Galician Coast

Tues 7^th

First thing we diverted off our route to investigate a celtic settlement – Castro de Coana. As we approached down a twisty road it looked really huge and full of  building remains. What a shame when we got there we discovered that it was closed. Out of season opening hours had struck again! To be revisited on a future trip.

next time........

Our next stop was at Foz along the coast. The “autocaravanas” area was massive – a grassy area bordering the estuary with views across and out to sea. Very nice postion. After lunch we walked along the seafront . the town itself was architecturally uninspiring with lots of high rise blocks cheek by jowl. Their only saving grace was that they were all different and irregularly placed. Also some were bright colours. It had the air of a summer destination shuttered up for the winter. The ports were nice with a big sandy beach close by.

Foz - huge aire

sunrise across estuary

That evening we were sitting reading when a local man tapped on the window. He said hello in perfect English – turns out he was a former postie from Balham, South London! He had lived there for 23 years and now spent the summer in Foz as it was cooler than his other house in Alicante. Newly recovered from a double bypass heart operation he was a a great character. He told us Foz had 3 Chinese shops (like pound shops) and the population doubled in the summer. He also told us that he had seen over 100 autocaravanas parked up. Nice man.

Weds 8^th

Laundry day!  So after a walk about Foz we moved all of 8 miles to an ACSI site right by a lovely surfers beach. Big waves and a BIG German  built  motorhome across from us. I was curious so searched the net for it – Stauber Actros. It had the looks that only a mother could love. Big, slab sided but the best part – it could carry a Smart car in the rear garage!  I talked to the owner who said it was not that expensive (€150,000……) as it had been custom built with 2 wheelchair lifts for his disabled wife and it could easily carry his Smart car. He said it was very good value compared to the other big manufacturers – Concorde, Carthago etc… who would charge €230,000 plus. Gulp.

function over form

in she goes

After lunch we cycled along the coast to investigate the As Catedrais (cathedral) beach. It has amazing rock formations and arches but the tide has to be out for you to see it all. Great coast  road passing lots of shuttered houses and quite a few that had not been completed. Signs of the building boom crash in 2008. Sad to see so many skeletons of houses and the many empty walled plots. There were also many empty finished buildings for sale. Visibly they had been for sale for some time.

where are the surfers?

The cathedral beach looked very interesting with a big visitors centre / car park. We decided to return in the morning when the tide was out. We just made it back before a huge deluge.

The site was very nice with great facilities and very helpful staff. We tried to speak some Galician with them in the bar that evening. Much easier to stick to Spanish – not really.