We had a very eclectic trip around Spain in May that started in the Pyrenees on the west coast of France as we drove into beautiful Basque country on the west coast of the Atlantic ocean. We then took in some splendid towns along the Asturias, before parking our car in Sarria and traipsing through medieval villages in the south west on the Camino de Santiago for a week. Then we drove down through Portugal (you can read about our 8 days in Portugal here) and entered back into Spain on the southern coast near the Algarve and made a diagonal line across through the hot hilly agricultural towns of Seville and Cordoba (they had record temps of 40c in May!) across to the east coast to Valencia and up to the hill towns of Barcelona in Catalan country before crossing the Pyrenees on the east shore back into France. We’ve spent some time in Spain before so this time we opted for the smaller, off the beaten track places and some were just a pit stop between other destination. Here’s a summary of where we went in the order in which we travelled plus some curious observations about Spain at the end!:
San Sebastian
This seaside city on the bay of Biscay, is also known as Donostia – in Basque language that dominates this region. It is also a city renowned for its Basque cuisine which centres around seafood. For us, the highlights were the beaches and the contrasting architecture which oscillated between ornate gothic-baroque and brutalist (in in their words ‘rational’) style.
The beaches: San Sebastian has three beautiful sandy beaches, all curves and facing in different directions so there’s an option for getting out of the wind. Also optional it seems is bathers – we saw the full kit, just tops, just bottoms, or neither.
Playa la Zurriola – this was the closest beach to us in Gros (5 mins walk) and is a big wide city beach (remanded us a little of Bondi in Sydney) and is good for watching surfers, picnics, walks gaping at the massively ugly concrete slab of a building down the southern end and trying to figure out what on earth it is and how could they have built it there! (See section under architecture to reveal). Playa de la Concha – A 15 min walk through centro old town you’ll find a lovely curved beach protected by the arm of the marina and stretching out to the south. Ondaretta beach – is just a 5 min walk further on from La Concha and sits on the site of the old prison.
The town: There are two sides of the old town, separated by the Urumea river. The Zurriola bridge provides access between the two and the beautiful María Cristina bridge – pictured takes you back on the other side where the Spanish like to promenade after 6pm.
We stayed on the northern side called Gros and this was a simpler, rougher and tumble side which we liked – but it lacks the grandeur of the Centro section. We found some authentic local, affordable tapas bars – such as Bar Bergara that were still pretty fancy! Centro – this is the grand old town stuffed with fabulously ornate buildings, lively squares with fountains, decorated bridges, promenades for rambling at 6pm and lots of colourful shops. Tapas bars, fancy restaurants and cafes (they have more Michelin star restaurants per square Km here than anywhere else in the world!)
Architecture: We loved the gothic and baroque buildings, bridges and churches in San Sebastian and the big marble slabs sidewalks impregnated with the street names in gold at each crossroad.
What we couldn’t quite get was the pockets of what we’d call brutalist architecture, but they call rationalist – big flat structures all concrete no decorative embellishments and few windows. There’s the real club nautico de San Sebastian built in 1929 along the marina to look like a moored ship – just looks like a slightly curved concrete slab to me. And as for the award winning Kursaal cube pictured, (convention centre for festivals and fairs) which is slapped on the southern end of Playa la Zurriola my goodness – what an eyesore in such a natural environment that pays no homage to the sea at all despite architect Rafael Moneo claims that he designed this massive building to resemble two beached rocks.
Oviedo
We drove inland through the Asturias mountain range from San Sebastian to Oviedo. These majestic, ragged peaks really do look like a stegosaurus spine. There’s plenty of smaller towns to visit along the way but we beelined for Oviedo which has a good lot to see in itself. It was pretty cool and overcast and we hiked up and into the old town which is the seat of Spanish royalty – where the heir to the throne comes from (kinda like in the UK where the Prince of Wales comes from Wales). It is the capital of the Asturias and full of arts – paintings, ceramics and sculpture. There’s a lovely pedestrian only historic quarter with lots of covered porticos (handy for us as it was raining) and lots of street art with some magnificent sculptures – or you can visit the Museum of Beaux arts for the real deal. Another delicious curiosity in this town is the Chigres (cider bars) where you order a bottle of cider and a cidero decanters it into your glass by pouring it from up high in a process called the escanciado. There’s also the stunning gothic cathedral of San Salvador which has big sculptures on the outside wall – a must see.
Avilles
One of the highlights of this little town sits just outside the old city walls and that is the eponymous Oscar Niemeyer centre – designed by the famous architect himself. Whilst the buildings are amazing in themselves, there’s also always good exhibitions inside as well and we saw a fabulous photography exhibition by Manuel Esclus and another by a great painter. The old quarter of Avilles is charming with marble lined promenades. Lots of cider houses, and baroque-gothic buildings and churches to discover as you walk the narrow streets.
Ribedeo
This is a simpler town with a lot of hidden charm. You’ll find awesome churros at the square called Parque de San Francisco, (2.50 euro for a plate with coffee and tea) and sprinkled through the streets are some artists shops and two giant statues of the Characters of the Carnival in Galicia. If you like your seafood, take a walk down to the fishing port for fresh cockles, clams and oysters, which, along with salmon, trout and eels from the Eo, are the star ingredients of the local cuisine.
Das Catederas Beach
The amazing Praia das Catedrais is on the northwest coast of Spain only 15 km from Oviedo and is called int the local language Das Catedrais due to the amount of natural arches resembling a cathedral, It reminds me of our Port Campbell area on the great ocean road in Melbourne. There is a fantastic walking path stretching for about 15kms along the cliffs well worth doing a chunk of to see the many little beaches, coves and rocky outcrops of this coastline.
Sarria
This cute town is on the Camino de Santiago and has become one of the most popular short-camino starting points as it is 115 km walk from here to Santigo de Compostella – and if you want to get an official pilgrim’s certificate you have to walk over 100km of the Camino. The fact that the Pilgrim’s Road to Santiago de Compostela has always passed through the area means there are many ecclesiastic buildings. There’s also a lovely café strip along the banks of the Sarria river with some cute affordable bars for dinner. We started our camino from here – click on our Week on the Camino to read my post on this adventurous week.
Santiago de Compostella
We ended our 6 day walk in Santiago de Compostella where we stayed the night and celebrated our walk – like most of the pilgrims in the town! I have covered this in my post on our camino (link above) but thought I’d also mention here as Santiago de Compostella is definitely a town worth visiting even if you haven’t done the walk. A man was playing the Galician bagpipes in the tunnel leading to the Cathedral as we walked into the main square and I got goose bumps as we emerged into the square and saw the hundreds of pilgrims hugging, sharing a story, a moment or reflecting. The cathedral is big and imposing and we decided we’d gaze at it from the Mirador in Alameda park and picked up a bottle of wine, some local cheese and celebrated our walk looking over the spires of the Cathedral
Ourense
Ourense is about an hour and a half from Sarria and we headed to here after our 115km walk to soak our weary legs and feet in the thermal springs. There’s lots of free thermal springs (Muiño de Veiga Thermal Baths is one) but as the river had been in flood all of these were not open or working, so we headed to the only one open Outariz Thermal Baths just a little further on from the free springs but set up above the river. Its super hard to find the carpark and you have to drive down a two way dirt track wide enough for just one car, then walk about 15 minutes along a path along the river then voila! Outariz has touches of Japanese about it and was reasonably quiet when we arrived at 4pm – but was packed when we left at 6pm. A good array of indoor and outdoor pools and one with some jets as well. We didn’t get to walk around Ourense as we were melted after our soak and had to give our town visit a miss!
Santa Cruz
We stayed in little rural hamlet of Santa Cruz after we left Lagos in Portugal and were making our way back to the east coast of France and Perpignan. We were trying to save miles and dollars so decided to stay 20 mins inland from Cordoba but we didn’t realise quire how remote and inland we were! This tiny agricultural town is actually on the Camino de Santiago and when we arrived it was 40c making walking impossible. Still we explored the tiny residential town dodging the orangsr, lemons and limes plummeting from the over-burdened council trees lining the streets. This area is planted with fruit orchards, sunflower fields and grapes with endless miles of all three making the drive through very picturesque.
Moncofar
We hit the coast after 5 hors of driving north east from Cordoba and it was so nice to see the sea. Moncofa is a municipal town of Valencia (30 mins away) and is known for its ceramics, agricultural products and tourism. There’s lots of seaside apartment buildings and a nice long walk along the big pebble beaches. Its not what you’d call a picturesque town, or beach, but it was so nice to see the sea after our 40c dusty inland drive.
Sant Sadurni d’Anoia
Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, just 30 mins inland from Barcelona, is indisputably the Capital of Cava, with over eighty local Cava wineries making this product in the region called the Penedès, The wine caves are best explored on foot or bike as there’s a great 4km walking loop through the vineyards that takes you to some of the oldest Cava caves. We stopped in at Codeniu Codorníu Cellars (1906), classified as a National Historic and Artistic Monument, due to its Catalan Art Noveau style architecture inspired by Gaudi. The area is also the home to the Freixenet Cellars (1927).
The town itself also has lots of beautiful buildings – many of them old cava cellars – with many examples of Art Noveau often mixed in with other styles and resemble what is known as Eclecticism. There’s also the old defence tower (1873) at one end of Revel street, and the Church square, with its gothic steeple, at the other. The historical city centre is a pedestrian precinct and when we were there they were celebrating a Festival with marching bands, live music in the street and fireworks – the latter two were put on hold when a massive thunderstorm broke out! We heard them finally letting off the fireworks at midnight!
Curious observations on Spain
Men in cheeked shirts and bowler hats stand outside the supermarkets, adorned with necklaces of lottery tickets selling ticket.
They have two days every day – one from 10am to 2pm, then shops and everything shuts and then reopens again from 5pm – 8pm then shops shut again and restaurants open up from 8.30 -9pm.
The main meal is definitely lunch which is always taken long and slow and usually with wine and followed by a siesta. Dinner is really just a late night snack – tapas – taken with friends usually after 10pm.
