Early on in our stay two notable things happened. Firstly, we had a flying display over the caravan. A marsh harrier and an osprey in tandem. Later evidence suggests the osprey (fairly rare in this neck of the woods) was probably a black kite. I was too busy watching his big brother flying stunts in front of us to make an accurate identification! Later in our time at Oyambre, the harrier has been seen again. But no ospreys – although they have been seen here from time to time – possibly on their annual migration from A to B (or from B to A, I suppose).
The second notable event was a trip from the campsite to the coast road via the country lanes. And, boy, these lanes are very “laney”. Meeting anyone would result in an interesting conversation comparing the distance back to the respective, nearest passing place. Fortunately, we had no such encounters. But we did get comprehensively lost. The third time we passed the Taberna de Valle, we decided we should stop for lunch in case we never got out of the maze!
A super “find”, if you can have a “find” when you are actually lost! There wasn’t a word of English, written or spoken in the joint. Using pictures found on the web by the waiter (owner?) on his phone, we navigated to a very satisfactory chicken Caesar salad followed by a pork and chips construction. The pudding was dictated by us having “one of what he’s got”. This turned out to be a melting-chocolate-centred concoction – probably bought from the local Lupa supermarket. Importantly, the bottle of wine that came with the meal meant we emerged from the bar less concerned about being lost in the country. We were probably less than three kms from the campsite! And, in case you were wondering, we did emerge from the boondocks – well before dark!
Saturday (11 May) srarted slightly damp but the walk along the prom at Comillas was OK. No sandy feet and, as the rain stopped, we walked into town. Under the road bridge. But in the end we back-tracked and collected the car. We parked in the last available space in town. And walked about as far back into the historic centre as we would have if we’d left the car by the beach. Still it’ll be closer if the rain starts again!
The old market place is a quaint area of town with the Plaza Ibáñes, the Plaza de la Constitucion and the Church of San Cristobal.
Lurking on the skyline in some places you can see the towers on Gaudi’s El Capricho. (If you want to see our pictures of that amazing place you will have to go back in “blog-time” to one of our previous visits to the area!) (And that’s a challenge!)
There is also a “palace”, the Palacio de Sobrellano, back near where we parked. Not a real palace, but a very fine, late 19th century residence.
However, these things are not for today. Glenda explores some little clothing boutiques looking for the elusive “perfect trousers”. Those that have so far not been located in any of the many trouser outlets visited to date!
I’m off to investigate the source of extremely loud music! A lot less elusive! After two minutes tracking, I was standing at an open garden gate where there was a combined “sardine and birthday party” if full swing. Two minutes later we were swept in by the wife of the owner. He was busy with his sardines at the BBQ in the corner of the garden of the Bar Guadalupe! Once inside it was mayhem. Fancy dressed birthday party goers dancing to a loud, three-piece band with a very loud vocalist. Or at least loudly amplified.
The plan is, you buy a drink (beer €2.50 or vino tinto €1.50) and you got a plateful of bread and hot sardines. We stayed for hours! Getting slowly pickled – MUCH more slowly than our new-found friends!
That’s us NOT in fancy dress! And I can confirm that Elvis Aaron Presley is indeed still alive and kicking! Apparently, he will be 90 next January. I can report that he’s aging very well! The only odd thing is that as he’s got older, he has learnt Spanish and forgotten American!
Me and my new best friend! Rock on Elvis!
We had to go for a sit down after all the excitement – but we were the oldest couple on the dance floor – oldest by quite a bit.
Back to the land of (relative) normality. Sunday lunch. Luckily we had booked – else we might have missed out – we might still have been chilling! El Remedio – beside the church on top of the hill with the really snappy name of Ermita de Nuestra Senõra de los Remedios. You can see why the restaurant has abbreviated the name. However, it appears that this lady was very popular and has dozens of hermitages, churches and even the odd cathedral named in her honour. Her remedies must have been very good. Or maybe, once given the tablets, you still had to pray hard for them to work!
Anyway, the food was very tasty, if totally devoid of any veggies unless you counted the three desiccated vegetable crisps! And fairly enthusiastically priced!
But it was a good opportunity for Glenda to wear some of her posher clothes after a week of beach-walking gear.
(I hate it when people fail to get the subject’s feet in the photo…)
The next morning was another lovely day for a walk on the beach at San Vicente de la Barquera.
And then into town which is a bit disappointing. It’s almost impossible to park here, even at this time of year. And then there isn’t that much to the town. It is a working fishing port and there are lots of tourist shops and hundreds of restaurants. Oh, and there’s a castle high up in town – the Castillo del Rey. Constructed in the early 13th century for the king (?), this medieval, defensive castle now houses the town museum.
Moving on, we select a tiny village at random on the map for a surprise visit! Luey! It’s south of the autopista in the foothills of the real foothills of the Picos de Europa. And it sounds just ready for a visit.
As we arrived, we were a bit worried as most of the houses in down-town Luey looked ready for a visit from a demolition team rather than from two slightly elderly campers!
But, true to form, there were two intact buildings on the main square. One was an old people’s home and the other was a bar, cum shop, cum restaurant, cum general meeting place for the folk from across the street! We fitted right in. We started with a beer and a wine, both at €1.20 as I recall. That brought out little bowls of olives and potatoes in garlic sauce. We then moved on to a plate of, what was advertised as, mixed cheeses.
If you look closely, you can see that the only thing mixed about what arrived was the size of the slices! Hey ho, I must check my translator friend, Mr Google-translate-camera-thingy! We had another €2.40’s worth from the bar and were immediately offered flat 26 across the road to buy, or to rent, or something. Everyone here seems to speak a different sort of Spanish than that with which we are already struggling desperately. Maybe it’s just all the false teeth and the amplified hearing aids causing the problem! Anyway we smiled, possibly invested another €4.80 at the bar, I can’t really remember!. Then we beat a hasty retreat without signing any documents (that we can remember)!
It’s sooo exciting when you haven’t a clue about anything that’s going on around you. We call it, “Living on the Edge!
Drat! We’ve just run out of water! And it’s raining. That’s the perishing “Edge” for you!
So envious reading about the sardines. The tinned variety about all you can get here in Queensland. Then again, we do have Moreton Bay Bugs.