Friends

We had arranged with JB ( Jean Baptiste Richard ) to meet up with him and his Spanish girlfriend Anna. Anna is from Santiago de la Compostella and her family has a holiday home on the Ria de Arousa. JBs parents also holiday on the Ria. We went ashore to have a look around, the anchorage had proven to be quite noisy being close to the fishing harbour and the wash from the constant flow of fishing boats rocked us about all night!

 

To be honest we were so tired it didn't really really bother our sleep and we were woken by children in Optomist dinghys ( oppys ) having a great time sailing around Dark Tarn using her it seemed as a mark!

Undeterred we rowed ashore and walked along the front past the industrial Lonxa and its many cold storage warehouses and open areas full of nets. We found the older part of town and as usual we had arrived in the middle of ' lunch afternoon' we found a small cafe on the front and ordered a portion of the mussels that the Ria is famous for.

These are huge, very meaty and to be honest, not a lot of money.

Did I mention they are delicious, possibly the best I have ever eaten.

Lynne and I made the mistake of ordering a Tortilla along with the usual fries and salsa sauce, to be honest we were a bit over faced and took half the tortilla away with us. It is very easy to eat good seafood in Galicia.

JB was having issues with affecting a rendezvous with us and Anna at the same time, not really surprising as Anna was pregnant and due tomorrow!  It gave us time to look around the town a little as we wandered through the streets decorated with fish nets we got constant updates by text as to JBs progress, or lack of it. It mattered not a jot as we had already decided that our plan to nip along to see our friends in Pobra du Caramiñal  about 6 miles along the coast could wait until tomorrow so we were in no rush.

However eventually we got together and it was a real pleasure to see them both. We had last seen each other in Newry where we had spent a winter, JB aboard Soteria, the classic schooner that we had shared a quay with.

We stopped at a bar for tapas but JB insisted we accompany them to meet their families who were having a last meal together as JBs family were returning to France the following day. We walked along to where JB and Anna had a car and the huge family group was waiting. Possibly 20+ people mainly on JBs side. We were made to feel very welcome and drove to a small fishing village along the coast called Castiñeira. The moon was full And it made a splendid sight as it rose over the opposite shore.

We all eventually found a seat in the restaurant, and we were treated to sardines and pulpo, done in the typical Galician style and eaten in the same being shared between everyone at the table. Anna's father was slightly concerned that we may not like octopus but I reassured him we were adopting a Galician attitude to seafood only avoiding persebes ( goose barnacles ) I think he was pleased about this as they are very expensive! JBs family being French were also unfamiliar with pulpo, it made for an interesting conversation regarding the surprisingly involved preparations needed to tenderise the tentacles ,luckily, Frenchmen are never loth to discuss food! I never quite figured out everyone's relationships but it didn't seem to matter. There was a lot of kissing and hugs which we English really should do more of......and talk about food more.

Everyone in the photo below is family.

We had a fantastic evening and were put to shame by the multi lingual nature of the conversation both Anna's family and JBs taking pity on us and speaking English along with French and Spanish.
Anna's father paid the bill and I can't thank everyone enough for allowing us into a family occasion and being made to feel so welcome, we came as strangers and left as friends. 

We even got serenaded by some local guys who may have had a little too much wine but were nonetheless very tuneful singing traditional Galician songs ( at least I like to think so )

A fantastic night and JB dropped us at the beach and Anna promised to send us pictures of her new daughter as soon as she was born, we know her name but I can't tell,l it's bad luck in Spain.