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.

I´m back

Just back from southern California, visting Mom.  She´s having problems wth hip and leg pain from disk pressure on spinal nerves.  Otherwise in splendid health.  Even so, every time I see her, I think it might be the last.

Got to eat ethnic food, read books, drink martinis, watch TV in English (not much to recommend there, although BBC´s Poldark looked good).  I did manage to weed, plant and mulch two beds just outside her door so they should be maintenance free for the foreseeable future.  We did some knitting and had long chats.  Had a family reunion with my brothers.  It´s been 15 years since we´ve been together.  That was interesting.

So strange to go from one part of the world to another in less than 24 hours.  Getting over the jetlag now.
Good to be home.

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.

El Museo da Terra de Melide

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The Ethnological Museum, installed in the former Sancti Spiritus Pilgrim Hospital, features both temporary exhibitions and has an interesting selection  of artifacts, some dating from the neolithic, including a spectacular blacksmith/cobbler/carpintry/homecraft display upstairs.

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But from January to Semana Santa of 2014, the museum will close for lack of funds to pay the 2 staff members.  After the provincial government cut their 2013 grant from 30 to 20,000€, associate dues and the government subsidy aren´t enough to keep the museum staffed and maintained.

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In addition to the collection of area artifacts, the museum houses the Centro de Estudios Melidenses, whose members have been working for the protection and study of the area´s artistic and historic patrimony since the 1970s.  After opening in the newly renovated space on the central plaza in 2001, by 2008 the museum received 12,000 visits, growing to 22,000 in 2010.

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V and I both enjoyed our visit, and recommend it to friends and family who are in the area.  You can have a virtual look-see here.

I am a huge fan of museums housing real stuff that reflect the lives of real people.  The National Decorative Arts Museum in Madrid is one of my favorites (a somewhat dizzying panoramic of the tiled kitchen here).  The Museo do Pobo Gallego in Santago de Compostela is on my list of places to go (they have boats!).

Scotland Calling

 avalaible here

Happened across the photographer Ian Lawson.  He´s published several volumes featuring his absolutely stunning photography.  The latest is From the Land Comes the Cloth, about Harris tweed and the Hebrides islands where it comes from.




From Photographic Views Scotland:

Ian Lawson is a lifelong professional fine art photographer from Lancashire. Based on a commission from the Harris Tweed authority he has combined a pictorial story of the people of the western isles and their contribution to Harris Tweed: from shepherds to weavers. The stunning environment of the Hebrides is captured in the best light that a photographer like Ian Lawson knows when and where to find. There is fantastic use of blending images so that tweed provides a subtle backcloth to a landscape.

His blog is here, the Facebook page here and the portfolio here.

If I weren´t going to live in Galicia, Scotland would be next.

 avalaible here

Shepherdess also looks very intriguing.  The sheep, the dog, the Cumbrian countryside. . .



He has more galleries, including Tuscany and Provence on his website.  But I think his shots of Britain have a special magic.  Enjoy!

avalaible here

Pazo Eidián

A heatwave is affecting Galicia this week, just like the rest of Spain, but I still think longingly of those thick stone walls while we swelter in our piso.

On one of our jaunts around the Melide area we headed south toward Agolada and saw a sign ¨Pazo¨.  Well, why not.  So we drove around some back roads, got lost, turned around and, after asking a friendly farmer, found the unmarked turn-off we´d missed.

The Pazo Eidián has been turned into a lovely hotel.  They did a beautiful job, we were shown around by the caretaker who was nice enough to interrupt his aperitivo and show us the grounds and interior.  He said despite the crisis their events business was doing well, weddings and communions, etc.  I wonder how long it takes grapevines to cover a patio. . .

We were especially taken with the lareira and the old beams they´d kept in place.

They have a pool and tennis courts, in short all the amenities people look for, in a very pretty setting.  Not least when it´s 90 degrees. 

Balneario Rio Pambre

One of the things we discovered on our last trip was a Balneario (Thermal Spa/Hotel) tucked away in the hills around Palas de Rei, the next town about 20 km east.

According to their website, the Balneario Rio Pambre has 23 rooms, 11 in the main building and 12 in the traditional thatched pallozas, all with bath, telephone, safe, air conditioning, central heat, TV, WIFI (only in the main building). They also have a restaurant, bar-cafeteria, gymnasium and thermal baths/spa.

Prices don´t strike me as excessive either - 65€ for a double room during the low season, and 85€ high season. That rises to90/110€ for the spa-package. Consult the website for specials and further info (In Spanish. Maybe they need me to translate their site for them.)

We strolled around, the buildings are just above a lovely river with a small waterfall. They also have a striking view of the Pambre Castle. (We´ve been to the castle and frankly, it needs some work. But then it´s really old.)

Also from their site - a video of the Ulloa area neighboring ours, produced by the Lugo Provincial government.  Now, I want to check out the rafting.


A great resource for when we find the restoration overwhelming, and who knows - a future outlet for a soaping empire?

Casa Teillor

When we´re staying around Melide for a couple of days we always book at the Casa Teillor, which we originally found on Turgalicia, an excellent online resource.

Teillor is a tiny aldea located a couple of kilometers south of Melide and the rural hotel is a complex of old buildings converted into apartments.  These days, we call Alicia, the manager/housekeeper who lives down the road in her own house and make arrangements with her.  She´s delightful and eager to help in any way she can.  We sometimes don´t arrive until quite late if we´ve started out after V leaves work, but everything is always ready and waiting for us.

There are apartments of up to 3 bedrooms available and all have kitchens and fireplaces (V´s favorite thing) and come fully furnished.  They manage to preserve the rustic quality of the old stone buildings with high beamed ceilings while having a fresh, modern polish.

There is a covered wood pile to select from, as well as an outbuilding turned into a grilling area.  Popular with larger groups.

We think it´s quite a lovely spot.

Cheap Flights

´Tis the season of Spring Break and our thoughts turn to cheap travel. (With the possible exception of my dear friend T who is a über-milage-Grand Poobah with AA. Air kisses!)

This does have naughty words. Although they´re Irish (Thanks Anne!)naughty words so they sound classy anyway. And it´s sub-titled for ´Muricans with language issues.

Sevilla - tiene un color especial

Last weekend we went to Sevilla to meet our fabulous friend T who was attending a conference in Cadiz.

We had a great time seeing the sights, drinking and eating. He´s much more droll than I am so I´ll just direct you to him.

http://www.hundredandonethings.com/

Next week we´re in Galicia desperately looking for our ruin. More on our ruin-hunting saga in Spain when I get back.

For you travellers

Happy Friday!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.