The Met Office app on the iPhone is a basic tool that allows a snapshot of the weather forecast at various places - we managed to find Santiago de Compostela in there and the weather wouldn’t good for several days.
By the way that app still shows Lake Bled located in Slovakia when in fact it’s in Slovenia - something that I discussed with the Met Office by emails last summer (yes I did do that!) and they told me that it would take several months to correct it. Well Lake Bled is still waiting...
With the Meto app providing some uncertainty about just how bad the weather would be, I turned to netweather.tv - always a good bet. Their jet stream forecast was conclusive.
The intense colours show the speed of the jet and so it was clear that the Atlantic would be roaring into Iberia for a day or two.
The synoptic chart showed a similar situation for the following day and so we expected to get wet. In fact on Monday 13th June it was already raining hard when we woke-up and that’s never a good way to be greeted when you want to pack-up. So it was a "wet tent” pack-up and we headed for Spain and the Atlantic coast south of Vigo.
In a moment of fine weather we approached Baiona and it all looked very nice with a blue sky and sea.
We picked a site at Playa America that was recommended by the guy who booked us out of the previous site. Its a short walk from a magnificent sweep of beach and as we were to find out, no-one in Spain is yet on holiday, so the site was empty. Empty that is, save for a few older people who are the type that move to a campsite for the whole of the summer - living in tourer-sized caravans with awnings, where they spend most of the time watching TV.
Although that’s not our normal choice, for us the site was perfect as although we grabbed some sunny moments, it was inclement a lot of the time. We did the washing in an SAS style automatic washer that could handle everything we put in it and more besides. It was washed, rinsed and spun in 30 minutes flat. Wow - no wonder Dot Cotton had so much time for gossip and a cigarette or three!
I had to be inventive about a washing line as they don’t work outside in the rain - but a few minutes clambering around in the amenities block saw us fasten it up under the roof yet catching a breeze. So the washing got dried (eventually).
We wandered onto the beach and along the promenade. It’s a huge sandy beach with a great tidal wash so none of your Mediterranean beaches here - this is self cleaning and the sand gets a new look every day. We think that it was a public holiday - not particularly because there were lots of people but rather that by the next day, it was deserted!
There are no amusement arcades, no ice-cream parlours, just nice cafes and small restaurants. We were soon resting with a Super Bock and Estrella.
We were really on the look-out for another Spanish lunch - perfect if you want to while-away the odd hour or two and we particularly wanted to sample the local delicacy, Pulpo (Octopus). In fact we ordered fried Squid and Spanish omelette, from the Starters menu as well as a dish of Pulpo and the waiter was happy to take the order without saying anything.
The Pulpo was served first, in bite-sized pieces, with a dusting of paprika. You are supposed to eat it with a cocktail stick but we didn’t know that at the time. The taste is about as far removed from chewy calamaris that I could imagine. It is so soft and tender it almost melts in your mouth.
Next was the fried squid which was very tasty, maybe just a little dry in the mouth after the octopus. Thankfully the Spanish omelette was served soon afterwards. This is omelette with potato and we had also opted for prawns in it.
Between us we ate the octopus but only half of the others and quite out of character I asked to take-away the rest, which we did. The following day we had the best picnic lunch ever.
So a couple of wet days were spent at the coast before we headed further into Galicia, the far northwest region of Spain and we of course went to Santiago de Compostela, because everyone does.
It rained again and we walked under brollies into the city because the bus comes every 30 mins and we didn’t know which thirty minutes that was. As we walked it rained more and more. Places never look their best in the wet and SdC is no exception. It is fairly horrible until you reach the middle and then there are some very nice streets and walkways.
I hadn’t prepared at all for Santiago, the destination for so many walkers as it is at the end of the caminos of which there are several. Still the most popular one, the Camino Francés is marked with scallop shells and that route starts in France. Apparently if you walk to Compostela for at least a minimum allowed distance, you can receive a plenary indulgence - a lifetime remission of your sins. It goes on to explain in my guidebook, that this only happens in certain years and the next isn’t until 2021. I expect that it will be even busier then and those that missed out by walking or cycling this year, will be wishing that they too had read the Lonely Planet - Spain edition.
The “pilgrims” trudged into the city in boots, trainers and flip-flops carrying varying sizes of pack and for some weird reason I felt as though I shouldn't be there, having driven in my Landy rather than walking, which is nonsense of course!
The campsite felt like a car park and was really a series of terraces for camper vans and caravans. It was so shady that the grass was mud or the ground was gravel - not a good combination for a tent. So we slept in the Land Rover and used our new back porch as just that. The best bit of the campsite was the nice sticker to add to the collection on the Landy.
A Dutch guy, living in the French alps near Briançon was driving a Defender 90 with a 200TDi engine. This was the advance party as he was chief cook and bottle washer for a Dutch cycling group who had set out five weeks earlier to cycle to SdC. They had cycled six days out of seven for that time - what an effort and even more so as they are all over sixty five.
The cathedral is magnificent, especially the organ pipes - it’s a pity that it wasn’t being played because I’m sure the sound would have been tremendous.
When you are so far west (>9 degrees) and in CET timezone, it makes for some silly sunset times. Now, at midsummer, the sun sets at around 22:15. However at 43 degrees north, they don’t have the long days of more northern latitudes and sunrise isn’t until about 07:30 (I think) and that makes for very cool mornings under canvas, especially if the jet stream joins you for a holiday!
So it was a quick overnight at SdC with a muddy, wet pack-up the next morning. It’s times like this when we wonder about a proper motorhome and start to design one in our discussions.
By the way that app still shows Lake Bled located in Slovakia when in fact it’s in Slovenia - something that I discussed with the Met Office by emails last summer (yes I did do that!) and they told me that it would take several months to correct it. Well Lake Bled is still waiting...
With the Meto app providing some uncertainty about just how bad the weather would be, I turned to netweather.tv - always a good bet. Their jet stream forecast was conclusive.
In a moment of fine weather we approached Baiona and it all looked very nice with a blue sky and sea.
We picked a site at Playa America that was recommended by the guy who booked us out of the previous site. Its a short walk from a magnificent sweep of beach and as we were to find out, no-one in Spain is yet on holiday, so the site was empty. Empty that is, save for a few older people who are the type that move to a campsite for the whole of the summer - living in tourer-sized caravans with awnings, where they spend most of the time watching TV.
Although that’s not our normal choice, for us the site was perfect as although we grabbed some sunny moments, it was inclement a lot of the time. We did the washing in an SAS style automatic washer that could handle everything we put in it and more besides. It was washed, rinsed and spun in 30 minutes flat. Wow - no wonder Dot Cotton had so much time for gossip and a cigarette or three!
I had to be inventive about a washing line as they don’t work outside in the rain - but a few minutes clambering around in the amenities block saw us fasten it up under the roof yet catching a breeze. So the washing got dried (eventually).
We wandered onto the beach and along the promenade. It’s a huge sandy beach with a great tidal wash so none of your Mediterranean beaches here - this is self cleaning and the sand gets a new look every day. We think that it was a public holiday - not particularly because there were lots of people but rather that by the next day, it was deserted!
There are no amusement arcades, no ice-cream parlours, just nice cafes and small restaurants. We were soon resting with a Super Bock and Estrella.
We were really on the look-out for another Spanish lunch - perfect if you want to while-away the odd hour or two and we particularly wanted to sample the local delicacy, Pulpo (Octopus). In fact we ordered fried Squid and Spanish omelette, from the Starters menu as well as a dish of Pulpo and the waiter was happy to take the order without saying anything.
The Pulpo was served first, in bite-sized pieces, with a dusting of paprika. You are supposed to eat it with a cocktail stick but we didn’t know that at the time. The taste is about as far removed from chewy calamaris that I could imagine. It is so soft and tender it almost melts in your mouth.
Next was the fried squid which was very tasty, maybe just a little dry in the mouth after the octopus. Thankfully the Spanish omelette was served soon afterwards. This is omelette with potato and we had also opted for prawns in it.
Between us we ate the octopus but only half of the others and quite out of character I asked to take-away the rest, which we did. The following day we had the best picnic lunch ever.
I hadn’t prepared at all for Santiago, the destination for so many walkers as it is at the end of the caminos of which there are several. Still the most popular one, the Camino Francés is marked with scallop shells and that route starts in France. Apparently if you walk to Compostela for at least a minimum allowed distance, you can receive a plenary indulgence - a lifetime remission of your sins. It goes on to explain in my guidebook, that this only happens in certain years and the next isn’t until 2021. I expect that it will be even busier then and those that missed out by walking or cycling this year, will be wishing that they too had read the Lonely Planet - Spain edition.
The “pilgrims” trudged into the city in boots, trainers and flip-flops carrying varying sizes of pack and for some weird reason I felt as though I shouldn't be there, having driven in my Landy rather than walking, which is nonsense of course!
The campsite felt like a car park and was really a series of terraces for camper vans and caravans. It was so shady that the grass was mud or the ground was gravel - not a good combination for a tent. So we slept in the Land Rover and used our new back porch as just that. The best bit of the campsite was the nice sticker to add to the collection on the Landy.
A Dutch guy, living in the French alps near Briançon was driving a Defender 90 with a 200TDi engine. This was the advance party as he was chief cook and bottle washer for a Dutch cycling group who had set out five weeks earlier to cycle to SdC. They had cycled six days out of seven for that time - what an effort and even more so as they are all over sixty five.
The cathedral is magnificent, especially the organ pipes - it’s a pity that it wasn’t being played because I’m sure the sound would have been tremendous.
When you are so far west (>9 degrees) and in CET timezone, it makes for some silly sunset times. Now, at midsummer, the sun sets at around 22:15. However at 43 degrees north, they don’t have the long days of more northern latitudes and sunrise isn’t until about 07:30 (I think) and that makes for very cool mornings under canvas, especially if the jet stream joins you for a holiday!
So it was a quick overnight at SdC with a muddy, wet pack-up the next morning. It’s times like this when we wonder about a proper motorhome and start to design one in our discussions.
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