Our most recent stop has taken us to a quiet, isolated and magical region of Spain, Galicia. Picture in your mind the far northern and western corner of Spain and you’re thinking of the right area. Now add to that picture lush green forests, rolling rocky hillsides and a gorgeously rugged Atlantic coast line. The Galician coast is dotted with fishing towns, dozens of little beaches and an occasional restaurant or surf shop. The weather for our four night visit was cool and rainy, warming enough on our last day to permit a bracing swim in the cold, turquoise Atlantic Ocean.
Never was there a place with so little to do that we were so sad to leave.
But before Galicia we had to depart a lovely home in San Sebastián. Our SS home had an iron motorized security gate which we closed at night to lock up the driveway. So the morning we were to leave, we got up early, everyone jumped in the minivan and I locked up the house. Only to realize that the gate was still shut and locked and the gate opener still locked up in the house! Fuuuuddddggggeee! We can’t drive out! We spent the next hour scouring the yard and shed for a spare key.
Thankfully, after a short while the host sent her Dad to bail us out! We were on our way… lesson learned, don’t get a house with a gate.
So back to Galicia!
On one morning we drove down the coast to explore the most amazing ruins. Celtic ruins to be exact, dating to about the year 100 BC!
The ruins were called Castro de Baroña. The site was really cool made up of little circular stone ‘rooms’ where the Celts I guess had a large encampment.
Sometime soon you should watch for a little video we shot on the hillside of this cool site. Lidia and Elliot re-enacted a scene from Star Wars… Lidia was Rey and Elliot was Luke. They did the scene where Rey hikes up the seaside hill to find Luke so she can plead with him to take back his old lightsaber.
The VRBO home we rented in Galicia was a really great stay… totally spoiled is how we roll.
The house was situated on a hillside overlooking a little village. The home, constructed largely of stone was just the perfect countryside get away spot. Pictures won’t do this place justice but I’ll post a few anyway.
As you’ll recall we’re traveling with my mom and Lidia’s mom. My mom, Sharry, a HGTV fan was loving all the little touches around the home, amazing stone work, a soaking tub, beautiful armoires (no closets in these old homes) The boys befriended a curious local dog, Lua. Lua came around at dinner time every night looking for scraps, sometimes she would bring a little dog friend with her.
The village we were basically staying in was a collection of about 50 hillside homes scattered between little farm yards. Everyone has a garden and grapevines. The village or town was called O Cruceiro de Roo, there was an old church, a market with friendly folks and a restaurant that opened for dinner at a truly Spanish time of 9:30! (We went for dinner one night and Elliot almost fell asleep in my lap.)
The people of Spain nearly across the board have been friendly, hospitable and patient. Traveling with two young boys as ambassadors opens up local people in a special way. We’ve all enjoyed practicing our 15 key spanish words. We’ve mastered pantomiming many of our particular needs (ordering a dish for the boys, sauce on the side!) The villagers found us a curious group the all wanted to say Hello and kiss our cheeks in greeting.
Our new local best friend is Igor. A Sardinean transplant, Igor owns a little pizza shop just one village down the road. Igor, we discovered is a fisherman. You might recall that during our trip we are looking for any chance do a little fishing. I was chatting with Igor one day after getting a pizza for the boys and I happened to mention that we were looking for a good place to go fishing!
That was all it took… soon we had some seriously sweet insider angler information. Igor told us where to find the live bait vending machine.
He also told us exactly what type of worms to buy… ‘Minoca Pais’ to be exact.
Igor talked me into taking the boys to an old stone bridge nearby. He said we needed to go to the bridge at sunset when the tide was going to be at it’s lowest. This puts us going out at basically 11 at night... Dropping your line off of a 5 meter high Bridge in the dark was a challenge. You can see the location in the video below. The rushing water is the tide going out of this little bay. We didn’t catch anything but it was a totally unforgettable adventure…
After leaving the bridge at about 11:30 we stopped back at the pizza shop and told Igor all about our night… he was happy to inform us of everything we did wrong, from the wrong weight sinker, wrong type of fishing pole and that we should have waited until about 12:30 to go out… a total character!
And here is the inimitable Igor!
Our last day here was a cool crisp beach day. We seem to be in Galicia about a month before a presumably substantial tourist season… it was a little cool during our visit and as such the picturesque beach we visited was all ours.
The water was about the temperature of Lake Superior in Early July, very cold but if you’re motivated you can get in…
So there you have it. It’s been a fun, busy and relaxing few days. After an overnight in London we say goodbye to both Grandmothers and we’re off on our own. Our mothers were great to travel with! They added a fun dynamic to our adventure and got to know each other pretty well it seemed! We will miss them. Now we’re headed to France to visit some old college friends of Lidia. Then my cousin Petr in Germany and then on to Croatia for more seaside adventures.
Thanks for reading! Hope you are planning some adventuring of your own!
~Aaron and fam
