Rias Baixas (Spain)

Our stunning restored farmhouse in Allende, Rias Baixas, Galicia

A traditional horreo in the front garden, used for storing a family's grain, corn, etc - the slits big enough to provide airflow but too small for rodents ...

 

Basket of fresh goodies left by our friendly hostess, Susanna

The world's biggest zucchini (from basket above) transformed into a meal and a half

Padron peppers, fried quickly in salt and olive oil. It is said that every now and then these generally mild peppers produce a screamingly spicy odd-pepper-out, making their consumption something like Russian roulette ...

 

The rain in Spain does not stay mainly on the plain; it lingers permanently in the Rias Baixas. Fortunately, all weather is gelato weather...

The wet but wonderful Pontevedra. Ancient stone buildings, intimate plazas and unique Galician stone crosses glistening in the rain, which chases off less hardy tourists

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Matt:

The southern estuaries of Galicia (Rias Baixas) were our destination after the northern Rias Altas.

The Baixas are home to less dramatic, but not less interesting, coastline, allegedly better weather (not so in our experience…it rained almost non-stop), some beautiful old stone towns and cities and, of course, more succulent, fresh seafood. Not to mention a well-preserved, Bronze Age rock art site, mist-covered hills and ancient Galician stone crosses and horreos (small, rectangular, stone crop storage buildings).

A highlight was our accommodation: an ancient, once ruined but intelligently restored traditional Galician stone farmhouse, perched on a hill near some villages approximately in the middle of nowhere. Views of the lush valley from our windows and an enchanted garden with its own archaic horreo and dovecote, as well fresh water spring. Our friendly hostess, Susanna, and members of her also amenable extended family, gave us a guided tour, before Susanna surrendered her tasteful home to us and headed for her own holiday, on the coast.

We ate well (octopus, squid, varied and delicious local mushrooms, as well as padron peppers, among the favourites), grew accustomed to exploring in rain clobber and relaxed in our great stone farmhouse, often imbibing a glass or so of local red in front of the wood heater at night.

Della:

Staying in the Rias Baixas was really fun. My favourite part was visiting the rock art. I liked the swirly ones, some of them were like mazes and some of them were just normal little swirly whirly thingies. I’m amazed that they have survived all this time. The rain helped us see all the patterns. It’s a different kind of art. They also made very small houses with mud, sticks, pine needles and stones. I can’t imagine living in one! We followed some deer hoof marks in a museum that led to information about what it was like to live in the Bronze Age. That’s where we saw a video that was a bit scary.

Susanna and her family showed us around. Celia (my doll) got her own room with a cot, and she was thrilled! The house was very big and had an upstairs and downstairs. Me, Mummy, Edie and Daddy slept upstairs. We had a horreo in our front garden and we saw a lot of horreos in the countryside. We had a good view even though it was raining and foggy.

We went to a town that was little but pretty and there we had a delicious lunch.  

Daddy cooked us green chillies and stuffed zucchini. They were both delicious.

Edie

Our place in Rias Baixas was really cool and I got my own room for the first time in the whole trip! We went to a rock art place and we saw some interesting video clips and huts from people of the Bronze Age. Our garden even had a dovecote in it! We had some chillies made by Dad and they we supposed to be really spicy, but I didn’t get one single spice in all of mine! They were delicious all the same.

Jenny

My overriding memory of the Rias Baixas was the rain – we had it pretty much non-stop for the four days we were there. Lucky Susanna’s house was so large, beautiful and comfortable – a great retreat. The little village of Campo Lameiro, 3km away, had a good restaurant and little supermarket plus a bakery with amazing bread, so we were set. And as Matthew mentioned, the rain kept a lot of the other tourists away. We were the only people at the rock art site.

Galicians were originally Celts – without knowing this you’d find it odd to see a Spanish busker playing the bagpipes at a tourist site (although we did also see a bloke playing the didgeridoo in Santiago!). So Celtic symbols feature in some of the local artwork (and souvenirs) and there are a number of ruined ‘castros’ (fortified Celtic settlements) dotted throughout Galicia. Witch effigies and toys were also in abundance in the souvenir shops throughout Galicia (we managed to come away without any!).