One can't be in North East Galicia without having a look at Playa de Las Catedrales, or As Catedrais in Galician, or Beach of the Cathedrals in English, so called because of the formation of a series of cliffs, arches and caves spread over a distance of almost one-and-a-half kilometres.
I thought we'd missed it and if that had been the case, I wouldn't have turned back as it was getting late. It was a relief when the road sign to Las Catedrales appeared. What wasn't a relief was when we actually got nearer. There was a car park, and it was full, with caravans and all. Beyond the car park, there were vehicles all over the place.
Las Catedrales has a fame for its spectacular beaches and scenery, but I hadn't expected this. Is it that wonderful? The time was approaching 7pm, so I was thinking that people must be leaving soon. The problem, as well, was that the car park wasn't very big. I drove around and around. I waited. I moved. And others were doing the same. And Murphy says if you weren't born for bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all. There were some people leaving all right, but I was always on the wrong side and others who came after me were luckier.
It got to the stage when I was about to give up. That's it, I said. It's too late anyway. We've still got to get to Santiago de Compostela.
Then, a miracle happened. A guy got into his caravan and he was leaving! And he was right by me! Others had gone into their caravans before but they weren't going anywhere. Well, better late than never!
Las Catedrales is probably the sort of place where, ideally, you could visit more than once, at different times of day, and to be able to take a walk high above on the cliff tops or down below on the beach. Some beaches disappear at high tide, which leads to quite a different view from when the tide is low. We didn't have that possibility. This would be our only chance. This trip, anyway. The tide when we were there was between high and low, but we didn't try to go down to the beach.
I'll share with you a series of photos I took and let you decide if it's worth it to compete for a space in the car park...
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| There were more people on the cliffs than on the beach |
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| Turning around, this was the view - black-and-white cows |
Click on "Spain" in Location below, to see where Las Catedrales is on the map.
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