A visit

We had some old friends visit from the States with their 12 year old son.  This is always the perfect excuse to do some siteseeing, although for some reason between my phone and the camera I don´t seem to have many pictures.

Our area is not exactly rich in tourist attractions, but since it was raining off and on for most of their visit, we went to the nearby waterfall.  I don´t know if it´s budget cuts or lack of interest, but the vegetation was so thick a lot of the view was obscured.  Lots of water falling, though.

Then we went to the Monastery at Sobrado dos Monxes, an imposing baroque structure built for the Cistercians.  I blogged about their lake here, when V and I stumbled on it after a wrong turn.

The Cistercians are supposed to be the ¨engineers¨ of the orders, so I was amused by their method of keeping people from coming in directly through the front doors, instead of the preferred route of the tour through the gift shop.  Simple, but effective.

We also spent a day in La Coruña climbing the Torre de Hercules, the oldest functioning lighthouse in Western Europe, ate tapas for lunch in the old city center and swung by a little 16th century castle fortress in Santa Cruz built to fortify defenses of the bay.

All in all, I think it was a good visit and lovely to catch up with them.  And I was happy to have flowers to brighten the guest bedroom.

La Lagoa de Sobrado

We went looking for an equestrian center rumored to have manure for sale, but took a wrong turn and ended up someplace else.

That someplace else is the Lagoa de Sobrado, close to the Monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes.  And for good reason, it was constructed by the Cistercian monks around 1500!  They used it for irrigation, powering water mills, and stocked it with trout for the monk´s table.

It was ceded to the Galician Society of Natural History in 1992 and is an important spot for flora and fauna, especially water birds.

There´s a little turn off area with a hut, a picnic table and a small dock of somewhat doubtful structural integrity and a path we didn´t have time to explore.

The Monastery itself is an imposing structure with an incredible façade.  We were there for a local festival once, but the deep fried trout didn´t look particularly appetizing and it was so packed with locals there was no place to sit.  Also, I should warn visitors that the visiting hours for the monastery were idiosyncratic and limited and we didn´t get the best impression of the cleanliness of the facilities or the welcome of the monk-in-charge on the day.  But, they raise Spanish mastiffs, so they can´t be all bad.

More on the Monastery here.
Video in gallego of the mastiffs on Galician TV here.  (Mastiffs 6:51, puppies 14:19)

Melide la nuit

Pueblos all over Spain have local fiestas in August, and Melide is no exception.  There is an entire week of bands, orchestras, concerts, games and gatherings.  So, we resolved to go out one evening to see what was going on.

We started in the wine district, which had some very appealing terrazas, one covered in a robust kiwi.

Then we went to a new restaurant, admiring the decorations on the way.

We had a grelo and shrimp scramble to start, then raxo and salad.  It was both tasty and reasonably priced.

By the time we finished, the first orchestra was winding down on the smaller stage.  We wanted to see the main act Panorama, which is famous throughout Galicia, but after 20 minutes of merengue and cumbia we called it good and moved on.

We walked back to the car through the games and rides.  Shooting galleries were popular, but expensive at 3 euros a shot.  V wanted to try the bumper cars, but didn´t want to wait in the line.

 

And then I saw this, which will give me nightmares until next year.  Has Stephen King written a Spongebob novel yet? Some kid disappears forever into the gaping maw of an inflatable cartoon character etc., etc. Clearly I´m too old for fiestas.

An Afternoon at the Feira de las Maravillas

A Coruña has an annual medieval market called the Feira de las Maravillas and since I had to pick V up at the airport, I stopped by.

There were a lot of people, including everyone who decided to walk their dogs or get out the baby strollers at 7 on a Friday evening and mingle.

 Yes, they chose to put the garbage cans here.

 

When you have an old part of town like Coruña, basically all you have to do is string up the banners and put up the kiosks.  There was a lot of jewelry, soaps and decorative items of questionable ¨artisanal¨ quality.  But also some craft displays, wandering gaiteros, and lots and lots of yummy food and drink, as you would expect from Gallegos.

 

 And to finish it off, V´s plane was delayed so I got to see the ¨Jousting¨ show set up in a temporary arena in front of the City Hall in the Plaza Mara Pita.  Destriers there were not, but the 6 year olds in the target audience were thrilled.  There was an evil villain to boo, heroes to cheer, and ¨tragic¨ consequences of the ¨combat.¨   There was also an intrusive sound system, but that´s quibbling.  I had a great time.

San Roque

August is a month of festivals.  Practically every pueblo has a festival this month.  And one of the most poplar is San Roque.

Cambados, igrexa de San Francisco

San Roque, or St. Roch, was a 14th century Christian Saint, born in Montpellier the son of a nobleman.  After the death of his parents, he distributed all his possessions and set out on a mendicant pilgrimage to Rome.  Italy was suffering an epidemic of plague at the time and Roque performed many miraculous cures by touch and the sign of the cross while tending the sick at various hospitals.  When he himself fell ill, he was run out of town to build himself a hermit´s hut in the forest where a spring miraculously arose.  He was saved from starvation by the dog of a local nobleman who brought him bread.  The nobleman, Count Gothard, became an acolyte.

And then, to top all ths off,

On his return incognito to Montpellier he was arrested as a spy (by orders of his own uncle) and thrown into prison, where he languished five years and died on 16 August 1327, without revealing his name, to avoid worldly glory. (Evidence suggests, as mentioned earlier, that the previous events occurred, instead at Voghera in the 1370s.) After his death, according to Legenda Aurea,

"anon an angel brought from heaven a table divinely written with letters of gold into the prison, which he laid under the head of S. Rocke. And in that table was written that God had granted to him his prayer, that is to wit, that who that calleth meekly to S. Rocke he shall not be hurt with any hurt of pestilence."

With all the recent talk about Ebola, a patron saint against pestilence seems timely.
 

In Galicia there are August 16th festivals to San Roque in:  Vilagarcía, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Viveiro, Ribadeo, Cervo, Meira, Rábade, Sada, A Laracha, Cee, Melide, Celanova, Ourense, O Barco, Castrelo de Miño, Forzáns (Ponte Caldelas) y Caldas de Reis, and Betanzos, amongst others.  Vigo is a big one,

Every year, thousands of devotees gather in the vicinity of the Praza de España, in the neighbourhood of San Roque, to keep the largest pilgrimage in Vigo alive. Votive offerings are the most typical part of this celebration: the custom is to buy wax reproduction of diseased body parts to ask San Roque for a cure. The saint’s devotees guarantee that the 'holy milagreiro' is able to heal all ailments.

Melide has a medieval market.  Maybe next year.

Fiestas del Apóstol

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July 25th is the Day of St. James, or Santiago, and Gallegos dedicate almost 2 weeks of concerts and events in Santiago de Compostela, finished off with a giant multimedia fireworks display over the cathedral. 

For the complete Fiestas del Apóstol - Program
But what I´d really like to see is the Diá do Traxe Galego, with the runway and parade.  The variety of regional costumes from the mountains to the coast is really fascinating, some of them being family heirlooms.  This year it´s Sunday the 20th.

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from 2009

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 from 2011

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 2011

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Festival de Ortegueira 2014

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(The Chieftains!!! - C)

Thursday 17 July
Royal Burgh of Renfrew Pipe Band

Proxecto Runas 2014:
Tiruleque
Cuarteto Caramuxo
Xabi Aburruzaga Band

Pepe Vaamonde Grupo

Friday 18th
Escola de gaitas de Ortigueira
Milladoiro
Dominic Graham School of Irish Dance
Moxie
Ruaille Buaille

Saturday 19th
Bellón Maceiras Quinteto
The Chieftains
Fest Rock (Bagad Kemper+ Red Cardell)
Treacherous Orchestra
Anxo Lorenzo band

Sunday 20th
Parade of bands of the Celtic Nations. 

El Cacho de San Xoan

It´s San Juan again.  The most poplar activities associated with this holiday are leaping over bonfires and then taking a dip in the ocean, or roasting and eating sardines.  But there is another, less well known pre-christian tradition, making a preparation called el cacho made from seven herbs and water from seven springs, used to banish witches. 

Tradition dictates that during the June 23, the eve of San Juan, the Galicians collected seven different herbs with three basic qualities: they must have a special smell, multiple applications in medicinal remedies and be the best to drive away evil beings.
 
Although possibilities are many, the seven traditionally are fennel-called Fiuncho, St. John's wort, lemon verbena, male-fern or Fento, rosemary, mallow and laburnum.
 
Along with these herbs water from seven different natural sources is collected and everything mixed in a bowl to make the cacho, which used to remove the devil from the body, ward off witches and cure envy.

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After being left outside all night to collect dew, the scented, green cacho is used to wash on San Juan, and after air-drying, guaranteed a healthy year and the absence of witches.  After San Juan, the herbs are left in the sun to steep further and the resulting infusion used throughout the year in home remedies.  Others gather the herbs and hang them over the door, or burn them on the bonfires.

Casa Farruco

We were late making reservations for the Easter break and our usual rural hotel was completely booked.  Instead, we managed to get a room at another hotel, southwest of Melide on lake Porto de Mouros created back in the 1960s, Casa Farruco.

Turned out that the same owner started his little rural hospitality empire with Casa Farruco, and the last was our usual standby, Casa Teillor.  While the age of the installations was noticeable, the place is in such a lovely situation that it hardly matters.

We took a stroll the evening of our arrival, down some logging trails along the shore, and got back to our room in time to enjoy snset over the water from our little porch.

After an unseasonably warm and bright Thursday and Friday, a cool drizzle greeted us Saturday morning and we got to enjoy the lovely mysterious quality of Galicia´s countryside in the mist.