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| The Sweets Table! |
We awoke to brilliant sunshine. The breakfast was amazing again with everything under the sun available. We loaded our car down on -3 floor and drove up the steep ramp into the blue sky that started clouding up as we drove north. We were heading to the next peninsula, Barbanza, which has a large nature preserve at the tip.
We found the Las Dunas area of the Parque Natural Corrurbedo and walked on a long boardwalk to the base of an enormous dune field. There was a sign saying that one couldn't climb the dunes as the park officials are trying to preserve the plants and animals.
The group ahead of us had obviously hopped the fence to get to the top to see the view. I think they'd be better off extending the boardwalk as people can't resist not taking in the view of the ocean! Anyway, we didn't and saw some nice wildflowers and a few birds in the overcast sky and gusty wind.
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| Sea Poppy |
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| Stone Chat |
We were trying to find the park headquarters and visitor center and thought we were on the correct lane when we came upon a huge line of cars and buses and police checking people in - they must been having a conference or political meeting of some kind, so we left and drove on to the north shore of the peninsula through tidy small towns. We saw many small stone structures in people's yards and on the side of the road that turned out to be hórreos, grain storage containers with mill stones on top of the legs (to keep our rats?)
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| Un Hórreo |
Our hotel, A Quinta da Auga, located on the west side of Santiago, was built in 1792 as paper mill, then a wool factory, and finally a beer and ice company. In 2003 a family bought this now dilapidated facility and turned it into an elegant hotel. We managed to find it with our sharpened navigational skills, making a few mistakes, but able to correct them before they turned into disasters and we found ourselves in the medieval downtown! We pulled into an apparently nondescript street and there was our hotel! It was drizzling and blowing so we didn't explore the grounds, but relaxed in our lovely room - with soft beds, at last!
We really didn't want a large dinner, especially as their restaurant doesn't open until 9:30, so at 7 we walked over to the bar and got some Rioja wine and hamburgers - which were very delicious. It's very difficult to get a hamburger outside the US that isn't loaded with beets, eggs, and all sorts of stuff - this one just had cheese, tomato and lettuce - perfect!
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| View from our hotel window |
The group ahead of us had obviously hopped the fence to get to the top to see the view. I think they'd be better off extending the boardwalk as people can't resist not taking in the view of the ocean! Anyway, we didn't and saw some nice wildflowers and a few birds in the overcast sky and gusty wind.
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