It was overcast this morning which we hoped would burn off. We got to to the breakfast room at 8:30 which I guess was too early as the tables were just being set up with various breads, meats, cheese, and sliced fruit. We got plenty to to eat and then got a map with places to see marked by the lady handling the reception desk and took off.
The plan was to explore and then return to the larger town just north of us, Viveiro, for a late lunch. We drove west on the coastal route which looked pretty obvious on the map, but as usual tiny dots on the map turned out to be complicated towns and major points of interest were subtly labeled! We drove out to the lighthouse on Punta Bares, which contains the northernmost point of Spain, and curved around the large shallow bay of Ortigueira with enormous acreage of mud flats exposed. We're just a bit too early for the many thousands of shore birds that will begin arriving next month.
The next neck of land, the large Cabo Ortegal, contains the famous Vixia Herbeira, the highest ocean overview in Europe. We drove up the east side of the cape with views of mud flats far below to the town of Cariño where, unable to locate a road to the cape, we turned back and tried the west side with more success.
Horses, cows and goats wander freely while cars race up these very narrow roads. We came upon a German couple whose car was tilted way over in a ditch as a result of trying to avoid an on-coming, un-yielding vehicle! We stopped and asked them if they needed any help, but they had already phoned for a tow and were consuming their picnic lunch.
We couldn't get all the way to the top of the cape as the road turned to dirt and became quite rough, and seemed unsuitable for our little rental car. We turned around and found Vixia Herbeira, un-signed, but our GPS fortunately told us we were just above 2000'. We pulled off and heard bagpipes playing. We hiked up to a stone wall and looked over to see a spectacular sight! Even better than Big Sur! An amazing 2000' almost straight down drop to crashing surf. The sun was out and it was spectacular.
I gave the bagpiper a Euro, as I loved the music, and he told us that the stone hut behind us was constructed by Napoleon's troops as a lookout.
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| The Bagpiper by Napoleon's lookout |
It was mid afternoon and obviously we weren't going to make it all the way back for lunch, so we drove down the side of the steep hillside to a tiny village sitting on a cliff, San Andrés de Teixido, for a bite to eat. You never know what you will get when you order something. If you order an egg, you normally get just the egg; if you order a beer you will probably get olives and peanuts also. We ordered a small portion of pork empanadas and were surprised to get 3 pastries, plus a nice simple salad and a basket of crusty bread, and, with two beers, it was a fine meal.
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| The Church in San Andrés de Teixido |
We returned to our hotel by 6 PM, and went down to the restaurant at 8:30 for their set dinner which was delicious: elbow pasta with shrimp, clams,and black field mushrooms. The next course was tuna tartare with minced onion and avocado, and with cheese cake for dessert. Then we were given three bottles of liquors: coffee, a clear bitter herbaceous liquid, and creamy coffee - all very good!
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