29 September 2022 - Poio, Pontevedra & Baiona

Miles driven today = 64

Total Miles to date = 1,802

I'm not sure what time it started raining this morning.  Probably sometime between 3 and 4am.  To quote Lisa "a cacophony of elephants dancing on our roof" for several hours, so we've been a bit tired today.

We were heading for Pontevedre this morning but I spotted something in the Rough Guide which piqued my interest, so we stopped off en-route at the monastery at Poio.  Externally it was an austere looking building and when we found the visitors entrance locked we nearly walked away, but we rang a bell and were greeted by a gentleman who relieved us of €5 and pointed us in the direction of the cloisters.

The cloisters were completed in 1600 and built in Renaissance style, says the English translated info board.

The central baroque fountain is fed by stone piping from a hill 2km away.  There are also 3 sundials on the facing wall.

At the end of the first side of the cloisters was the entrance to the main Church with its grandiose knave.

On the floor of the church are 300 numbered stone slabs.  These actually mark the graves of 200 adults and 100 children as the church itself doubled up as the parish cemetery until as recently as 1883.

I loved this representation of purgatory inside the church.

The monastery is home to a mosaic illustration of the Camino de Santiago, showing the various major ports of call for the pilgrims travelling the route all the way from Paris.

The complete work is 80 metres long in total. It was designed by the Czech artist Antoine Machourek and was completed in situ between 1989 an 1992.  It contains a million individual pieces of stone.

We didn't think our visit to the monastery would be anything but brief but there was so much to see.  From contemporary religious art to iconography and historical documents.

This illustrated text dates from 1353!

Outside there was a 32 metre long example of the Galician grain stores or "Horreos".

On to Pontevedre, where there is a free motorhome aire with space for 20 vehicles.  The most recent review on Park4night, written just 2 days ago stated that it was oversubscribed and we should get there before noon to bag a spot.  Sure enough we got there bang on midday and there was one free space next to the service point, so we made it ours.

First stop, the market.  Much the same as yesterday's affair but much, much bigger.  So much seafood!

There was other stuff as well of course but I do love my fish.  We popped in again on the way back to the van and bagged ourselves a big super-fresh bream.

So then we went for a bit of a wander round the old town.  It felt a little like a bite-sized Santiago at times but also a lot more run down in places.  We were all done with our wanderings in about an hour but here are a few of the highlights.

So it was now going on 3 of the clock and we had a decision to make.  Do we stay here in a potentially noisy town, next to a smelly service point, or do we push on.  We decided on the latter.  We have a couple more places pencilled in to visit before we cross the Portuguese border so we got back on the road, circumnavigated the major port city of Vigo and ended up here at a dedicated parking area 2km outside of the attractive little town of Baiona.  We are only a short distance from the main coast road but we are even closer to the rocky shoreline so all we can hear from inside the van are the wind and the waves.  

We were the only van here when we arrived but 5 others have turned up since and have all parked nose to the sea so we are probably being sworn about behind closed blinds as view hoggers but there is still tons of space so we don't feel that guilty.

The bikes got an airing earlier and we pedalled down into the town.  

The Castilo de Monterreal is the main attraction here.  It basically encircles the rocky headland, although a big chunk now is given over to a posh hotel.  Here's a couple more photos taken whilst cycling around and walking the walls.

Also, in the marina, is a full scale replica of La Pinta, one of the 3 ships which sailed on Christopher Columbus' voyage of discovery and which is reckoned to be the first to have sighted land in the New World.  It's barely any bigger than some of the posh yachts moored up nearby.

We pedalled back and had our tea.  Not the bream as there are no bins here and fishy remains do not good van mates make.  As I waited for the water to heat up for dish washing duties a young lady appeared with a violin case and two chaps with cameras.  Odd!  Turns out they were here for a photo shoot in the light of the setting sun and with the Cies Islands for a backdrop - right outside our van window.

30 September 2022 - A Guarda, and relax...

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