Toulouse to Lisbon on a Tandem: Ride Day 12: Panes to Cangas de Onis

Last night we tucked into a cozy hotel in Panes, Spain, called Hotel Covendaga. It was fantastic and inexpensive and the hotel owners in this "low season" were oh so gracious it was humbling. When we pulled in we were drowned riders. We must have looked a sight. But the older gentleman who was running the place took our soaked and dirty panniers from us, then he took our bike, and he led us to our rooms and made sure that we had everything we needed. Nice. I guess you could say that we were "living it up at the Hotel Covadanga." Reminds one of a tune. Or maybe not.

We were so tired that, after about 45 minutes each in a hot shower and draping our we stuff all over the nice room that we simply went to sleep.

After a great sleep we had some great coffee and headed off toward Congas de Onis.

But first, I had been privately wondering after the night in the shipping container why Lorie wasn't swelling up from the many mosquito bites. She usually swells up in a minute or two. Odd. But I figured it out this a.m.: the Spanish mosquitoes take it a bit slower than the US west coast mosquitoes. So this morning Lorie -- whom I am now calling "Lumpy" is a mass of mosquito bite lumps. I wish that I could add a picture, but no, not here.

It just so happens that the route of the Vuelta a Espana (the Spanish Grand Tour -- Spain's version of the Tour de France) is working its way from West to East across the northern coast of Spain as we are working our way from East to West! Turns out that we meet in the tiny village called Cangas de Onis. We didn't plan this trip around the Vuelta at all -- it just turned out that way. So why not spend a couple of days hanging around and watching the race?

We plan to watch parts of stages 12 and 13, both of which include the brutally steep climbs that are found in this region of Cantabria.

Here's our ride from Panes to the AirBnB that we reserved:

Once in Cangas de Onis we'll watch stage 14 from Cistierna to Les Praeres, Nava, and stage 15 from Ribera de Arriba to the famous Lagos de Covadonga. Both stages have super steep hills and should be fun to watch.

Here's a profile of stage 14:

Stage 14, Vuelta

And stage 15 (we will ride up the finishing climb as far as we can, but with ramps of up to 20% maybe not too far...):


Stage 15, Vuelta

The ride today was super fun. Not a drop of rain. No wind. Not cold. Fairly short with a few hills but nothing to worry about.

Caves along the route to Cangas de Onis

A perfect day, Picos de Europa

What could be better for breakfast?

Picos de Europa

A monestary, I think

The road was very quiet and very pretty to ride

Picos de Europa

There was one hill...

That's where we came from

Crazy pretty ride

We made it to Cangas de Onis in good time, warm, dry and excited to have three days off. Lumpy can relax and quell those lumps, I'm pretty sure!

Tucked into our AirBnB we decided to walk around town. It is a pretty, small village that appears to be fairly given over to tourism.

It once was a Roman bridge

But has changed over the years...

The roadbed over the bridge

A selfie. Lumpy looks OK, yes?

Cangas de Onis downtown

Our AirBnB is on the top floor. Pretty cush.

Of course there is a church!

Old house...

Old mausoleum

The church again

We also decided to wash the bike. I went down to the driveway and found a hose. But right away this guy poked his head out and, I think, said that he'd help. What a guy. It turns out that he owns the building and wants to meet his guests. He helped us wash the bike and asked us all about our trip.