Zelda and the Viaductos

May 16, 2023May 15, 2023 | Mairead

Even the manholes have shells in Santiago de Compostela

When we woke up in Santiago de Compostela it was Friday and there was something very exciting happening for Denis… the latest version of the computer game Zelda was out. This may not mean a lot to you (or me) but to Denis this is gold. On top of that there was a shop called Game within walking distance of our car park home. So off we set at opening time to see if there would be a Zelda left for Denis.

Coming attraction, Viaducto… as seen from the town of Mondoñedo

I sat in the cafe reading an article about how to get more followers on Instagram (synopsis – stop trying!)) while he queued. Oh yes I forgot to mention, you have to queue to buy Zelda. While waiting he sent exciting updates by text.

Text 1. He met a woman who was queuing to collect for her son who had reserved the game. Tense moment as Denis realised he hadn’t reserved a game…
Text 2. The woman had been given specific two hour window in which she could collect her game or loose it. More hopeful moment, maybe someone hadn’t picked up their game and he could buy it?
Text 3. He was next…
Text 4. A picture of Zelda in his hand. Phew.

And then we were on the road again. This time to the north coast of Spain and a town called Ribadeo. We were ready to spend a couple of days in a nice campsite. Unfortunately, when we got to Ribadeo, the campsite was closed.

Can you see Ruby reflected in the tank of chocolate?

You drive to these campsites without checking and expect them to be wide-open and we’re surprised when they’re not. Stuff happens, businesses close or someone gets sick or tired of working with the public. Who knows what happens.

The campsite in Perlora which was open. Can you spot Ruby?

Fortunately we happen to know a great supermarket car park in Ribadeo where we’re allowed to park overnight. It’s not very visually beautiful but very handy for buying groceries, coffee and drinking glass (going around a particularly challenging roundabout broke a glass) and we did all those things and next morning we were heading along the north coast to a different (and hopefully open) campsite in the town of Perlora.

It was open! In fact it had been open since 1968. It’s a gorgeous place. On the way we were not expecting gorgeous because we went through a very industrial area called Aviles on route but we arrived at the coast on this little peninsula of a campsite. There were showers and a little café next door. We were still on cereal rations so we didn’t need a restaurant.

Next day we were heading for the Pecos (steep and rocky mountainous range south east of Gijón) but again another campsite was closed so we ended up traveling on. That’s why I have a lot of road pictures.

We see a lot of these things we call viaductos… They are the scariest thing (to me) – a long bridge on the motorway over a deep valley. They are often higher than the tallest trees with only a little blue railing to keep me safe.

Poio Pictures

May 15, 2023May 14, 2023 | Mairead

With all the food pictures yesterday I didn’t have space to share the peaceful park up about 20 minutes drive outside Pontevedra, called Poio. So here’s some calm for a May Monday morning…

While Denis worked I sat listening to the water and the birds and taking one picture after another. Plenty of Camino pilgrims passed and as I was wearing a small rucksack I looked like I belonged there too. Many wished me a Buenos días (good morning) or said Ola (hello) as they walked on.

It wasn’t until the afternoon I noticed all the stone blocks in the park had writing on them. I went around trying to read the inscriptions.

“I only ask one thing of you if one day my people should need me that you will help me do my duty” Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese politician/diplomat/author)

My favourite view is of the red tiled houses. I’m going to have a go at painting a version of it. From a distance it looks like the houses are all higgle-piggly but of course they’re not.

They’re organised in streets that we can’t see from this distance. People walk up and down those streets every day going to and from their homes.

Very, very grateful to this community for setting aside beautiful spaces like this for our use.

I Love Tapas!

May 14, 2023May 13, 2023 | Mairead

And then we were back in Vila Nova de Cerveira (you’ll be needing my map for this one…) for the night. Travelling the way we do means we often have ~~problems~~ challenges to work out. Our attitude when one of these challenges arises is key to getting through it without ~~killing each other~~ life changing consequences. So whenever we solve something like the lack of strong data we celebrate with a high five or an extra coffee or even a meal out.

My Aubergine gratin and behind it Denis’ mushrooms in lemon with a little cheese grated on top

We found (thank you google maps) a great tapas restaurant called Curt’isso in Vila Nova de Cerveira. Tapas is a Spanish thing and it means a small snack but they are so much more. They are usually small but small is a relative measure so you can end up very easily ordering too much. I suppose it’s like getting lots of starters instead of one big meal. They can be cold or hot, simple or exotic. I love it. It’s difficult but I always try to start with one and order a second if I’m still hungry. Denis does something else…

Denis’ fried potatoes with two different dips, one tomato the other possibly red pepper

Anyway we decided to celebrate and go to Curt’isso and we were not disappointed. Every dish was different and my mouth is watering just thinking about them now. Denis was a little disappointed because he couldn’t finish… he ordered 4, hmmm.

My sardine on pesto bruschetta. Look at me eating fish!

Next day we head for Spain and the city of Pontevedra (see map below) and would you believe we have a problem again with data. So off we go along the inlet to what turns out to be a beautiful place called Poio. The data there was great and at the end of the day we returned to the city.

Unfortunately, there was a new problem when we arrived back – no space at the motorhome parking. Made worse by the fact that we had received a recommendation for a tapas place from a local and we had been imagining all day rushing off to dinner the moment we arrived back. But no… we had to drive on. And on. Two hours later we arrived at a car park in the Camino city of Santiago de Compostela! (Hello Helena!)

This is the only picture we took in Santiago de Compostela at Cafe Bar 13. Denis had scallops and I had a potato, chorizo and fried egg dish

Fortunately for us the Spanish eat late. We were sitting down to our celebratory tapas dinner at 10pm. The following night we had breakfast cereal for dinner. Living the dream.

My map is suffering from lack of advance planning. I may have to move to Map Edition 2. Also, I seem to have hugely underestimated the size of north west Spain. Plus, there’s a very attractive and large inlet missing at Vila Nova de Cerveira and another at Pontevedra… map making is not without its own challenges

No Data No Cry

May 13, 2023May 13, 2023 | Mairead

We arrived at the border town of Vila Nova de Cerveira and we thought this would be our last full day in Portugal. We were already missing the people and their natas and then we had to go to Spain for the day. Bear with me while I try to sound like I know what I’m talking about, there are technical reasons.

See that tower on the hill? That makes working on the journey possible

Ok so 4G and 5G data for mobile phones can do something interesting that the 2G and 3G can’t do and it’s especially useful at borders. They can decide in which direction or how strong they want to send their signal. So today we are in Portugal and we are accidentally getting Spanish data service. Unfortunately it’s just not very strong Spanish data.

That might be because they don’t want to be sending strong data across the border and away from their customers… But for some reason this data from Spain has meant the Portuguese data is gone. So… we have to move to Spain for Denis to work and take video calls.

We found a place about twenty minutes over the bridge and around the headland facing the Atlantic. We weren’t expecting much except better data which we got… but we also got amazing views! Plus, we’re parked beside a Camino path so we see pilgrims passing by. They have another 160km to walk to their destination of Santiago de Compostela.

We feel very lucky. We’ll be back in Vila Nova de Cerveira tonight and we’ll get our last Portuguese coffee in the morning but for now we are breathing in this amazing Atlantic air.

Inner Knowing

April 25, 2023April 24, 2023 | Mairead

Stop if you need to. You’ll know. (Or, if you’re driving, Yield)

Before we left I had decided to write to you every day and then I though of your inbox filling up so that another email would feel overwhelming… and so I decided to stop writing to you for the weekend but I’ve changed my mind!

Don’t judge us… the little buns were free but we didn’t know that until we had ordered the large ones! Plus they tasted like the queen cakes my mother used to make, yum! This was in the pretty town of Zamora, Spain not far from the border with Portugal last Thursday.

It’s been like stopping a big truck (or a motorhome) and then trying to push it forward again – not very pleasant. I’m not going to stop writing every day after all. Also, it’s so difficult to know if someone feels overwhelmed or excited to receive another email I would have to be able to see into their mind. Not possible. All I’m doing is reading my own mind and maybe I’m just overwhelming myself..? I really have to let that go.

Beautiful stone wall around a small vineyard on a hill, Villalcampo, just a few kilometers from the Portuguese border

This is my year of surrender so I better get surrendering. I read a book called The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer (maybe I already told you?) and it was life changing. Now, I say yes to opportunities. It’s how I was able to say yes to finishing the fiction book I started in 2020. And how I’ve decided to design a Permission Cards App. (These are not short term goals by the way, they are quests, a term I learned in Christy Lynch’s book, Explore your Life. I’m giving myself time to get these done.)

Saying yes does mean I get more projects in my To Do List but it also means I have to be comfortable with giving up a project. If it’s time to stop a project or change direction on a project I owe it to myself to trust my gut and support my inner knowing.

Hello Portugal! The road into the old Moorish town of Miranda do Douro

Back to today, I’ll keep writing the blogs every day and I’m going to trust you to read them or ignore them or even delete them as you support your inner knowing.

On Rocky soil

April 21, 2023April 20, 2023 | Mairead

The week before we left on this journey to Portugal we went to the Burren in Co. Clare. We saw the beautiful barren rocky landscape and we never expected to see something similar in Spain but we did.

Following our trusty guide app we left Guernica and travelled in the direction of Burgos and came to Puerto de Orduña. The scenery was beautiful. We never guessed down in the valley that the amazing cliff rising up in the distance was where we were going next but it was.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of this because a series of hairpin bends meant I was hardly able to take a breath let alone take a photo. On and on, upward and upward we went reviewing where we had come from each time we turned the next bend. Not quite believing there could be more of them… but there were.

Finally, we reached a plateau and were guided to a car park. Here we were to walk to a waterfall. Somewhere along the way there had been a place to stop and enjoy the view but it was not to be, the glimpses along the drive were all we had. No worries a walk was exactly what we needed, lots of processing of the museum of peace needed to be done.

The sign in the car park said there was something in 3km. Maybe the waterfall? Sure even if it isn’t that’s a grand walk, so we set off. Almost immediately we saw similarities with the Burren. How could that be? No idea! We walked through a shady forest and saw tiny flowers, moss covered rocks and bare flat stones. There were markers on trees and sometimes on the rocks or small stakes to guide us along. When we had reached the 3km there was no sign of the waterfall and it was hot. We had walked enough today, we could be kind to ourselves… and go back.

Walking in that place was very peaceful, gentle peace, inner peace, making peace with ourselves.

GUERNICA Gernika

April 20, 2023April 19, 2023 | Mairead

We’re using the app CamperContact as guide

The Guiding App
For the first time ever on a trip we purchased a self guide to help us choose where to stop on our travels. Of course it’s also an app! Usually we just pick a parking spot that sounds interesting. And most of the time we find something interesting nearby. This time we are following a map and picking parking spots nearby. It makes for a different type of experience. The tour starts in the town of Gernika (Guernica is the English, I think) and I’m very excited. I can hardly believe we have passed this town many times travelling to Portugal via northern Spain.

History is more interesting now
Something you may not know about me – my new interest in history. In school I thought history was too complicated, too much to read and too much to study. I wanted to get a good grade in my leaving certificate (end of school exam, Ireland) but the exam preparation was mainly learning things off by heart therefore any subject with high content was a risky choice. History had a lot of content and my decision to drop it was influenced by that. I am sorry now… and all because of a fiction book. Imagine a really easy to read fiction book being a way to learn about history? What a great idea. I found the book (really three books) by accident. It’s called, The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett and tells the story of the 20th Century from the perspective of fictitious families in Russia, Germany, Austria, America, England, Wales and Spain. It’s also interspersed with real characters like presidents and kings, etc. Hopefully Ken Follett does a lot of research, it seems he does. Now, because of him and his book I understand so much more about the conflicts during the 20th century, which includes World War 1 and 2, fascism, Spanish civil war…. The book has been like an intro for me and I’m ready for more so if you have any recommendations for easy to understand history books please let me know.

This is a photo of a copy of Picasso’s Guernica in the peace Museum

Art History, also interesting
The second thing you may not know about me – in 2012 I attended an art course that included art history. It gave me an appreciation for art, including Picasso, who before that was a complete mystery to me. Anyway, one class included his art piece called Guernica. Picasso started painting Guernica the day after he read reports about a Spanish town that was decimated by German bombs. Men women and children were killed, they still don’t know how many, up to 2000. The actual painting is in a museum in Madrid.

Visiting the Peace Museum, Gernika
Now here I am in Gernika with a basic understanding of the Spanish Civil War and the art piece Guernica… this will be my simplified version of events which I hope will allow me to tell a close enough approximation of the story, simply and clearly. The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936 and lasted until the Second World War began in 1939.

The Background
On one side there was the Republicans who supported the government of Spain and on the other side was the Nationalists who were military men including General Franco. Spain was a young republic at the start of the civil war. The government was inexperienced. There were many economic problems, poverty, unemployment and the general public were unhappy. Something similar to Germany after the First World War which led to the Second World War and there are similarities today…

Both sides had support from outside Spain. The Republicans were supported by Russia and the Nationalists (with General Franco) were supported by the Nazi government in Germany.

The fires following the bombing were so hot they melted coins

The Day of the Bombing
Monday 26th April, 1937 was market day in Gernika, lots of people and animals on the streets. The planes arrived at 4pm, they dropped bombs and shot civilians until 8pm. The town was completely destroyed. The planes were German. The Nationalists won the civil war and General Franco ruled Spain until his death in November 1975. He was a dictator and until his death there was no investigation of the bombing. When asked, they had to say the planes bombed Gernika… but it was Franco who directed the planes to bomb Gernika.

Hard Peace
The peace museum is an attempt to examine peace, the hard peace. The kind that requires forgiveness. The kind that requires living with neighbours who were on the other side of the civil war. Some people who were Nationalist supporters knew there would be some kind of action in Gernika that day so they left the town. I cannot imagine being able to forgive that and lucky for me I don’t have to. But it inspires me to do my own forgiving, for my own version of civil war. I am inspired to know peace as more than a quiet seat by the river bank, or a meditation alone on a cushion. I am inspired to do my own peace work.

At the Peace Museum in Gernika there’s a informational handout in English. In it there’s a list titled, The Tools Used to Bring Peace. Among the tools are, Honouring Fellow Human Beings, Listening to Different Opinions, Admitting our Mistakes, Looking to the Future.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” -Unknown (from the handout)

Long drive, beautiful view

April 19, 2023April 18, 2023 | Mairead

First stop in Spain – Getaria on the north coast. If you compare yesterday’s map with today’s above you might notice we travelled a lot. It took us ten hours – not ideal. On top of that the last hour was on winding roads. I don’t think anyone, including the anyone trying to get home but stuck behind an Irish motorhome, was happy with that. And then we arrived in this beautiful place.

Well, isn’t this nice… Getaria, north coast of Spain

It was 8.45pm but still bright and our parking spot had a view of the sea. Plus parking was free after 8pm, so maybe everything that happened on this day was in fact ideal. It took a lot of manoeuvring to get parked but eventually we nestled in beside – but not touching – a tree.

Can you see Ruby? Extreme left under the tree?

For a long time Denis has wanted a way to ensure our communication was effective… not all the time just when we arrive at a parking spot that requires two of the us to park safely. And he purchased a set of walkie-talkies. As a child I dreamed of having a walkie-talkie set but it was never to be. Now I have a half share in a set of blue ones. Be careful what you wish for.

Arriving at Getaria would be their inaugural outing. I had received the training in their usage ten hours earlier from Denis and it seemed straightforward. What could possibly go wrong? Ten hours of driving. It can test a person.

Narrow streets but not too narrow for a car!

I was tired and the adrenaline was making me a little shaky since the winding road but apart from my tendency to let go of the talk button when I thought the van was going to hit something (the precise moment you really need to be pressing the talk button and shouting STOP!) they worked grand. I’m wondering if they would be any use during a heated argument? If you have any ideas please let me know.

As soon as the van was tucked in we went for a walk into the town of narrow streets and expensive restaurants. It was too late for us to eat dinner and a little early for the Spanish so for the third night in a row we had what was left in our fridge, yum…

Next morning we awoke to the sun shining and the waves crashing. What a beautiful view to wake up to! Next stop Gernika-Lumo, you might want to look that up because it’s a difficult one but I really want to write about it because it’s a place where peace gets real…

Are we there yet?

April 18, 2023April 17, 2023 | Mairead

It’s been four days since we left Ireland and already we’re in Spain. Surprise! Well, it certainly is a surprise to us but also we were possibly a little too ambitious… Neither of us is feeling full of joys. It turns out inner joy is the secret requirement for a life lived so close to each other. But sure, here we are.

Driving from Saint Mère Èglise to just south of Cholet

Before I tell you about this beautiful spot we found just over the border on the north coast of Spain I want to tell you about our last night in France. We were in the most peaceful place just south of the city of Cholet (see map above). I think it must be a busy camping/fishing place during high season but for now we were alone.

The sun was shining as we left the motorway and drove along progressively narrower and narrower roads until we arrived at a closed barrier with a French handwritten sign. Using Google Translate (you can take a picture of handwriting and it will do it’s best to read and translate) we worked out we had to go back to the house with the green shutters to get access. I walked back and the bell was answered by a woman. Bonjour Madam, camping car ce soir?

See the water running through/under the house?

Somehow we worked out that she would follow me back to the barrier but in the meantime a very French man (her husband, possibly) arrived in his little white van. Bonjour Monsieur. I wish I could have taken a picture of him but I thought that might be too rude, how do you politely say, you look so French can I take a picture of you? How would you feel if I said, you look so Irish I would like to take a picture of you? Maybe he wasn’t even French? It was his black beret hat and his little white van that got me… but I didn’t ask.

Monsieur led the way into our home for the night. An old stone house (might be the bar and reception during the summer?) sat at the end of the driveway. There was a river running through the house and around it. Yes, through… There was also an outside toilet, electricity point, an outside sink for washing dishes and a hose to fill our tank. Plus a huge dose of all the peace and quiet you could ask for… which is starting to feel like the theme for this trip.

When Monsieur left someone else arrived – a little yellow bird who fell in love with the little yellow bird in our side mirror. And the sun shone until bedtime. We had another leftovers dinner and slept soundly until morning when yellow bird came back to continue his courting.