside Abandames had a stainless steel mug engraved with someone's name. We stopped here and washed off the mud clumped on our bikes from the last few days of hiking them through the mountains.