Vicedo, O

It was an extremely noisy night in O Veidio. Loud music continued until at least 3am. What were we missing out on?

It was another grey morning when we set out for the day. We drove the short distance to Garita de Bares, A forested cape that jutted to a point out to sea. We stopped at the first viewpoint to see just thick low cloud blowing in from the sea. Our second stop was at the tip of Garita de Bares, where the cloud had dissipated. After negotiating a herd of goats, we walked to the lighthouse and then on to the very tip of the cape take in it’s dramatic coastline dropping into the Cantabrian Sea and the Bay of Biscay.

Next stop was Cabo Ortegal, described as ‘the mother of Spanish capes, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bay of Biscay. Great stone shafts drop sheer into the ocean from such a height that the waves crashing on the rocks below seem pitifully benign. Os Tres Aguillóns, three jagged rocky islets, provide a home to hundreds of marine birds’.

It was a 50 minute leisurely drive with a coffee stop along the way. We parked up just short of Cabo Ortegal & walked down to it’s lighthouse now bathed in sunshine. As we approached our attention was drawn to 3 nutters who were sat atop a very tall rock, then continued traversing to it’s very peak. Our legs went wobbly just watching them. About 20 minutes later we had taken in the spectacular vistas. The 3 nutters were still all on top of their rock and didn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon, so we decided to move on.

We drove on to Garita de Herbeira, where apparently ‘it is very rare for the highest mountain in a range to also form part of a system of coastal cliffs. Vixia de Herbeira, at 615 metres the highest peak of the A Capelada range, is one of the highest cliff faces in continental Europe’. We pulled up in the car park that was shrouded in thick cloud or sea mist. It was eerie, but a strange whirring noise made it even eerier.

We followed a short path through the cloud/mist to a stone hut & a viewpoint that had no view, then just as we were starting to head back to the car, the cloud/mist lifted in an instant & we could then admire the high cliff faces. What seemed more remarkable was that the as cloud/mist lifted around our car & we realised we were parked right next to dozens of spinning wind turbines.

Just a few miles down the road we made our final stop at San Andrés de Teixido, a village with just forty-nine inhabitants (32 men and 17 women). It’s chapel of San Andrés is a famous sanctuary & place of pilgrimage where, according to the popular saying, vai de morto que non foi de vivo ('whoever was not alive goes dead’). Jackie lit a candle in the chapel.

San Andrés de Teixido is also famous for it’s Percebes - described as ‘The Most Expensive Seafood In The World!’ Percebes, known as goose(neck) barnacles in English, are a Galician delicacy from Spain and are among the most exclusive seafood in Europe. Customers in Spain and Portugal pay up to 200 Euros per kilo for superb quality Percebes. This extraordinary price results from the extreme circumstances in which the rare barnacles are harvested from the rocky cliffs off the Galician coast.

We visited one of the three cafes in the village for Jackie to sample the famous delicacy of Percebes. Luckily for her, the café owner spoke good English and took the time to show Jackie how to eat Percebes, which on first inspection actually look like geese feet. There was a particular knack which involved holding them a certain way up, then twisting the leathery skin off the stem to reveal the edible flesh.

Jackie ordered a small bowl of Percebes, which she mastered the task of eating with aplomb & demolished in no time. Apparently they were delicious and lived up to the hype. I ordered a simple bowl of peppers and with 2 beers the total bill came to under €20. Bargain!

We drove back to O Vicedo having agreed that it had been a great day & hoped that we may be returning to a fiesta in the town. Sadly it turned out to be quite the opposite, we had returned to a ghost town.

We took a stroll around the town and noted that the fair was still set up, but closed. However an enormous stage was being erected within the fairground, which was technically a residential street. We walked to the port and looked across the water to the beach, which looked lovely, but was being spoilt by a naked man, who appeared drunk, staggering about the beach approaching the other sunbathers. His groin at eye level. Nice!!

It was by now 6pm, so we returned to El Varadero bar for a couple of drinks in the sun. There was a good vibe with many locals enjoying a Saturday evening drink. We stayed until 9pm when the bar started to empty. The fair was still not open, so we came to the conclusion that all the festivities must be happening the following day.

We stopped at Cafe Galatea for a couple of wine nightcaps & the kindly barmaid knocked us up a bacon and cheese roll. The cafe was pretty dead with just a small group of youngsters drinking, so at 10pm we called it a night.

Song of the Day : A Seafood Song by The Divine Comedy.Read more