Tale of the tape:

Distance travelled: 842km

Days of riding: 11

Days of rain: 1/2 day

Number of fully functioning cameras: 1 out of 3.

Number of times we had to dismount due to dogs: 1

Number of times Jake sneezed: Uncountable

Number of ibuprofens taken: 3

Number of times the terrain was as flat as we expected: 0

Number of flat tires: 1

Number of times the police pulled us over: 1

Number of closed roads we ended up on: 3

The cathedral in Santiago is surrounded by the old part of town which is full of narrow winding streets, many of which have covered sidewalks – I guess not everyone gets the sunny days we’ve had.

We went out to celebrate the end of the trip last night, the nightlife gets started really late so it was a bit of a struggle to stay awake at the end.

We explored the area a bit by bike and visited wineries. There are quite a variety of wineries here, from huge ones, to smaller but very new-world style to just bigger than mom-and-pop.

Tomorrow we’ll head towards Santiago de Compostela, we’re nearing the end of our trip. It’s hard to believe all the places we’ve seen and how different they all seem from “my” Spain in Andalucía.

Shannon, I think that last one would be perfect to warn people about Milo.

Here’s some photos of Sanxenxo from dinner time.

We started the day on a rough footing, I blame the bartender in Llanes, I suspect Jake blames me. The trouble began when I ordered orujo (brandy) and got us each a full 6oz glass last night, in hindsight it does seem weird how the bartender was laughing while pouring.

We got rained on a bit today but had a solid 100k ride and felt better than we should have at the end. The descent into Gijón was beautiful if a little cloudy.

Once there, we explored a bit and then settled into local food – cider and seafood. Wes, you’re going to need to build these cider delivery devices.

Along the way we picked up a safety tip worth passing on – if you are walking along the road with a scythe over your shoulder, do not make sudden turns.

We had a long day of riding and are happy to have ended in Comillas, it has a beautiful beach and the old town is pretty and lively.

It’s laundry day too and someone decided the sink was more work than wash-n-wear.

The road over the pass is closed to car traffic due to construction but we were able to get through on bikes with a short scramble over rock debris; the upshot was that for most of the ascent and descent we had the road to ourselves.

We had a great day with perfect weather and decided to stop just outside of Asón because the area is breathtaking. With 8 houses and far more sheep and goats than people this town in the valley just beyond the collado (pass) through the mountains is surrounded by sheer walls and stunning mountain scenery in all directions.

Balmesada is a beautiful old town surrounded by green hills and complete with a full color 12 page tourist brochure and seemingly helpful information points all around town. Unfortunately there are only 16 hotel rooms in the one hotel in town, all of which were full; we were duly confused so we backtracked a few kilometers to Zalla and found our luck again. The ride back was maybe the most picturesque 6-7km we’ll see on the trip and Zalla turned out to have a really happening nightlife. It was not easy to drag ourselves back to the hotel early to be ready for tomorrow.

Fortunately before going out for the night we got some ice and prepped the best cooler we could find for catching up on email tonight and chilling our lunch for tomorrow.

The city itself is great, well laid out, lively and full of good bar and restaurant options. Plus they have plenty of Txakoli not to mention the best pintxos we’ve had so far.

If the weather holds tomorrow we’ll head a little south into the mountains and make our way towards the coast again near Santander in 2-3 days.