Hasta luego

Time to say our goodbyes.
After the beach and dinner on Monday, Louis got to go up to Isabel's and play with Santi one more evening.  We pulled him away at 10 to go have coffee, wine, chocolate caliente and churros for one last night at Café Bergantín. 
Our neighborhood cafe was cleaned up and back in normal operation after the crazy descenso weekend.

Tuesday morning August, Spencer and I got up early to take a final walk up to the guía.  It was a gorgeous, quiet morning.  We returned to pack the last of our things, have breakfast and take off for the train station.
We said our goodbyes to Isabel and Carlos.  Then, Carlos drove our luggage and August to the train station while the rest of us walked.  Marta and boys walked most of the way with us as Carlos was picking them up along the way, after leaving the train station.  Ironically, they were headed to Oviedo by car while we were going by train.

Ribadesella train station

Waiting for the train to Oviedo.

We took the narrow-gauge FEVE train to Oviedo.  A two-hour, now familiar journey.  As I looked out the window I tried to remember what I was thinking as I was seeing this area for the first time in June.  While enjoying the ride I struck up a conversation with our seat mate, who is from the Basque region near Bilbao.  He was on his way to begin a long trek on one of the many Camino de Santiago routes through western Spain and down into Portugal.  A high school technology teacher, he was very interested to hear stories of our time in Spain.
We had a brief 50-minute layover in Oviedo and our train from Ribadesella was 10 minutes late.  (Our first experience with a late train in Spain).  We were a little nervous about our connection but the Oviedo train station, we knew, is pretty small.  At any rate, when we disembarked, our new acquaintance helped us find the platform for our Renfe train to Madrid.
Another long train ride, about 5 hours, and we arrived back at Chamartín station in north Madrid.  From there we took the commuter Cercanius train to Puerta del Sol station...a mere few blocks from our hostal/hotel.  It was so much fun for us, not only to return to Madrid, but to return to familiar territory.  Kind of like coming home before really coming home.