On to the Camino del Mar

May 30, 2024 – Playa de Penarronda to Barreios – 25 kms – Solarena Bistrot

May 31, 2024 – Barreios to Foz – 21 kms – Apartamento Puerto Foz

Total distance walked or cycled so far this year: 1619 kms.  From Budapest: 3706 kms

Yesterday we crossed the high, windy bridge to Ribadeo.  In doing so we traversed the boundary between the regions of Asturias and Galicia.  It’s not quite like crossing a border between countries, but there are immediately some noticeable differences.  The architecture of the houses and particularly the hórreos (corn storage structures) changes, as does the food (pote Asturiano yielding to caldo verde).

Notably, local language changes in the crossing to Galicia.  Prior to this trip I really hadn’t noticed that Asturias has its own language.  Unlike Basque, Catalan and Gallego, Asturian does not have official status in Spain.  It is, however, spoken by the majority of the population in Asturias.  It looks like a dialect of Castilian (Spanish), but it is classified as a distinct Romance language.  Gallego, on the other hand, looks like a dialect of Portuguese, and after a month in Spain it is more distinctly different from Castilian.

From Ribadeo we have mostly followed the coast over the past two days.  And what a spectacular coast it is.  Unfortunately, it was raining yesterday morning so I didn’t take any pictures of the most impressive areas, but we have passed an endless stream of picturesque beaches and rugged headlands.  The best known beach is Praia Catedrais (cathedrals beach) which we visited two years ago.  Even in the rain there were dozens of tourists there yesterday, but it really isn’t different in kind from a dozen other beaches which were devoid of visitors.

Today we visited one of the highlights of the Camino del Mar, the Basilica of San Martiño de Mondoñedo.  This is the oldest former cathedral in Spain; it was the seat of two bishops in the ninth century.  The Basilica was full of medieval art treasures, including 12th century frescoes and some remarkable carved capitals.  Ruth thinks that Jim Henson got his inspiration for the Muppets from the figures on some of the capitals.  But even the imaginative Henson wasn’t so twisted that he would punish Salome by having toads bite her breasts, as we saw in one of the capitals.

We are very excited to be continuing our pilgrimage up this impressive coast tomorrow.  This is definitely a Camino that deserves more pilgrims.