Oviedo-Avilés

Yesterday, Sven and I tried to kill time until 7 p.m. by hanging out at cafés and using the internet and at around 5:30 headed over to the albergue which had opened early and was, in fact, full. There was, luckily, one bed left and a small couch. Sven, gallently gave me the bed and took the love seat which must have been awful to sleep on. I was finally able to take a shower (cold) and we had a drink with the rest of the group. Then Sven and I had dinner at one of the Sidra places. Sidra is cider and it is very popular here in Asturias. It is a sparkling apple cider with a pretty low alcohol content. The waiters pour it in a special way. They hold the glass in their left and down by their knee. They hold the bottle in their right hand up over their head and they pour it way down into the glass. They do it without looking so a substantial portion ends up on the street. It was pretty fun though. We got back a little bit late (maybe 10:30)and the Spanish couple who was sleeping on the floor in the entryway yelled at us telling us we should have been back by 8:30 p.m. which is, of course, absurd. I´ve seen said couple several times today but don´t know if they know that I'm the one who woke them up.
This morning we all got up and most of the group continued south on the Camino Primitivo but Irene and I headed back north to the Coastal route to Avilés. Irene, Sven and I found a place open for breakfast at the early hour of 7:30 and then Sven accompanied us a few blocks to our departure point to bid us farewell. It was really fun walking with him the last couple of days. He´s funny and he loves The Muppet Show and Mr. Ed.
Irene and I headed out on the lesser used route to Avilés and slogged through deep mud, got lost, found the route, etc. The last 10 of the 30+ km. was on the highway (it´s not a big highway but it isn´t fun to walk on as there sometimes isn´t much of a shoulder). We arrived at the Albergue after several long, and hot hours and now I'm milling bout Avilés. I believe I have been here once before but don´t remember it so much. It is quite a nice city. Oviedo was also really great and I'm glad I decided to make that detour. In a bit, I will go and look for a hotel or pension where I will stay tomorrow night and then Tuesday a.m. I will head to the airport and home. It´s been really quite fun and the scenery is beautiful. I think overall, this Northern route has more natural beauty than the route of last year. The other route though, I think had better villages and certainly I met people that I enjoyed more (I am glad that I met Sven at the end as he was my favorite person from this trip--Much like on the Portugal trip, we were glad to have met Doron as he was definitely the most fun person we met on that route).