Thursday 12th July, 105 miles, Kymi 31km, cloudy, some rain, a little sun later
Today the meeting I was trying to get in La Coruña was confirmed so we cruised the last hundred or so miles to get to a campsite in nearby Oleiros. More stunning views, tunnels and viaducts on the way, plus several software crashes for the satnag as quite a few new sections of motorway had opened since its data base was loaded. In the end it ceased to entertain us so we switched it off. At least the map was up to date!
La Coruña is on the far western end of the northern coast of Spain, the furthest west being Finisterra – like Finistere in Brittany. Its quite a big town, with a large harbour and port area and we were visiting an architect’s practice which also works on yacht interiors.
Having checked into Los Manzanos campsite – full of pretend menhir like stones and strange stone carvings – we got Kymi out to recce the address for the next day. The idea was to hopefully find somewhere to park Horatio so B could drop me off for the meeting, pick me up and we could vamoosh! So we decided to leave at about 7pm, after the rush hour, for a look. Off we whizzed – straight into a mega traffic jam.
The entire town centre was in gridlock as we were all forced off the central dual carriageway by the police. B squeezed Kymi in and out of tiny gaps in the traffic, scaring the living daylights out of me at times, while I clutched my phone with Tomtom running on it to try to find our way. Just before the phone battery died we found it. No parking but a potential drop off point in a garage. That will have to do. We also found the problem – a demonstration which centred on the port area which we were near. We had had enough. Back to the campsite for a calming beer. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together…. 😉
Friday 13th July, 102 miles, low dense cloud, then bucketloads of rain, more cloud
Well, it was Friday the 13th! Meeting went well, parking was a challenge – B ended up at an Aire on the headland several miles away, but found his way back to me and we left for Santiago de Compostela.
Santiago is a pilgrimage destination for the Catholic faithful, and all along our way on the A8 we had seen indications of the route for the pilgrims. We were so close once we reached La Coruña that it would have been silly not to go and have a look at the “stunning” cathedral there. So we did. It absolutely threw it down the whole time we were there. My boots are still not dry 2 days later. B said if we were some of the faithful we might feel our sins were being washed away as a result of our pilgrimage. I just felt wet.
The cathedral was striking from outside, but much smaller inside than we expected. A very lavishly decorated organ, choir and altar area as you might expect, lots of gold and huge carved angels. Amazing if that’s your thing.
Back at the van it finally stopped raining! We battled with the satnag to leave the town and headed south – again in the hopes that we might find some better weather. Its been a strange trip – we thought we had signed up for 4 months of mainly sunshine, and we have now had 5 weeks of mostly cloud and rain, with a few odd lovely days sprinkled through. It’s been warmer than at home, and apart from today, less torrential, but not quite what we expected. My suntan is only slightly better than non-existent
I picked an Aire from the book and we stopped on the harbourside of a small town called Arcade on a large lagoon area near Vigo. Absolutely stunning views, even with the clouds. Horatio’s best Window on the World to date, and a great restaurant nearby where we had a barbecued meatfest with an enormous pile of chips and bowl of bread. Thank goodness we declined a starter.
We were all alone there…..until about 11pm when a Spanish family in another van arrived and parked right next to us. The kids got out and joined in some local children’s sports event going on behind us – its still light at 11pm here. Just to rub it in this even included setting off some firecrackers. Strange hours they keep round here.
Cathedral at Santiago - my client said it looks better in the rain - somehow I cannot agree