As a delayed birthday present (due to Covid restrictions, of course), this weekend we finally went to a casa rural. The morning of our fieldtrip was spent in Betanzos, but that's a post for another day.Right in time for a sesta we arrived for check-in at the casa rural. A typical and refurbished Galician countryside home, it was spacious and made of stone with wood accents. We chose to stay on the first floor, in what used to be the kitchen. It still had the stone counter/basin for washing dishes. Upstairs there were five other bedrooms, as well as little nooks and a balcony. And being springtime, a few of the trees in the yard were in bloom. Lovely!
Dinner and breakfast were served in the large, open living/dining room. The indirect lighting paired with the light wood ceiling and beams gave it a chalet/lodge vibe. Because of Covid restrictions, all the couples were at their own table, spread apart. We got to sit closest to the behemoth fire place. Despite the sunshine in April, in the stone house it was still a bit chilly! The fireplace had benches around it, but not much fire going. Dinner itself was very tasty. We savored the food knowing it was homegrown: lettuce from the garden in the salad, beef from the farm's cows, and soup from the garden greens. Similarly, breakfast was bountiful and homemade. Butter from the cows, homemade jams and jellies, honey from the area. We loaded up on toast, juice, and milk to keep us going on our hike.
Right be for noon on Sunday, we embarked on a 7 km hike through Fragas do Eume Park. Fragas do Eume is one of the best-conserved forests on the Atlantic coast.
I'd been there before but hadn't exactly gone hiking. This was a circular route that went high and low. We started walking through pine trees, then through open fields with views of the Eume River in the distance below. At first we saw a lone cow grazing about 20 feet from the trail. Less than half an hour later, there were a dozen cows! They were interspersed between the trail and the grass, accompanied by their calves/teenage cows. How exciting! They're not wild cows, but belong to someone who lets them graze yearlong. At one point we passed a shack with hay for them. The landscape changed a bit as we walked downhill through a forest of birch, chestnut, and oak trees. As we continued out from between the trees, we were exposed to the sun and wind. As well as some more great views of the river! I thought that we had arrived to a
miradoiro (look out). But in fact, that was still further uphill, past an abandoned house and tons and tons of blooming
toxos (apparently called gorse, but I've never heard of it outside Galicia). That
miradoiro was even better: the river below, the green and yellow (from the
toxos) hills and valleys as far as the eye could see.
Once we arrived back to the car, we dug into some empanada, apparently from one of the oldest bakeries in Spain. On our way home, we passed by one of two monasteries within the Fragas do Eume Park. On my last visit there, we saw the monastery of Caaveiro, and this time it was Monfero's turn. Monfero's monastery looks surprisingly modern. I imagine it's because the majority of Galicia's old buildings are Romanesque and this was Baroque. Granted, as with many Galician treasures, half of it is overgrown and completely uncared for. The only decent part is the church with its checkered façade. The monastery itself is half collapsed, half buried under brush. As I said, unfortunately this neglect is nothing new here in Galicia.
