Set off from Santiago after sampling the hotel’s famous breakfast, giant pieces of toast, fresh blended tomato spread, olive oil and famous Galician ‘titty’ cheese, (it’s a shape thing) fresh oj, great cafe con leche and a giant toasted croissant. Hotel was great - location and quality and certainly warmth of reception. (www.costavella.com)
Car duly retrieved from parking and successfully infiltrated the pedestrianised old city centre. As today was a public holiday (Spanish Army Day, but the hotelier advised with a dismissive wave…that means nothing here.... traffic pressure was a pretty low, and we are thankful for small mercies like that.
TomTom the navigator sent us deeper into the old city, advised right turns where there were no roads, but we were soon out of town and away north. TomTom the navigator is unlike my old one, very calm under all circumstances, never spits the dummy or has hissy fits and always comes up with a solution when instructions have been misinterpreted or not acted on quickly enough.
We had coffee in Ponteverde, even though we hadn’t programmed that place into TomTom, so there were a few insistent instructions ignored. There are some lovely harbours, estuaries and inlets, and we saw Europe’s highest sea cliffs (and the associated wind farms).
Leslie Howard the actor was shot down in a DC3 here by the Luftwaffe in WWII, the interpretive signage has the story and pictures Howard and a Lufthansa Fokker passenger plane. These people obviously need DOC to check their stories and signage. That’s ticked the first few things on the list. Now off to Ortiguera.
Issued instructions to TomTom and of we went. Turn right (we have him with a very sweet feminine voice). We did. We did get soon after Turn around, but he obviously didn’t understand the width of the road issues. Pretty soon after he was showing us driving in the middle of a blank screen. Soon after that a road did appear on the screen and he connected us to it by a red dotted line as a comforting measure. We continued on down this farm track, and eventually decided to retrace our steps. TomTom was pleased, but not overly excited so did the usual, no road, red dotted line tricks on the way back, New instructions at the “intersection” where we had received the initial Turn right instruction. There were half a dozen cars parked outside a barn with a bunch of guys looking like they were celebrating Army Day. Ann did suggest we go and ask for instructions, but TomTom at least speaks English. The road got narrower and steeper, TomTom remained silent so on we drove. I’m thankful that it was Army Day, it meant the huge quarry we drove through wasn’t working.
We arrived into a charming rural area, small lots, fruit trees, a few livestock and we were back on tarmac and heading east. We reprogrammed for our final destination of the day, Cudillero, and set off. Lots of hills, harbours, small towns, eucalypt forest, pine forest, giant viaducts over Rio valleys… that’s where some of the GFC$ crisis (Espana style) went. There are lots of unfinished roads and roundabouts and accommodation developments at beach towns. To be fair TomTom did a fantastic job, although there were some potentially stressful moments where someone had obviously had a whisper to TomTom that they plan to make a roundabout at that point. Probably just a timing issue, and at least it was in a place where we could turn around.
Cudillero is a lovely little place at the bottom of some huge cliffs, and with a harbour that is surrounded by giant sea walls and the entrance facing North into the Atlantic (referred to as the Cantabrian sea by the locals.) We watched the fishing boats heading out for evening catch. Quite a lift at the harbour entrance.
Our hotel- La Casona de Pio - is very good for location and comfort. It is right by the harbour. (www.lacasonadepio.com).
Lots of tourist eateries which we avoided. Found a little bar with some of the locals and sampled the local fare after translating the menu over a beer and G&T and a slice of the famous Quiesa Cabrales – a blue cheese made locally. Raided the boat supply of Port for a nightcap.
Short drive tomorrow to Llanes, 144 km according to TomTom who is privileged enough to share our accommodation. Hasn’t graduated to sharing a Port, but is an appreciated part of the team
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