With a series of southerly winds pinning us to the harbour of Ribadeo as we wait to round the notorious Cape Finisterre and head south, we have been forced to explore more of the local region than we thought we would have the chance to. Very arduous it has been … sipping cerveza on the sidewalk cafes, dinning on the local paella (consisting largely of lobster), exploring the wave-wracked beaches of the Atlantic… True, some of the exploration has been conducted in the teeth of gale force winds whipping squalls of rain into our eyes … but at the end of the day it is all rather pleasant!

Today we took a train out to the Playa de las Catedrales where we wended our way past towering cliffs and through natural arches of rock. Our stroll was accompanied by the crash of waves on the white sandy beach that even got the chance to sparkle in the sun during a brief break in the looming grey clouds. The expanse of sand is usually thronging with summer tourists, but since we have landed well into the “off” season we virtually had this magnificent beach to ourselves with only a few other visitors strolling around in awe of this magical place. One of us even went for a swim … well I guess you would more accurately say that our little dog slightly misjudged the depth of a puddle – which turned out to be the Atlantic Ocean…