(written 22/3/2006 in Granada, España, by
Liz)
Our day started with a wander towards the other side of A Coruña where the Atlantic Ocean meets the coast. The main beach looked like it might be nicer on a warmer day.
We stopped for breakfast in a little backstreet café, found our car safe and sound and put our bags in it, and then walked for a while around the old town section.
We had to wait to get our car out of it's parking spot, as there was some sort of protest going on, and a huge queue of cars all tooting and waving banners took their time making noise and driving along the narrow one-way street our car was on. At least the protesters had the right idea... why walk and protest when you can make more noise with your car horn and stay warm and dry.
A little while later, we were heading out of A Coruña and driving vaguely south.
Our idea for the day was to follow some
pretty coast roads that wound along the western coast of Spain, making our way further south towards Portugal. Unfortunately on a few occasions, heavy road works meant that we couldn't follow our intended roads, and left us a bit confused as to where we were. All the same, it was a nice driving day, with views of the stormy Atlantic crashing against rocky cliffs, little sheltered harbours, villages sccattered here and there, and Spaniards going about their daily buisness.
We stopped a little way off the road for a lunch of soup and bread and other nibbles, and then drove slowly past another car that had taken a sharp bend too quickly, and ended upside down on the wrong side of the road.
Late in the afternoon, we found ourselves in the small town of
Cambados where we hunted out a hotel room for the night, and then spent a bit of the evening listening to the town bells ringing and enjoying some tapas and a drink.
Dinner was hugely enjoyed at a little bar-restorante. Tim's request of mushrooms for an entreé was denied a little while later by the waitress miming that they had no mushrooms after all. Tim chose something else from the menu, but a short while later again, the waitress came back and let us know that they now had mushrooms after all! We were a bit dubious, as we wondered if these mushrooms were going to be some dryed out old ones found at the bottom of the fridge, but they turned out to be perfectly fresh and delicious, as was the rest of our dinner.
Back at our hotel, we sat in the bar enjoying a drink and a long winded game of cards with lots of older Spanish holiday makers doing the same around us, before we made our way up to bed.