It’s mid-day on Thursday and the mountains are shrouded in clouds and mist. We have some 36 hours of rain forecast and with the weekend no longer looking baked in sunshine, we have decided to swap our return crossing and will travel back from Santander tomorrow, cutting short our 6 week trip by a few days.

The highlight of the last few days was a circular cycle ride in the hills which turned out to be anything but circular. Described as an “Expert” ride on Komoot, Joe figured that with an electric bike, such a route should be achievable.

The first 10km were fine but as the roads disappeared into tracks and finally a loose gravel path over the top of the mountain, it was clear that circular route was coming to an end! I cannot imagine the path was viable with a bike.

On the way to my endpoint, I encountered the mountainside which had been terraced and fenced, lined with grape vines. Seems an incredible feat of engineering to grow grapes!

Our first visit to Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia is now over. In this segment of Spain, summer is reaching the end and cold nights are becoming more commonplace. Some of the campsites we stayed on have already closed for the season and many more will be closed by the middle of October.

Once again, the Spanish people have been friendly and welcoming and as is usual, pretty much 6 weeks without seeing a traffic jam. The coastline and mountains are very special here and I suspect we may well become more frequent visitors to this part of Spain.

Nevertheless, our big “foreign” trips for next year are in Spain (Jan – Mar) and then Portugal from the end of August. After a year in which we have enjoyed long stays in Southern Spain, Brittany, Germany and NW Spain, we also plan to see more of the UK next year as well.

Adios amigos!

On Saturday we headed out of the campsite, turned right and up the never ending hill to the Monestary of Santo Toribio de Liebana. The monastery, in a remote location high in the mountains close to Potes is one of the five places in Roman Catholicism that has the privilege of issuing perpetual indulgences. The others being Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Caravaca de la Cruz.

The monastery was founded prior to the 6th century and venerates part of the Lignum Cross discovered in Jerusalem. The left arm of the cross is kept on a gilded silver reliquery and because of this claim to hold the largest surviving piece of the True Cross, the monastery was an important pilgrimage centre and one of the most important holy sites of Roman Catholicism in Europe.

The most important building is the gothic church. It’s perhaps less ostentatious than some of the larger cathedrals and is in keeping with the site of the monastery.

After spending time at the monastery, we continued our walk to the Mirador de San Miguel. From here the views across the valleys and mountains are exceptional.

Here is the circular route we took from Camping La Viorna to the Monastery, onwards to Mirador San Miguel and finally the route back to our site.

We left the campsite at Cudillero to the sight of a lovely rainbow, hoping that this wasn’t an omen for wetter weather in the mountains.

Our destination was Potes in the Picos de Europa. A journey of just 124 miles but a reported time of nearly three hours – Google predicting the last 25 miles would take one and a half hours. Google of course was correct, as the N621, running alongside the River Deve is being stabilised and widened for much of the route. An incredible feat of engineering as the new section of road is literally hanging over the side of the valley on concrete supports.

We arrived at our campsite just outside the village of Potes early afternoon. The site is one of the nicest we have ever stayed on. Terraced grass pitches – somewhat muddy in places – with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. The toilet block has a Swiss chalet feel to it and is pristinely clean.

We had a good choice of pitches but the site filled up rapidly until all but a handful of plots were occupied. Our neighbours are repeat visitors to Camping La Viorna and they were also stunned as to how busy it is this year.

On Friday morning, we walked into town.

The town of Potes is located at the confluence of four valleys, near to where the River Quiviesa flows into the River Deva, the latter source being high in the Picos de Europa. Like the rest of the Liébana region, Potes enjoys a Mediterranean microclimate that allows the cultivation of the vines, walnut and poplar. Overlooking the town is Arabedes mountain (694m).

The old town, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful in Spain and is also a historical monument, comprises a maze of alleys and steps with a medieval atmosphere.

It is dominated by the Torre del Infantado, a symbol of Potes, built in the 15th century. It has four floors and forms a stone cube. It costs a mere 3 Euros each for entry and there’s a glass lift to the top floor. From here, one can enjoy elevated views across this medieval town.

The Torre del Infantado is between the rivers Quiviesa and Duve at the exact spot where they meet. On top of the tower there are spectacular views of Potes and there are a number of exhibitions on various floors, including the original work of the first Cantabrian author, Beato de Liebana – an abbot of the nearby monastery Santo Toriboo in the 8th Century.

Saturday (21st Sep) we headed off to Rinlo railway station to catch the Ferrol to Oviedo train. Today the train arrived, didn’t catch fire and even took us to our final destination of Luarca but was a typical 40 minutes late.

We had a nice lunch (menu of the day) at Hotel Baltico with the highlights being our starter dishes – Moe had Shellfish Paella and I had the Scorpion fish pate.

The town and port of Luarca had a working feel to it. After our long lunch, we wandered around the harbour before catching our train back to Rinlo.

Two quiet days followed and we took care of laundry and packed up ready for a short journey along the coast. We did manage a sneaky tapas lunch at Bar Portillo on Monday.

On our walk, we passed two “Cetareas” on our way into Rinlo.These are ancient shellfish breeding grounds.

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The next morning we said “Adios” to Belen at Camping Rinlo Costa and received a few good tips of places to visit on the final few weeks of our travels. Camping Rinlo Costa was so peaceful, everyone was very friendly and we were sorry to say goodbye to the relative luxury of our pink bungalow.

Moe has declared that her wrists are sufficiently healed to revert back to sleeping in our campervan, Nellie.

Just an hour or so later, around lunchtime on Tuesday, we have arrived at Camping L’Amuravela on the outskirts of Cudillero. We were given a choice of pitches and faffed around until we found a great corner spot which was level and easy to get off given the pitches were wet and further rain was in the forecast.

Most of the pitches were back-to-back pairs and some were a grouping of four. Motorhomes, from a certain country, annexed the entire double pitch or in the case of the quad pitches, the entire area! Need i say more…

The campsite is located 2 or 3 kilometres from the port but the walk back is absolutely brutal. The town is located at the bottom of a very steep valley and today, its main economic activity is tourism but it retains a strong fishing culture.

Legend has it that the town was founded by the Vikings and in addition to Castillian, the locals speak a dialect known as Pixueto. It is renowned as one of the prettiest villages in Spain.

By the time we made had walked down to the harbour, our legs were shaking and not looking forward to the hike back. There are a number of marked trails around the port and surrounding hills with spectaculour views.

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Trips and days out are taking place with increased frequency and it’s getting harder to remember just what we did and where we’ve been.

This was our first and only full day in Cudillero and we woke up to a damp start and Moe chose for us to have a day out in Aviles. We caught the train at El Pito Pinera which is about a mile walk from the campsite. The trains are still narrow gauge from Cudillera (in fact all the way along the coast to the border with France) but from here they are electrified and our outward and return journeys were on time.

Aviles is a large town / city with a nice pretty old-town centred around the Plaza d’Espana. We wandered around the streets taking in the scenery.

Here at Aviles railway station, old meets new. You can see in the picture below the different gauge railways.

A very wet night and we made the decision to move on tomorrow morning and head for the mountains.

Tuesday 16th September, and Camping Rinlo Costa was part of our original schedule; we arrived mid-afternoon, in the middle of the siesta which necessitated an hours wait before we could check-in. We had stocked up on supplies in Oleiros – at Mercadona, Decathlon and Leroy Merlin. Okay, so the Decathlon and Leroy Merlin purchases weren’t strictly necessary.

Our bungalow is luxurious (by mobile home standards) and the site is around 1km from the coast. But it is so peaceful here.

The little port and fishing village of Rinlo is just a 20 minute walk away and at a similar distance there is a narrow gauge railway station. This railway line runs all the way from Oviedo to Ferrol and it’s closer to a heritage railway than the latest Spanish high speed routes.

The Rinlo railway station looks all but abandoned, as do many of the small village request stops. Nevertheless, trains not much bigger than a bendy bus navigate along the coastal train up to four times a day, rarely on time and often not at all.

Our first trip out was to catch the train to Esteiros from Rinlo. One of four trains per day had us arriving some 5 miles away from Rinlo and our campsite. We then walked the coastal path back to Rinlo, enjoyed a swift beverage at Porto de Rinlo, arriving back at the site for a BBQ tea.

The terrain along the coastline is rugged but the paths are not as demanding as many parts of the UK’s South West coastal path. The landscape is not entirely dissimilar to the coastline of Devon and Cornwall and the Galicians do count themselves as a Celtic people. There is the odd cafe / snack bar on the route we took back to Rinlo.

The weather is still georgeous and as you can see below, the coastline just beautful. This region is called “Green Spain” for a reason but so far the weather has been fantastic and the scenary incredible.

The coastline heading east towards Rinlo.

And below are the views as we arrived in the pretty village of Rinlo.

On Thursday, we headed back to the not-so-pretty station of Rinlo and as seems fairly typical, our train showed a 30 minute delay. As it finally appeared in the distance, it was surrounded by smoke and whilst pulling into the station, it was quite the show as sparks and flames lapped up the sides of the train. This didn’t seem to concern the conductor too much as we boarded the train. Meanwhile, the driver was somewhat more interested in what was happening and we were subsequently all ushered off the train followed by the driver with his fire extinguisher.

It’s safe to say that Rinlo hasn’t seen so many passengers on the platform for many years and since this train (nor any others on this single-track section) wasn’t going anywhere, we abandoned our visit to Ribadeo and headed into Rinlo for lunch.

This region of Spain is renowned for the delicacy of barnacles and at 20+ Euros for a plate, it was a popular option. Not for Moe and I – we opted for something a little more familiar with garlic prawns and squid. We ate at Bar Portillo, opposite a far more ostentatious restaurant which serves another specialty dish of the region – a kind of lobster broth. Maybe next time?

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Even if you haven’t been to Galicia or the wider NW of Spain, you have probably heard of Cathedral Beach. And if you are visiting this coastline, you will most certainly want to book tickets and explore this natural wonder.

Praia das Catedrais or Beach of the Cathedrals (also Beach of the Holy Waters) is located in the Ribadeo municipality, on the Cantabric coast, and it lies about ten kilometres to the west of the town of Ribadeo, its name is derived from its cliff formations. For us it would be another short train journey from Rinlo and we would then walk back to our campsite.

The beach has been declared a Natural Monument by the regional Ministry for the Environment of the Xunta de Galicia.

The characteristic features of the beach are its natural arches and caves, which can be seen only at low tide. During high tide, the beach appears small, but still suitable for swimming. During low tide the size of its cliffs and sea caves is more apparent, ranging from small cracks in the rock to big caves whose roofs have collapsed due to the erosion of the waves.

At low tide, there is access to a sand deposit delimited by a rocky wall made from slate and schist forming 30m arches resembling cathedral flying buttresses, large caves, sand corridors between rocky blocks, and other geological features.

Particularly low tides create access to nearby beaches through the sand extension. As the coast stretch is almost horizontal, the water covers the beach again very quickly.

These are Gooseneckbarnacles that proved such a huge hit the previous day at Bar Portillo.

Some more pictures below. If you want to see any in more detail, just click on the individual image.

With Moe patched up and having enjoyed a pleasant evening in one of the bungalows, we headed North to Camping Los Manzanos, near Santa Cruz but on the opposite side of the estuary to A Coruna. We had managed to secure three nights in one of their stone bungalows. Fairly basic accomodation but we had comfortable beds, nice en-suite wetroom and most importantly, Moe didn’t have to try and clamber into bed in the pop-top with her swollen, but un-broken wrists!

A Coruna was added to our tour on the recommentdations of Ellie at Camping La Vouga. She described it as a far prettier place than Santiago and one we should visit. Camping Loz Manzanos was her personal recommendation.

After checking into the “stone bungalow”, we walked into the centre of Santa Cruz and explored the town’s castle. Although Santa Cruz is a town in its own right, its main claim to fame is a small fortified island some 50 metres or so off shore which you can reach by foot bridge. After exploring the castle grounds, we retired to a local hostelry for a drinks.

On our first full day here, we caught the bus from Santa Cruz to A Coruna which was fairly regular and the journey took just half an hour. Once in A Coruna, we caught another bus to the Torre de Hercules. This is probably the most famous monument in A Coruna and is the oldest known Roman lighthouse, constructed in the 1st century. The tower is located some 2.5km from the centre of A Coruna on a peninsular north of the city.

The lighthouse, standing atop a skull and crossbones representing the buried head of Hercules’ slain enemy, appears in the coat of arms of the city of A Coruna.

Throughout the Middle Ages, multiple naval crusading itineraries to the Holy Land mentioned the obligatory stopover at the Lighthouse. Usually, the crusader fleets would disembark there to reach the shrine of the Apostle James the Greater at Santiago de Compostela on foot.

After viewing the tower, we walked around the peninsular before eventually heading back to Santa Cruz. We were somewhat under-whelmed with A Coruna at this juncture.

Sunday evening we ate at the restuarant associated with the campsite and ordered steaks. Moe had the sirloin whilst I had Entrecote with a mushroom sauce. The Tiramasu we shared afterwards was equally as enjoyable as the steaks – all washed down with a couple of glasses of red wine from Galicia.

Monday we decided to head back to A Coruna for a stroll along the harbour and then lunch in the old town. This time we found a much prettier side to A Coruna and just off the tourist track, we found an amazing Spanish restaurant. We were of course early arrivals but within an hour or so every table was full both inside and outside and we enjoyed the menu of the day which was around 12 Euros each. They even gave us a bottle of white wine – total price for the three courses, 27 euros for the two of us! The restaurant was Meson La Rueda, on Rua Capitain Troncoso.

The other “odd” architectural side of A Coruna and the wider Galicia region is the glass balconies. Many buildings were built with balconies but due to the weather and atlantic storms these weren’t usable for much of the year. The solution was to encase the balconies in glass and many of these structures are quite remarkable.

After a hectic two days in Santiago, we headed further south to a Campsite on the coast about eight miles south of Baiona. It was an easy journey on the motorway with the only real surprise that the Autopistas in Galicia are still charging tolls.

Camping o Mouino is a short cycle ride from Baiona along a dedicated cycle track. I use the the word dedicated loosely, because for much of the route it is also shared by the modern day pilgrims heading to Santiago. And there are a lot of them.

The site is fantastic with a lovely views out across the Galician Atlantic coastline. The weather did not disppoint with an accurate forecast of warm, calm days if a little cool overnight. We had one of the nicest pitches so far with the grass in near perfect condition and with views across the sea.

We stayed on the site for a couple of relaxing days after the hectic tour of Santiago. The views from the campsite and the sunsets were awesome.

Thursday we set off to Baiona on our bikes and it took around an hour for us to cover the eight miles including several sight-seeing breaks. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the harbour at Baiona and then spent the afternoon exploring the historical Castle of Monterreal. Today it is a luxury hotel but the whole castle and its surroundings occupy some 18 hectares.

The castle was constructed in the 12th century and the kings used it to control the marritime territory of the Rias Baixas. Gradually its purpose as a military site diminished and it was turned into a luxury hotel. After paying a 1 Euro entrance fee, you can walk around the entire perimeter wall and experience the stunning views across Baiona bay and the atlantic ocean.

There’s also a replica of Christopher Columbus’ boat the “Pinta” in the harbour so we decided we would return the next day to have a look around.

The journey back wasn’t quite as uneventful as we were almost mown down by an out of control German cyclist, riding a monster of an electric bike. Too busy looking at the views to notice she was veering off piste, just missing me and clipping Moe’s handlebars.

Fortunately neither Moe nor the other cyclist crashed and we continued our journey home.

Friday the 13th was just a couple of hours away when Moe, returning to the Campervan, decided to take a trip and dive at the Campsite. Covered in blood, with one very odd-shaped wrist, cuts to her chin, hands and legs, Friday’s bike ride looked in some doubt…

We had been enjoying sleeping in the pop-top but there was no possibility Moe would be able to climb up. After cleaning and bandaging her wounds we called it a night and decided to assess things in the morning.

Friday the 13th arrived and the horror show of Moe appeared. Now with two black eyes and a very swollen nose, I wasn’t sure whether or not I might be greeted by security on arrival at the local hospital.

The local hospital turned out to be a massive new hospital in the town of Vigo. Everything was very modern, spacious and clean. Our GHIC card was processed by reception and Moe was treated to some first world healthcare. Everyone was kind, caring and compassionate. The language was a challenge as little English was spoken so I did my best to translate. Somewhat miraculously, X-Rays revealed no broken wrist or nose. A nurse cleaned all the wounds, steri-stripped them and we were heading back to the campervan in around 3 hours.

Once back at the site, we decided that staying in the campervan would be a little too challenging as one of Moe’s wrists is still very painful and non load bearing. We were able to rent a mobile home but only for the Friday night as they were fully booked later in the weekend.

We decided we would move on Saturday morning…

We have been in Galicia for around a week now and it’s some five days since I actually found the time to write up our diaries. We awoke this morning (Saturday) to a bright, cold and sunny day. The calm after the storm as we have just endured some horrendous rain over the previous 24 hours. We have now cleaned up and everything is drying out and hopefully it will stay that way until our departure tomorrow to the Capital of Galicia.

This is the first time we have visited Galicia and the Costa del morte – or the Coast of death. Renowned for it’s stunning scenary and cliffs, the Costa del morte runs for 10s of Kilometres along the North Western coast of Spain in the A Coruna region. It acquired it’s name due to the more than 600 shipwrecks which have occurred off the coast. The rugged costline and hidden rocks make this one of the most dangerous areas for shipping in Spain, if not the world.

We have been out on the bikes most days and our longest journey was to the town of Carnota.

Whilst it’s impossible not to notice all the similar built grain stores in Galicia, Carnota has the largest. These granaries, or “Horreos” in Spanish, created an elevated and ventilated storage system for grain but buiding the largest became somewhat of an obsession and various competitions were invented to see who could build the longest.

This one is the longest in Galicia and was completed in two stages in competition with the parish of Lira which has a similar building. It was built in 1760 and 1783.

It’s a very popular tourist destination in Galicia.

After the morning in Carnota, we cycled into Muros for lunch at A Darsena where we enjoyed some Pizza, later taking a stroll around the old town of Muros.

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Friday we drove to the end of the world – Fisterra. Also known as Cap Finistere which leant its name to one of the largest and former Brittany Ferries Spanish-route boats. This is the most westerly point in Spain and the next continent to the West is America.

Until the end of the Middle Ages, the  Costa del Morte was indeed the last known piece of land. The place where pre-Roman people believed that souls ascended to heaven. A mythical and symbolic space that would have left Roman conquerors speechless when they saw the sun disappear behind the immense ocean. Since then, as a result of it’s mystical powers, Fisterra has become one of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim routes and it’s around a four or five day hike to / from Santiago.

After our visit to Fisterra, we headed to the Ezaro waterfalls. Above the waterfalls is a dam and reservoir – Encoro de Santa Uxia – and the waterfalls were only allowed to flow again since 2011. The site also houses 5 hydro-electric power turbines.

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We have had a fantastic week here at Camping A Vouga. The facilities might be a little tired but are kept very clean. We have eaten twice at the on-site bar / restaurant and the food is excellent and reasonably priced.

The view from our pitch is simply the best. Watching the pods of dolphins making their way around the bay is just fantastic.

We are sorry to be moving on but we have other parts of North West Spain to explore. Adios Camping A Vouga.