Heading north today
I put my head outside the balcony door when I heard the clip clop of horses’ hoofs this morning, but sadly the lead rider, carrying the large flag had already passed by the time I’d grabbed my camera. I’ve no idea what that was all about but they were causing quite a stir.
We had decided to head north this morning, to explore one or two coastal towns, the first one being Pontedeume, the town with a bridge over the river Eume.
Fine, though the biggest challenge was finding a car park. Having driven around, we pulled over and consulted the guide book, deciding that we’d continue with our plans for the day and if we had time, we could always stop on the way back. It seemed the main things of interest were a medieval tower and the cathedral. We could probably get by without visiting either of those.
So we drove uphill to the Castelo de Andrade and found it totally deserted.
On such a glorious morning, to have such a place to ourselves was magical. We wandered aroud, enjoying the clear air and spectacular views and felt pleased we’d not lingered longer in the busy port down there.
I suppose it was quite funny then for the silence to be broken by the sound of chatter coming from down the path. Sure enough, a crowd of teenagers suddenly appeared from nowhere, accompanied by a teacher or leader of some kind. They were like a flock of starlings - the cloud of noise and colour flitted through the place so quickly. (I have since discovered that the castle could be included in the route of the Camino Ingles - perhaps they were on their way to Santiago?)
By the time we’d returned to our car and I’d taken a photo of this rather fine horreo they had gone. We passed them on the road back down the hill - who knows what they were doing or where they were going?
We were heading for another couple of small towns on the coast of the estuary. We had not been going long before we picked up a couple of lorries transporting what looked like parts of a house - going really slowly on these small rural roads. We made a decision to turn off and explore the first of the coastal villages there, Redes, where we drove right down to the harbour, decided we wanted to stay here a while, so parked the car in the car park and ordered a beer!
What a great place to sit and enjoy the sunshine! We’d read that many of the original inhabitants arrived from Cuba and built their houses in the same style. There was certainly plenty of colour surrounding us.
The layout of “one road down and turn to go back up” reminded us of some of the North Yorkshire or Cornish fishing villages, where in the Summer, it’s impossible to move as things get totally jammed up. The same is probably true here, but on this fine April morning, there was no such bother - just us and another couple in the bar next door. Fair’s fair - two bars here, so one couple in each!
Before leaving, we had a wander around, wondering what the framework was, there in front of the blue house? The answer was there in front of us, on a board with a QR code
The barcode on the information board leads to a fascinating site which confirms they were for hanging fishing nets to dry and depending on your fluency in Spanish - or your browser’s willingness to translate - it’s worthwhile taking a look.
We could have stayed in Redes all afternoon. But we had other places to see, so we said ‘bye to the delightful bar owner, retrieved the car and went off to explore the coast futher. Needless to say, the next place along didn’t bear comparison, so we kept on going to the next highlight on our route, the Castela da Palma.
It was quite clear when we got there. Situated at the end of a long track, it was a pretty daunting sight.
We walked along and around the corner a bit to see what’s what and all fell into place. The main part of the castle was built into the side of the estuary and there, on the other side was its counterpart. Between the two castles, a chain could be raised to prevent enemy ships entering the harbour.
All of that made so much more sense when we’d seen it from above. The final spot on our route today was the viewpoint at Miradoro da Bailadora from where the views were nothing short of magnificent!
It seemed fitting to end our day’s adventure on a high, so we retraced our way back down along much the same roads as we’d come, including crossing the bridge at Pontedeume.
Though there were probably parking spaces a plenty now, we chose to carry straight on and I snapped a picture of the medieval tower from the open car window!
