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.........