Aveiro

 It’s been an interesting couple of days of fog, rain storms, sun, more rain - and getting lost. We decided to go to Aveiro which is a city of culture and is famous for its canals and its art nouveau architecture. The roads getting in and out were challenging to say the least - road blocks, diversions, spaghetti junctions and an increasingly stressed Mr Fluffy. It made the trip rather tense. 

We eventually found the correct place to park - a less than salubrious area under a flyover that was a 5 minute walk into the attractive town. There is an Art Nouveau Museum but we couldn’t go in because Hugo was not allowed. There was a lot to see just walking around town as we dodged the raindrops.

Beautifully painted boats take tourists around the canals

Clouties on the friendship bridges

One of the many Art Nouveau buildings

Almost like Venice

Love this building

We had stunning weather this morning until the predicted storm arrived rather suddenly. It absolutely chucked it down so we took refuge in a restaurant and consumed vast quantities of codfish and noodles - a local specialty. After getting lost - again - on the way out of town we made it to another beach near Figuera do Foz.

Looks like another storm is coming in. But the wine is cheap - and surprisingly pleasant.

Two glasses wine 2euro 20cents 

Ominous clouds

Perusing Portugal

 Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the van

Inside’s delightful … etc, etc

Wish we had this decal on our van

We crossed into Portugal yesterday and haven’t seen a whole lot yet as the fog has been so thick it’s difficult to see anything.

Even Hugo’s bored

The morning was spent doing one of the most boring things on earth when you’re travelling in a van - the washing. A couple of hours dragged by outside a Carrefour Extra in Nigrán (a lovely town by the beach not far from the border)as I watched the laundry tumble around seemingly endlessly and I almost lost the will to live. Eventually it ended and now the van smells fresh and clean instead of fusty and damp. (The towels were beginning to grow a beard …) 

Welcome to Portugal

We headed off along the coast and as the ‘Portugal’ sign came into view the fog seemed to get thicker. Weirdly, the temperature has stayed pretty high - around 17 degrees C. A large storm is supposed to be coming in tomorrow so that should be interesting.

Mannequin art 

Church in the clouds

Jesus

We stopped overnight in the village of Vila Nova de Cerveira, a place famous for art with a square full of restaurants, a church, and a medieval castle. Graham felt like a change from seafood and ordered the house specialty of what we thought was lamb and vegetables. Once it arrived I thought it would be a good idea to translate the dish as my Portuguese is a tad rubbish. We discovered it was actually kid goat and it was very good.

More art by the river

Clouds we drove through today

Hugo enjoyed the leftovers but we’ve decided he’ll never be allowed to eat it again as, later that evening, his buttocks emitted the worst goaty aromas ever smelt in the history of doggy farts. The van was thrust back into smelling atrocious for a short time until all windows were flung open in an attempt to breathe fresh air and flush out the offending smell. Thank heavens it’s warm.

Not much of a beach view

We’re now parked behind a bus station in Esposende. We tried the beach down the road but couldn’t see anything so we’ve come into town in the hope of finding an open restaurant. No luck so far but I spent a good hour perusing the aisles of Aldi instead. Town is probably the best place to be in case we do get the predicted storm. Despite the weird weather we are enjoying Portugal so far - the sun should be returning at the end of the week.

Hill Forts and ‘Homicide’ - (Well, Not Quite)

 We thought we’d walked into the opening scene of ‘Death In Paradise’ this morning as we were investigating the Castro de Baroña Iron Age Hill fortification and village on a beach. Graham and Hugo were playing on the sand and a man clad head to toe in a black wetsuit emerged from the waves brandishing what we thought was a speargun. Being a total chicken I suggested we leave toute suite before we became some weird victims of an aquatic serial killer but he soon overtook us on the climb back to the road and we discovered he was actually a snorkelling fisherman who had caught a large octopus which was struggling away in his bucket.

You can just make out aqua man on the right

Distant view of hill fort 

The hill fort was an amazing find as we knew nothing about it before we saw a write up in our camper van app. What a location! It sits above a sandy beach atop a rocky cliff and is very well preserved. A Wikipedia entry can be found Here for more information on the site.

An Iron Age house

On his throne

Windy hair

We’d spent the night in Noia, a place which started life as a fishing village and has since become a tourist town mainly for Spanish people. I must say we fell in love with the place, not least because we found a fabulous restaurant, La Ferrador, but the people there were so lovely and the church was very saint-statue heavy which we always find enjoyable. A statue of Mary sported a very fetching wig.

The fires of hell

Excellent wig

After a lunch of pulpo, not caught by our scary beach guy, in Padrón (the home of Padrón peppers but we couldn’t have any because they’re out of season) we’ve moved on to yet another beach at Villanova de Arousa (unusual name) and will be in Portugal either tomorrow or the next day depending on the weather. 

Finisterra Twenty Years On

 Yesterday Graham walked up to the headland at Finisterra while I waited in the van. The reason I didn’t go with him? It was absolutely chucking it down and I preferred to stay warm and dry with just the quickest foray to the Chinese bazaar to see if I could purchase anything totally useless but mildly fun. I didn’t.

Graham's walk in the rain

A sunnier day to be there with Hugo

He returned in usual drowned rat style with a few pictures and lots of memories of when he walked there 20 years ago. It was a tradition for those who completed the pilgrimage to burn their shoes on the edge of the cliff. This has been stopped for hygiene reasons but there now sits a small statue of a boot at the very edge which was surrounded by several discarded (but unburnt) walking shoes.

Happy and haggard

There is a bird here - really

We returned this morning by van and the weather was glorious. A few small birds bobbed around between the worn out shoes and a couple of peregrinos (pilgrims) who looked happy but haggard sat by the crucifix at the end of the walk.

The soggy view

We’ve now moved on to Noia and consumed some rather gorgeous fish for lunch at Ferrador Restaurant. The van is, once again, parked by a body of water and we may have one more night in Spain before we head in to Portugal.

The End of the World - for the Romans Anyway

 Twenty years ago Graham walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. From St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago is about 780 km but this was not far enough for him. He continued on to Finisterra (named by the Romans as they thought it was the very end of the earth) and then to the village of Muxia where a large Sanctuary to the Virgin of the Barca sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. That’s around an extra 100 Kms.

Always likes to coordinate his clothes with his walking signs

The colour of the water cannot be captured well enough in these photos

Yesterday we drove to Muxia (pronounced Moo-SHE-a) to revisit where Graham had finally finished his walk. After an amazing lunch of arroz de mariscos (rice and seafood) at the restaurant Lonxa D’Alvaro (which we both agreed is probably the best meal we’ve had so far on this trip) we drove up to the sanctuary and spent the night overlooking the lighthouse and a very wild ocean. This coast is known as the ‘Costa del Morte’ or ‘Coast of Death’ as so many ships have gone down in this area. 

Looking at the steeple and some art

The Sanctuary of the Virgin

Cadris stone for healing the back

Local folklore states that the Virgin Mary sailed to this area in a stone boat to hang out with St James and parts of the boat are littered in front of the church. If one walks under the stone sail, known as the cadris stone, nine times then your back pain will be healed. I had a go as did Graham so we shall wait and see if it works.

The morning by lighthouse

We’re now in Finisterra but it has been very wet today so I’ll take some photos tomorrow.

Stunning sky at Muxia

Disco Fever?

 The colours of our last two days have been green, blue, and white. Green for the endless eucalypt forests that line the roads, blue for the ‘azul’ skies and the sea, and white for the mist over the water that we woke up to at last night’s location, Obrigueira. It is a town that hosts a world/folk music festival each year and sports a very attractive statue of a Galician piper in the town square carpark.

So far

Piper by sea

Obrigueira seemed like such a quiet, civilised town. Mountains reflected in the sea, lone seabirds wading along the waterfront, children clutching their lollipop gifts from the three kings on this their epiphany festival. However - at midnight last night I was wishing I had gone to bed in a lime Green Lycra body-hugging disco frock as my horizontal dance steps to the booming music that went on until 230am may have felt more authentic. If only we had had some soothing folk music instead of Elton John’s latest dance mix (which I now have as an ear worm, by the way) and other full on dance anthems.

A peaceful scene

This morning we couldn’t work out if it was a fiesta from the town centre or just a chap in a car with an extremely healthy sound system but we made it through the night and woke to a deceptively peaceful scene as though nothing had gone on. Maybe we’d been dreaming.

Morning view

All by myself

By the way, we did discover the world’s most - different -  Spar shop as we walked around town.

Unlike any other Spar shop I’ve seen

As we drove out of the town the mist cleared and we had bright blue skies all the way to Betanzos where we are currently parked. We had great hopes for a Sunday lunch of tapas and perhaps Mr Fluffy’s favourite, pulpo, but it was not to be. To use a cliche, ‘cafes, cafes everywhere and not a bite to eat’. The Epiphany holiday weekend strikes again. There were dozens of cafes in the square but,’Lo Siento’, they weren’t serving food today. Of course, after going back to the van for some cheese and biscuits, we returned to the town centre for a glass of wine in the sun to find many cafes in the back streets serving raciones and tapas. Sigh. We did find many Camino signs so Graham was happy as it’s 20 years this year since he walked the Camino de Santiago and we’ll be heading to Muxia tomorrow, the place where he actually finished the pilgrimage walk.

 

Parked by the river

Love laundry on a balcony

On the Camino Inglese

It seems unlikely that we’ll go hungry, however. Due to my poor translation skills we managed to order several thousand churros instead of the two we required and we’ve (by ‘we’ I mean Graham) have been working our way through them ever since.

Yes, I did have one too

A plethora of churros

Wet, Wet, Wet

 Today we’ve run the gamut of the weather from wet to wetter. I can almost hear my British friends playing their tiny violins as, I believe, the UK has been in a pretty bad state of flooding since we’ve been away. We’ve been lucky so far. The colour of our drive to our current location at San Cibrao in Galicia was grey with just a hint of more grey. There was rain, hail, then more rain.

Our location is lovely - by yet another beach.

Beach view from the window on arrival

We’ve decided the theme for our trip is the coastal route of the Camino de Santiago which we seem to have been following for some time. We haven’t seen many pilgrims so far but that may just be the time of year. It would be a stunning walk and Mr Fluffy is being sorely tempted. He’s just returned from getting drenched on a walk up to the light house which, hopefully, might put him off.

Mr Soggy returns

I wisely stayed in the van.

 But he did get some good shots.

All alone

Not sure what this is a ruin of…

Lighthouse reached and a hint of blue sky

Hoping for more blue skies tomorrow as we work our way along the Galician coast.