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Published: June 10th 2018
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Hi Dot
Now I blame the weather! You could be forgiven for thinking we are still in Spain when actually we have been back in the UK for over five weeks. My excuse is that blog writing is a wet day activity and we haven’t had one since we came home! Now I know a lot a folk have had thunder, lightning, floods, plagues of locust etc. and there has been some rain in Cheadle Hulme, but only on days when we weren’t here.
OK when I last wrote Dot, we were just leaving Santiago de Compostela and our next stop was Lugo, which claims to be the only city in the world to be surrounded by completely intact Roman walls. While this claim may be true in so much as the wall is intact, all the various defensive towers have long since disappeared. We arrived mid morning on a brilliantly sunny day, enjoyed walking the wall and the tourist office’s suggested route around the very impressive medieval streets, visited the cathedral and were ready to move on again by late afternoon. Not a huge amount to see but well worth a stop if you’re in the area. We
would have stayed a night but the aire, where we parked along with half a dozen motorhomes when we arrived, was deserted on our return and left a lot to be desired especially the smell!
And so we left Lugo with the sun out and the temperature over 30˚ and headed down through the mountains and into the cloud and then the sea mist, to a site just outside Foz where it was about15˚. The mist and low cloud never totally cleared while we were here but we had a good couple of days pottering about the coastal lanes between Foz and Ribadeo on Scoot. We also visited Cathedral Beach (so named because of the rock formations looking like columns and arches in a cathedral), along with coach loads of tourists and while the rocks were impressive the tide was not quite low enough to get the full effect.
Next Dot we moved onto one of our favourite campsites outside San Vicente de la Barquera (see previous blogs) and yet again thoroughly enjoyed the town and coastal walks.
While here we visited Comillas, a great old town crammed full of history which became a favourite of the
aristocracy in the 19
th century. The first marquis was a local lad who emigrated and made his fortune in Cuba, bought himself the title and then returned to his routes in Comillas.
One of the buildings we visited was the seminary, which was planned by the first marquis as a children's home but, following his death his son changed the plans to become a seminary. It is ornate and huge (see photos to get some idea), standing on top of a hill overlooking the town, it really does make a statement about the use of wealth at that time and of course leaves you wondering what happened to the orphans.
Another building we visited was El Caprico which was Gaudi’s first commissioned design and build. What a spectacular creation (again see photos), built for the marquis’ lawyer/ brother in law. It’s designed for a single person (he was a bachelor) and staff. It is in an arc so that the sun would follow the occupant’s use of the house during the day. The building was never quite finished as the lawyer was ill and inpatient to move in, but unfortunately he never managed to enjoy it as he
died seven days later.
Our final stop in Spain was Bilbao to catch the ferry, but this time we arrived a few days early to have a look around. We stayed at a great aire overlooking the city, which was only a 20 minute bus ride away. The aire was popular not only with motorhomes and camper vans but also goats who visited each evening!
Bilbao is well worth a visit, with three distinct areas, the old town, the new town and the area around the Guggenheim museum. The old town is full of narrow streets and squares with the cathedral in the middle, very picturesque and surprisingly still with local residents and local shops. The new town really shows of the wealth of the port during the 18
th and 19
th centuries, big ornate houses and commercial and public buildings. The Guggenheim museum area shows off the 20
th and 21
st century around the river. All very much worth visiting and although the Guggenheim building is spectacular from both the inside and out, the art inside was rather lost on us, not quite sure about plastic chairs suspended from the ceiling with twine!
We had a calm boat
journey home, the highlight of which was seeing dolphins leaping around in the boats wash. And so Dot we arrived back into Portsmouth in the rain, but it was dry by the time we reached Dorchester (where we shared the campsite with deer instead of goats) to visit family. Then onto Devon catching up with more family before heading home.
It now all seems a long time ago, as we try to to clear the house ready for selling it. We are both fine if some/most days wishing we were away again.
Take care
Terry and Jane (long suffering editor)
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