Beach and Malpica

We went beach exploring again today and went to a nice beach in Arteixo called Cambouzas.  It was a nice sunny and sandy cove with great facilities including bar, food, and toilets.  The sea was a bit rough but we managed a little dip before leaving the beach around 4.30pm.  We drove on then to Malpica, a little port town to the West of A Coruña.  We had an explore of that town and bought a few bits of food at some local shops there including a bottle of red wine for 1 euro that was actually quite nice.  We made dinner of pasta, chorizo, onion, garlic and tomato back at the tent.

Santiago de Compostela

We went to Santiago de Compostela today as it is the feat of St James, the patron saint of Spain.  The drive was about an hour and we had a good explore of the cathedral, followed by a nice tapas lunch.  We went to see the museum of pilgrimage and Santiago then we walked around the tour shown by the guide book we were using.  We visited the Convento de San Paio de Antealares and the Convento de San Martiño Pinariao.  We came back to the campsite for an evening of relaxing at the tent.

Beaches and old towns

Today we went exploring beaches and went to Doniños beach.  We also drove along to Cedeira, a very pretty town on the North cost of Galicia.  We visited San Andres de Teixido with its well preserved monastery and pilgrimage site.  A long drive back to the camp site won us a good meal of pizza and beer and some postcard-writing.

Exploring A Coruña

Today we decided to go into A Coruña to explore.  It’s quite a big city and we saw lots including the marina, the Hercules Column (although it was in a cloud), Plaza Santa Maria Pita, The Domus Museum, the Belas Artes Museum, Santiago Church, and St Dominica.  There was also a traditional mediaeval festival and market going on.  We came back to the campsite restaurant for another good meal.

The drive west across Spain to our first campsite

We arrived at Bilbao at 0745 local time after another great night’s sleep on the ferry.  We started the long drive to Galicia to our campsite which is just outside A Coruña.  It’ called Camping los Manzanos.  We got the tent up and popped out for some supplies then had a nice meal at the campsite restaurant.

A day at sea

We had a brief stop at Roscoff in Brittany to change crew and pick up supplies and then carried on South past Brittany.  There was an interesting talk about whales and other sea life prevalent in the area and we spent a relaxing day reading books and enjoying the lovely weather.  We had a nice meal in one of the ship’s restaurants in the evening followed by a quiz in the bar.  We came second.

Off on a long ferry trip to Bilbao

We had sung all the services at Westminster Abbey with CLCC this weekend so were quite tired.  We had the car and all our kit in central London so drove straight down to Portsmouth to get the ferry to Bilbao.  We had a curry on the way, which was rather good, and got to the ferry in plenty of time for our 2330 crossing.