Jane, Dave & Ruby’s Portugal & Spain adventure

With the weather brightening up we spent the next couple of days exploring the coastal area around Cambados.  The Ria de Arousa (estuary) on which the town sits is famous for its seafood, and reportedly the best place to eat seafood in Spain - a perfect combination with the Albariño wine 😃 The estuary is dotted with dozens of small fishing boats, and interestingly dozens of women in waders with huge buckets and long poles scraping away at the rocks and seabed collecting clams. This was despite huge notices everywhere saying that collection of seafood is prohibited and anyone spotting such activity should contact the Police - seems nobody bothers about that round here 🤣 Prohibido Mariscar even painted on the rock! Clam collectors ignoring all notices 🤣 The Illa de Arousa is a lovely small island connected to the mainland via a huge low bridge. Our plans to explore the coast and the nature reserve which covers the bottom half of the island soon became thwarted when we were faced w...

Left the Picos and headed west to the Galician coast, in anticipation of some gastronomic delights 🤣 Stopped for picnic lunch at a lovely beach along the north coast at Navia. The winds were really strong, creating great surfing conditions - we thought of you Ian 😃 Hoping to see the 25m waves at Nazare further down the coast in a couple of weeks 🤞 After a gusty, and quite hairy drive along the north coast, along numerous extremely exposed viaducts (probably not unexpected given the huge number of wind turbines bordering the motorway) we arrived at the historical coastal town of Cambados, the capital of Albariño wine 😃 Cambados is also famous for its beautiful old granite residences of former Spanish nobility.  Palace on Fefinans Square Staying at a small private Aire on the estuary- a lovely secure grassy enclosure for €10 a night, and only a 10min walk into the old town centre - perfect 🤩 Perfect for Rubes too as she can just wander around and explore 👍 Only us there! View o...

Spending some time now in the mountains of the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) National Park - the only inhabited National Park in Spain - and that includes wolves and bears 😃 The Park starts at only 20km inland from the coast, with huge limestone peaks rising above 2000m. I We arrived in Potes, a beautiful small town on the eastern side of the Picos, just as the fiesta was finishing. Looked like there had been two days of partying  🎉🎉🎉 which we’d missed out on. Not that we minded too much, but sadly it seemed that all the bars, cafes and restaurants were totally exhausted, and decided to close early for that day - hence no food for us! 😟 We did find a small bar though for a quick beer before close, with fabulous tapas olives and nuts 👍 Loved the old stove embedded in the bar behind   The following morning Dave was keen to get on his bike and explore. Thinking this would be a gentle introduction to MTB in Spain he set off boldly, promising to be back within 2 hours 🤞A...