A natural return from the south of Galicia is to drive the coastal road towards Bayona, and enjoy dinner in any of their taverns.
I also learned something I was totally unaware of: one of the vessels that “discovered” America, La Pinta, ended up in Bayona. So, Bayona citizens in the late 15th century were the first ones in getting news of the new discovery. Apart from that, Bayona is one of the top summer destinations in the area, with two really nice areas to be explored.
First, the Castle of Monterreal, now hosting a Parador Nacional, which is a fortress governing the town, and with a clear strategic importance in the old time, to defend the town from the different attacks, including pirates as Francis Drake.
The old town is also worth a visit, as the many taverns concentrated in just a few hundreds of meters create a very lively atmosphere, which warms your visit, literally.
Miño river is the natural border between the north of Portugal and Spain, and is a perfect daytrip if you are in the Rias Baixas.
We started in Tui, a medieval town with an important cathedral, part of the Jacob’s way, and just in front of a major fortress on the Portuguese side: Valença do Minho, which can be reached by crossing the Tui International Bridge. I personally did not like Tui a lot, but the views from Valença do Minho and its fortress did make my day (although the too touristic feeling with the streets full of shops trying to sell literally anything was not that fun).
After that, we headed to La Guardia, which is right in the Miño’s mouth, on the Spanish side. Apart from enjoying lunch in a nice place we found by chance, we climbed to Santa Tecla Hill (with the car), with breathtaking views of the area from the top, and totally worth stop by the ruins of the Celtic settlement on the way up.
The last summer holidays in 2012 brought me to discover the Rias Baixas in Galicia, in the north west corner of Spain. They are at a quite convenient distance from Madrid (550 km), but too far from Alicante (950 km). Hence, I am not familiar with the area, and I have become a new fan of the area.
We devoted a day to go to the Cies Islands, which are a group of islands near Vigo, nature reserve, and therefore the number of visitors per day is limited to only 2000 people. Tickets shall be booked some time in advance to make sure you can make it in the ferries. When you arrive to the islands, the clear water and long beaches of fine sand make you thing you are in the Caribbean (if you are lucky and get some sun, of course), but you will come back to reality if you dare to touch the extremely cold water.
The islands have a nice hiking trail to the different corners of it, and the sights are impressive, and really enjoyable.
Together with Formentera, it is one of those places that we should not let the rest of the world know of its existence, and keep for ourselves, or they will get too crowded…
Some times, getting lost and relaxing for a couple of days enjoying good food and people is the best way to keep on moving. It does not matter if it is going to the beautiful green Asturias, or to the inner La Mancha.
After Los Angeles, we had a 2-day drive north to San Francisco through the Highway 1, which is the Coast Highway. We started the journey with a small incident, as we got a flat tyre when trying to leave one of the beaches in Los Angeles. Anyway, we just “lost” a couple of hours as we had to get a new car in the airport. In our way north, we stopped in the Malibu wharf, and in Santa Barbara, a nice town, with also an impressive wharf, being the oldest in this coast. We stayed in San Luis Obispo, a student city very well located, and less expensive than the coast towns.
The sixth day started in Morro Bay, a small fishing town, with a volcanic cone in its bay, and with a long tradition of surfing. We continued following again the Highway 1 north, enjoying the amazing oceanic coast, with a beach home of a couple of hundreds sea lions who go there to breed and change their skins. To make it (even) more interesting, the coast at this part became hillier, and there are a couple of viewpoints worth to stop and enjoy. Our next stop was Santa Cruz, famous for surfers clothes, but whose main attraction is the Boardwalk, which is an amusement park on the seaside.
And we finally arrived to San Francisco, and we started with the very basics and essential: the Golden Gate bridge. I had the impression it is far apart from San Francisco downtown, which was correct, but we were lucky to be staying next to it and we could see it several times. Well, “seeing” might be too optimistic, as we only saw it partially covered by the fog one day, and fully covered the day after. The locals say summer is the worst time of the year to visit SF as it becomes quite chillier and the fog is more frequent. Crossing the bridge by bike is one of those musts San Francisco has, and combining it with having lunch in Sausalito (one of the best burgers place according to local recommendations is there) and taking the ferry back to downtown makes a great roundtrip, and gives you the chance of seeing Alcatraz from a closer distance.
But San Francisco is not only about the bridge, it is also about the skyscrapers in downtown, and the hundreds of hills in all directions which makes you confused about where you are heading to, and which are also quite fun to drive up or down (a bit tough to walk, though!). San Francisco is also close to the well known Silicon Valley, home of most of the new Internet and technology companies, like Google, or Apple, and we also payed a geeky visit there.
I fully recommend to visit this area, and if possible, make even a longer trip to either visit more things (nature is all around, vineyards too) or enjoy more the coast towns, where life passes by slowlier than in the big cities.
