Ribadesella

As is our usual habit we wandered along the quay and we're delighted to discover a panadaria, several cafes, and right at the end, the ever helpful Tourist information. Every town we visit seems to have one and they are all brilliant.

This is where we usually ask for a map of the town ( we are amassing guite a collection now ) and generally ask what is of interest. The very helpful young lady pointed out the main streets and the chapel on the cliff top we had passed on the way in, I however had been looking at the waves breaking on the beach a few metres to my right! The young lady continued to point out the church with its paintings and the cave of the Bulls across the river with its paintings and duly marked them on our map.

The town turned out to be delightful, with an eclectic mix of old and new. A great collection of shops including one or two that seemed to specialise in chocolate, which always piques Lynnes interest.

We wandered into a small square near the church which we remembered would be open, I hurried back to check on the boat and left Lynne in the square studying her map. The boat was fine but I always like to keep a close watch on her through the first drop of tide.

When I returned we decided to have a quick look inside the church which was an imposing if fairly modern building a short distance from the square.

As a bit of a giveaway it had the secret symbol we were becoming quite familiar with.

The church is called Iglesia de Santa Maria Magdelene and as we walked in I was struck by how plain and bold it looked, there was a huge arched alcove with a rather fine carved alter piece in modern style.

Very nicely done in fine granite and nicely accented by the plain walls, plain walls, but where were the paintings the lady in the tourist information had mentioned?

I looked up.........

I'm afraid my photos can not do these frescos justice, they were taken with my phone. Take my word for it they are fabulous.I hope you can see high up the ethereal light illuminating the Holy Trinity and looking down what we take to be saints, one at least is surrounded by animals so we assume it's St Francis.

Beneath are panels depicting scenes that we are unsure of possibly related to the civil war, separated by trompe-l'oeil drapery. We are going to return and see if we can get more information. We do know they were painted in the 1930s.

I will also try and take some better pictures..

To say we were surprised would be an understatement, we felt the need for a restorative coffee. We made our way back to the harbour and sat at a cafe with a good view of the muggles admiring Dark Tarn.

The pictures in the cave of the Bulls?  One of the most important Pealeolithic cave art sites in the world, just over the river under a limestone outcrop visible from the boat. I think we will be staying a couple of days here!

A very surprising town.........

Lazy days

Woke up early and was surprised to see the Picos de Europa clearly, completely beautiful in the clear morning light reflecting off the snows still trapped in the northern faces.

I was entranced and as I sat in the cockpit I vaguely noticed that as we were on the flood ( tide coming in ) the water too was crystal clear. I simply had to give it another go. I donned my mask and could see the problem with the log impeller straight away, a large crustacean had welded itself to one of the impeller vanes. Lynne spotted for me ( just in case for whatever reason I didn't come up she could immediately ring the life insurance people ) and after several attemts I had levered the thing off.

Unfortunately I should have had the foresight to wear gloves as my fingers had several deep and very stinging cuts. I then claimed not to be able to row and sent Lynne off to the panadaria.

Her rowing is getting better with practise. Lynne suggested a beach day which seemed fine to me and we spent most of the afternoon doing very little and admiring the view from our little beach.

Dark Tarn at anchor with the Picos de Europa mountains in the background.

Much as we had grown to like St Vicente it was getting time to leave, the winds were forcast light but northerly so we made the decision to sail 35 miles down the coast to Ribadesella, setting off first thing in the morning as the ebb tide would help us west along the coast.

We like watching the town light up as the sun sets.

Morning was busy as Lynne again set off to the panadaria for fresh bread and I retrieved our kedge anchor which had been set as a secondary stern anchor to hold us in the stream. We left the harbour and found a total absence of wind, which gradually became a light force 1-2 breeze. The motor was brought into play.

As we covered a few miles down the coast we noticed a peculiar phenomena, there was a distinct change in the weather pattern as we approached the Lee of the Picos.

We passed from bright sunlight into low grey cloud, I can only imagine this was the mountains making their own weather. It was certainly distinct.

Luckily the winds were still very light and although it was very grey it continued warm, we set the autopilot and watched the coast pass by. I was particularly interested in a small drying lagoon that I had considered for the purposes of drying Dark Tarn out, scrubbing her off and maybe applying some fresh anti-fouling paint. I was quite taken with the name of the place, the " Ensenada de Poo"

I was still tempted but Lynne reminded me we needed to make some miles and a suitable recce would take a few days so we carried on as planned.

As we approached I was a little apprehensive as the pilot mentions that the entrance to Ribadisella should only be attempted in favourable conditions, which we had, nonetheless as everything on this coast is a first for us it is always a little edgy.

In actual fact the entrance is very scary! It narrows to a 20 metre gap between the harbour training wall and an exposed surf beach complete with surf.

The swell which had been constant all day suddenly formed breaking waves just a few metres to starboard. As we turned the surprisingly sharp corner and he swells followed us in along the channel for a short while then all was calm, if a little shallow as we were within a couple of hours of low water.

We followed the channel up towards the town and  chose a berth against the quay just past what we imagined was the Lonja mentioned in the pilot ( this turns out to be a fish dock ) strangely Lonja is Spanish for slice......

We came in alongside and tied up with just a bow and stern line as there didn't seem to be any appreciable current. In an echo of our time in Newry we were now in public and had a constant stream of " muggles " stopping to look down on us. We waited until low water and we're pleased to see 2 metres under the keel, we now felt free to explore!

Castillo Del Ray

The morning dawned bright and sunny which always cheers us up. I went ashore to the panadaria ( open even on Sunday's ) to get a fresh loaf for lunch, it was a strange shape being fat at either end and flat in the middle but it tasted delicious with ham, cheese and tomatoes. 

I had decided to swim and try and free the two remaining mechanical logs, they are only really possible to clean in situ or when the boat is out of the water but I thought I would give it a go. The tide was very strong and it proved difficult to stay in position on the surface let alone a couple of meters under the boat not only that but the ebb tide being loaded with silt the visibility was poor as well so I contented myself with scrubbing a bit more of the hull while Lynne practised rowing the new inflatable dinghy.

After lunch we answered an email from aunt Mary who enquired about the church so around mid afternoon we walked over the bridge that forms part of the way of Saint James and followed it up towards the old town. The signs are everywhere if you know what to look for.

There is an interesting map of the Camino ( northern ) way outside the Church of Santa Maria de Los Angeles.

Both aunt Mary and myself had been puzzled by the lack of Windows of any appreciable size in the church.

so I decided to try and show the position of the building a little better. Particularly its defensive role. It is situated at the end of a long thin ridge which is surrounded by the walls of the old town. These provide a lovely walk now.

However they had obviously provided a very secure defence in days past. As you can see from this angle of approach the church is hardly visible. We walked down below the walls at the east end to admire the view towards the Picos.

The limestone cliff below where Lynne is standing would have been the first line of defence.

This is a photo of the east doorway and you can see a really tiny window above it. The architecture style is known as Cantabrian gothic, it seems a long way from gothic architecture that is familiar to me and is unique to this area of Spain.

We walked west along the walled part of the old town passing the " palace of the inquisitors" 

This was the home of the inquisitor Corro who is buried in the church. It's now a public building of some sort.

We continued on and were on time for the opening of the Castillo Del Ray, 5 pm. Everything seems to open at 5 pm in Spain!

The castle is small but perfectly preserved or restored, take your pick. The first room opens out and has been converted into an exhibition space.

The walls were hung with great photography from a local photographer featuring the town.

As we moved up a floor there was a room filled with historical artefacts and a fascinating model of the town as it was in the 14 th century.

The castle, unchanged externally is near the right hand end and the church at the left, the long narrow aspect of the walled town can clearly be seen.

Apart from a lot of the information being in Spanish hence difficult for us to understand fully there were some great exibits, I particularly liked the canon! Above in the tower was a film show again in Spanish but with some superb shots of the town from above and an explanation of its history and part in the pilgrim trail.

Eventually we made our way to the roof and battlements and my word what a view! The whole town was spread out below and Dark Tarn was clearly visible lying quietly in the creek furthest away. ( Hint, she is below the white building extreme right........)

This is the view back towards the church. The tower has an exhibition of old photos of the town.

Both Lynne and I felt it was well worth the €1.40 entrance fee and again we're thankful that Spain never thought of a National Trust!

After all that history we felt we had earned an ice cream so decended towards the harbour and a gelateria.

Lynnes on tutti frutti, and although mine is just plain vanilla its in a chocolate cone! Scrummy.....

We walked back trying to find the disappearing circus ( advertised everywhere but nowhere to be seen ) and finished the walk back in the beach bar having a coffee.

We had tried a coffee in the bar visible with the green shades and had been disappointed. This coffee however got Lynnes approval for having the correct caffeine " kick".

We planned to walk around the headland in the distance that evening. 

Sorry aunt Mary we are really no wiser as to the lack of Windows in the church, looking closely the two largest ones ( which are still pretty small) are obviously later additions and are both on the town or north side, it seems to me that the west east and south sides were part of the defensive walls. I found lots of little gargoyles and things I hadn't noticed before studying the walls so it was really interesting.

We went around the headland to watch the sun go down. The path leads to the narrow entrance channel and a glorious beach  La playa melon. As we walked towards the far end of our beach I took this photo of DT and the beach bar " Dias de surf" a bit of an odd name as our beach is as still as a mill pond!

The entrance mole was hosting a few fishermen as we walked past on to la Playa Melon.

There were a few surfers out in the break ( this is a surf beach open to the Biscay swell ) we wandered along found a seat and watched the sun set.

Not a bad day........

San Vicente de la Barquera

Well having survived a low tide of 1.7 metres overnight ( 20 cms clearance ) as soon as the rain stopped it was time to blow up the dinghy and explore ashore. We are anchored off a beach, the Playa El Tostadero and it turns out there is a small mini supermarkado hidden among the cafes and restaurants ashore.

So suitably resupplied with fresh milk and bread I headed back to Dark Tarn with my booty.

After brunch Lynne and I went ashore for a more thorough investigation as we awaited the next low water. We again floated with a few centimetres to spare. I seem to remember that we need to have 1.2mts on the echo sounder before we actually touch, I think I programmed a .5 mt safety / panic margin into the sounder so I was happy then having seen the boat in daylight to explore the town a bit. This involved us crossing the bridge where we spotted another good anchorage pool, however it meant negotiating a small sandbank to get to it so we decided to stay where we were.

The town seems full of restaurants and cafes at which loads of people were eating variations on Paella, some had whole crabs and razor fish in amongst the rice. We climbed up heading for the obligatory 13 th century church.

This occupies a high position on the rocky ridge above the town which it shares with the Castillo Del Ray. A very well preserved ancient fortress.

The Iglesia de nuestra señora de los Ángeles turned out to be open to the public.

We paíd a few euros to see inside, it was very grand with separate altarpieces devoted to different saints and a superb vaulted ceiling.

At first I couldn't figure out what was strange about this rather impressive building then it dawned on me how dark and shadowy it was. The very few windows were tiny and high up, almost no stained glass at alI, I really dont know why, maybe as a defence structure but it certainly was odd and I wondered how they lit it in Olden times......

Without the electric up lights it would have been very gloomy indeed. The fantastic altarpieces were very impressive however. They are well over 50 ft high and smothered in gold gilt. The carving I'd guess is original 14 th century and very fine.

We walked along to the castle which was closed, so that would have to wait for another day. However the views up the river valley from the church were lovely, and would have been even more pretty if the Picos de Europa mountains in the distance hadn't been in cloud.

We are still very much on the pilgrims trail and the shells and signs of St James are to be found everywhere. By the church is also one of the many hostels for pilgrims.

Doesn't look much but a glimpse inside revealed it was quite comfortable!

The views back down toward the town were equally nice.

There is a walk around the old town walls that we are keen to do when we visit the castle.

After a quick supermarket sweep and visit to the very useful tourist information we walked back over the 32 arches of the Puente de la Maza to the beach and had a last wine and beer in the surf bar overlooking the beach and DTs anchorage.

Back to the boat for tea and a plan to walk around the headland and finish the evening in the same spot as above.