Day Thirteen: Deba to Gijon — After three long and difficult days since Llanes I welcomed a short stage today. My plan was to get a hotel 4 km away in Gijon and wait there for Martin’s arrival tomorrow night. That gives two full days of rest. Ahhhhh.

As I look back now over the last three days I can see why I was complaining so much yesterday. My daily average of 31 km (21 miles) in the three days since Llanes is just too fast on this terrain. Last night I was drained of all energy and was starting to feel like this camino was a punishment, not a holiday.

So, spa day! After a 6-8 km walk from the campground/albergue at Deba through the suburbs to the old city center I found a nice hotel on the Plaza Mayor for not too much € (this is still offseason) that has a spa tub! I spread out my things in the spacious room, opened my window that faces the nearby beach, and luxuriated. Later on I walked the beach promenade, looked for lunch,(a challenge during siesta time) and basically hung out. Hooray!

I also took some time to take stock of this camino:

13 days walking

327 km (204 miles walked)

Daily average of 24.8 km (15.5 miles)

Almost exactly at the halfway point of the 700 km planned distance for this camino

Looks like Santiago is achievable by the 26th or so, which works out great with my flight back home

Enough calculations and evaluations. Time to get back to my primary goal for the day: rest. Tomorrow’s plan will be finally to get in sync with Spanish mealtimes. For example, this lovely hotel’s restaurant opens for dinner at the very un-American hour of 9:00 pm, which about the time they close back home.

Above from left: Jose of Madrid, Mone of Hungary, Karina of Austria. All fellow campers at Deba.

Deserted mansion before Gijon.

Shells in Gijon’s sidewalks make it harder to get lost.

The promenade along the eastern peninsula of Gijon’s old city.

View out the window of my pretty, spa day room.