Playa de Las Catedrales, As Catedrais, Beach of the Cathedrals

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...

There were more people on the cliffs than on the beach

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.

From Asturias to Galicia

Time to move on. We'd been comfortable in El Mirador del Oso, apart from the problems here and there as mentioned in the review and other stories. I'd miss the mooing and the fresh morning air... and the previous evening's drive to Bandujo would at least leave me with something wonderful to treasure.

Shot with the mobile phone, the mooing culprits

As we were leaving, Toño was cleaning and preparing a room for the next guests. He insisted on helping us with the suitcases again - such a fine gentleman. Experiences like this, and I've had the pleasure of a fair few, reinforce my belief that staying in privately-hosted apartments is so, so much more pleasant than lodging in cold impersonal hotels.

After a brief conversation, we bid our goodbyes and headed northwest. Our first stop: Luarca.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it seemed a strange town to me. Of course, one can't judge a place in a mere few hours, but that was my feeling. The restaurant I wanted to try was full, so we ended up in La Estrella, which added to the "strangeness". Don't get me wrong - I'm not being critical.

What I'd thought was a small restaurant was actually quite big. The room where we sat in led to another, which led to yet another! I found this arrangement to be quite common in Asturias. It was your standard Spanish bar-restaurant type of fare. Nothing fancy, but edible. It looked like a family-run business.

What I felt strange here wasn't as much strange as funny, because it made me laugh. We were waited upon by an elderly-ish man, but dressed in shirt and jeans, in a way that made me smile. He wasn't very smiley, but he wasn't rude either. The way he moved, the way he took the orders, the way he served, it all made me chuckle. Mind you, if it were in a posher place, if he were a younger person, I'd have probably considered the service negatively.

We had the set meal, which was the cheapest option. Came up to €34 for the three of us. Food, like I said, wasn't out of this world, but edible. Portions were generous.

After a short walk around, we continued westwards. Luarca was to be our last stop in Asturias. Next stop: Ribadeo, our first introduction to Galicia.

Although both Asturias and Galicia are green, you'd find the landscape quite different. The mountains of Asturias, for example, look bigger and higher.

Ribadeo is practically on the Galicia-Asturias border, and we found a parking space easily. Without any idea as to what was of interest here, we just started walking. When it got too quiet, we turned around. We walked downhill and back uphill. Nothing much here, really.

 La Torre de los Moreno, Ribadeo, Lugo, Galicia

Time for coffee, I think.

By the children's playground, there was a café, with a large terrace, quite busy. We sat down, but it was too hot, so we moved inside. It turned out that Linares was actually a small hotel. If you happen to be here, I can thoroughly recommend this cafeteria. Service was great and with our coffees, we were given free peanuts and some churros!

With that sending off, we hopped back into the car.