Cabo do Mundo 2

This Casa Rural has a lot going for it, if only the owners were in residence. I was relying on them being here to talk to me in English about the various local attractions (as reviewers on TripAdvisor had mentioned). Instead they had left a local woman, Esther, to attend to visitors. She was very excitable and spoke rapidly in Spanish, though she claimed to have been attending English lessons for a month! She didn’t know about using Google Translate and was attempting to communicate via Siri. She also comes and goes from her home in Chantada.

So I was alone overnight in my Wine Cellar room, looking out onto my view of the River Miño down below, until darkness fell at 9.30 pm. For dinner, I cooked myself a cheese omelette with bread and red wine. “I have dined well” as the pirates said in Bendinat, Majorca. I explored the house, left to my own devices. There was a bar with an honour system, full of various whiskeys and gins - you name it, it was there! But my bottle of Cabo do Mundo red was enough. There was also a lounge, with books in several languages and a better supply of Galician tourist brochures than had been available in the various tourist information offices I’d visited.

When I woke up at 7.00 am. There was a thick mist hanging over the tops. At 8.00 am I heard a church in the neighbourhood somewhere with Westminster chimes. It was 4 degrees outside; no wifi and no phone signal inside the bedroom!

Imagine my surprise when I went for breakfast and discovered a French family helping themselves to the buffet: mum, dad, little boy and grandparents. Mum had studied in Perth 20 years ago. Esther enlisted her help to translate for me. 

View from my room early today.

Cherries for breakfast from the tree in the garden.

This woman was spraying her veggie patch on the terrace below me.

Her little dog came to visit me.

Cabo da Mundo

This Casa Rural (Cabo do Mundo) is a long way from civilisation, but has an amazing view over the vineyard terraces and a meander of the River Miño, to the south of Chantada. But it is really too remote to do any good, even though it’s only 9 km from town. The road in is really narrow with hairpin bends, but fortunately there is absolutely no traffic on it!  Cabo do Mundo can be translated as End of the World!

A woman called Esther is looking after it in the absence of the owners and has departed leaving me a free run of the place, including the kitchen.  I can cook myself an omelette w. chorizo tonight. The room comes with a bottle of local wine. The fridge is full of goodies, which I can help myself to. She will return to make my breakfast at 9.00 am tomorrow morning. I am sitting on the terrace outside my room, enjoying the sun on my back. 

My room is called the Bodega Room.

It’s cut into the rock and was a wine cellar. But there is aircon if it gets cold!

The incredible view!

But wifi is non-existent.

More views of the house.


More info on the region here:

https://www.turismo.gal/que-facer/rutas-turisticas/ruta-da-ribeira-sacra?langId=en_US

Chantada

Chantada is a charming town, untouched by modern development. Houses have closed in balconies and  the streets have arcades of wood or stone going back centuries. Going down to the river, the winding streets are narrow and cobbled. The sun appeared in the late afternoon and families were out in force along the river walk.

Pub by the river

River walk

House of Lemos, which now houses the library and tourist information centre.

Typical coat of arms on the old houses.

..............................................................................................

Before leaving Chantada, I had another little walk down to the river and took a few photos of an old mill:

Looking back into town from the mill.

Belesar Dam, near Chantada

After leaving Diomondi, we drove a few more kilometres and started to see the dramatic scenery for which the Ribiera Sacra is known. An enormous dam came into view. Here is some info from Wikipedia for any engineers reading this:

This monumental reservoir is another of the great hydroelectric works that the Franco regime carried out and that covered with water large areas of valleys in Galicia and that today forms part of the landscape of the mythical Ribeira Sacra in this province.  It was built in 1963 on the largest river in Galicia, the Miño River.  The name of the reservoir is given by the parish that is 4 km downstream called  Belesar.

Weather still chilly and showery, so I didn’t want to stir far from my hotel. Imagine the good news: one of the top restaurants in town is right next door (A Faragulla) so without stepping outside I could dine well. The bad news: it’s a public holiday, so everybody will be here for a celebratory lunch with family and it will be choca! However they found me a table and an English speaking waiter (who had previously worked at the Wine Interpretation Cantre in Monforte). He looked after me and served me:

Cantabrian anchovies on toast

Baby goat.

This is him:

Monforte to Chantada

I seem to have lost track of the little blue train. The line has disappeared from the map and the Tourist Office knows little about it. So it’s road travel for today.

We had a lot of rain last night and early this morning, and there’s a very grey sky. Last night, there was constant hooting from cars in the street below. It’s a very narrow one-way street and the traffic seemed to be permanently snarled up. Photos in both directions:

I later discovered that it’s a Galician public holiday today, which explains everything - including why there are no buses running!

I was picked up at 10.00 am by my taxi driver and we were soon speeding along to Chantada. On the way, the plan was to visit the Romanesque Church of San Paio de Diomondi. This was off the main highway on a narrow winding country lane - a long way for even fit pilgrims to walk, which is what the guidebooks advise.

We passed a cheese factory and many plump cows enjoying the grass. I found the Church rather austere with its grey stone blocks, but the carvings were in good condition:

Side entrance - but everything closed!

Ruin next door: nobody is looking after this place.

Information from the Turismo Ribiera Sacra website: 

An inscription inside the tympanum of the main door shows the date of 1170. The earliest documentary sources refer to the 8th century and the bishop Odoario. Ferdinand II and Alfonso IX also benefited from donations and privileges to the monastery, being confirmed by Popes as Alejandro III and Lucio III. Now it depends on the bishopric of Lugo and serves as parish church, after being restored to the bishopric on one occasion by King Fernando III in 1231. The early 13th century is the date when it was finished.

Architecturally, it follows the model of apse, with a semicircular head preceded a straight stretch, with triple arch which connects with the single nave.

According to some authors, it reminds us silverware workshops of the Cathedral of Santiago of Compostela.

Three windows at medium altitude with arched columns light up the nave. In the apse also three windows illuminate the interior, though there are only semicircular arches and windows, both inside and outside.

In the beginning, it was intended to build a vault in the nave, although it was not made in the end and it has a wooden roof supported by pointed arches, resting on a few curious capitals of the Romanesque of the moment. The interior windows have simple decoration. In the nave, those on the north side have been blinded by the annexation of the building of the former Episcopal Palace used until the time of Bishop Aguirre in the nineteenth century as a summer residence. Inside semicircular arches decorated with trim were probably intended to accommodate graves that were never carried out.

In terms of decoration, chess impost is in several parts of the building reinterpreted both inside and outside. There are especially looked after north and south doors on the sides, and the main one is divided into three openings and has blind sides.

At the front door, we can see a large archivolt of four arches carved into torus and half round columns with groups of small balls The outer archivolt has chess decoration. The columns on which the archivolts rest are from local marble. The capitals are symmetrically paired decorated: centaurs, quadrupeds, birds and dogs. This symmetry is broken here, since one capital on one side has a human head. Centaurs remain us once again the silverware workshops. The quoins of the door also show animals, perhaps wolves or threatening dogs.

The side doors also show a delicate decoration. The north one can be seen only from the inside, and presents a fine chess decoration that is repeated throughout the entire church, as well as two heads of dogs in the quoins. The south gate is also decorated with chess motifs inside, and has a tympanum with a double row of blind arches outside. Symmetry surprises us again in the quoins, but in this case with two finely carved oxen.

The church is dedicated to San Paio, also known as Pelagius or Pelayo, a martyr of the 9th century who was beheaded in Cordoba by order of Abd al-Rahman. Of Galician origin, his relics are venerated in Cordoba. He is usually represented as a teenager due to his youth looking at death and holding a palm of martyrdom.

It still remains in the collective memory the summer resort of the different bishops of Lugo. In order to do so, a palace was built and attached to the Romanesque building. A recent collapse in this palace ruined the 15th-century facade and shows possible Roman remains.

In the surroundings of the church we find important references of traditional Galician architecture as a pigeon house in the garden of the palace, a laundry and an oven. Nearby there is a nice set of hórreos (typical Galician granaries). We must not forget that the church is very close to the passing of the Winter Way to Santiago, where the descent by Belesar begins to later cross the river Miño in the village.

Ribiera Sacra Wine

Next on my agenda today: the Wine Interpretation Centre: a thoroughly modern exposition of the importance of wine in this area. It is built on the site of an old hospital. Wine produced here has only became well known in recent years, because the small wineries only produced what could be drunk locally. They finally joined together into a co-operative and adopted the name Ribeira Sacra, meaning “Sacred Riverbank” as a marketing ploy. A bit like Margaret River, I suppose. However, they have a huge disadvantage in that the vines are all grown on steeply sloping terraces so that there is no way for production to be mechanised.

Courtyard of old hospital.

Grapes of this region.

A “river” of white wine bottles.

Time for a taste with my very knowledgeable guide.

Can’t buy any, though! Can’t carry it.

Poster of wine labels.

On my way back to my hotel, I stopped to take a photo of the “Roman Bridge”, really a medieval structure but retaining an original name:

After this, I was suddenly pounced upon by a Spanish woman, Aida Menendez, the author of the official guidebook to the Camino Invierno. She lives in Monforte and appears to prowl the streets looking for pilgrims! She was very excited to find one from Australia and I was excited to meet her. I recognised her immediately from her photo in the guidebook. She then accosted two passersby and got them to take our photo:

Nice colour co-ordination!

Monforte de Lemos

For dinner last (a very hot night), I walked down to La Fabrica, the no.2 restaurant on Trip Advisor. No-one spoke English so I took a while translating the menu on Google T. In the end I chose a tomatoes and goats cheese salad, followed by grilled octopus. I also had a glass of local white wine called Godello.

As the portions were large, I asked for a doggy bag and it’s now in my minibar for consumption today.

Today, Thursday, there has been a dramatic change in the weather. It was completely overcast and only 14 degrees at lunchtime. I took a taxi up the hill to the Parador, built on the site of a monastery and stronghold of the Counts of Lemos. The Parador is a neo classical building and not to my taste.

Parador on the right.

Inside the Parador, looking towards the cloister.

View from the Parador, looking down towards Monforte.

Ponferrada to Monforte de Lemos

So I am now the Michael Portillo of Galicia! (Why doesn’t he make some more Spanish railway programmes, since he is half Spanish?)

I travelled on the little blue tourist train for 2 hours, running about 10 minutes late. We left just after 9.00 am. It was a really beautiful route, going along  rocky cuttings and a few tunnels through the mountains. The hillsides were covered in yellow flowering trees, (maybe mimosa, but couldn’t identify it properly from the train).  

The train made 11 stops, with the following places actually on the Camino Invierno:

Sobradelo

O Barco de Valdeorras

A Rua - Petin 

Montefurado

San Clodio - Quiorga

Monforte de Lemos.

There is also a faster afternoon train from Ponferrada to Vigo, with fewer stops.

The route between A Rua and Montefurado has really nice lake and river views, and before Quiroga the train waited a good 10 minutes to allow trains to pass in the opposite direction. Need to sit on the left side of the train for this part, in order to get the best photos!

View near O Barco

Near Vilamartín 

A Rua station

View of River Sil just after A Rua 

My luggage!


One or two weary hikers got on at some of the stops, apparently tired from yesterday’s heat. One fell asleep and missed all the views.

On arrival at Monforte they headed straight for the station bar, whilst I took a short taxi ride to my hotel, the Ribiera Sacra where I’m staying for two nights. Dropping off my backpack, I headed straight to Tourist Information and quizzed the young man for some time about various transport options. There is a bus out on most days, except the one day I want (Friday 17th), so I may resort to a taxi then.

Next door to the TI was a lovely tapas bar so I indulged for a small lunch:

Glass of draft cider

Russian Salad and Rabbit Legs (behind).
Cost: €3.60 altogether.

Later, I found 2 Lindt chocs in the minibar of my hotel. It would have been rude to leave them there!