An Epicurean Odyssey: Galicia part I (incl A Coruña)

By just about any metric Galicia is the most remote region of Spain. It occupies pretty much all the land between the northern border of Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean and is far from the peninsular connection to continental Europe. Like most of Spain, Galician culture represents an intermingling of the original Celtic people who colonized the Iberian peninsula and the Romans who conquered them in the second century B.C. The region was further molded in subsequent centuries by occupations by Germanic tribes, Visigoths, and Moors. The local language, Gallego, bears so many similarities to Portuguese that many linguists question whether it is a Spanish or a Portuguese dialect. Aside from all these unique features, Galicia is the most oceanic of all of Spain's regions and has a cuisine dominated by shellfish and mollusks. Galicia's remoteness, mysteriousness, and reputation for delicious seafood have drawn me to the region ever since I became seriously interested in traveling and I was very excited to finally have the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity.

Despite my fascination with Galicia I had never heard of As Catedrais Beach before I did my advance research for the trip. It was clear it would be a shame to travel all the way to Galicia and miss this unique natural phenomenon. Before going it is important to be aware only 5000 people per day are allowed to visit the beach and permission can be obtained up to thirty days in advance. Much of the beach including the cathedral arch rock formations that give the beach its name can only be accessed during low tide. Advance authorization and tide times are available here.

When I planned our visit, I pictured our family strolling along the windy, rocky coast of Galicia passing through the stone arches in a tableau of solitary beauty. As happens quite often with travel, the reality turned out to be quite different. We arrived at a very congested parking area and it took a half hour to get through the queues of cars and wedge ourselves into a narrow space between two RV's. The views from the boardwalk to the west of the beach were quite pretty, but once we arrived at the entrance to the beach we realized that 5000 people is actually a very large number especially if they all show up at the same time of the day.

Once we got down to the sand I didn't know which direction to go to see the cathedral arches. We walked several minutes in each direction and couldn't find anything, and then started asking people none of whom seemed to have any clue what I was talking about. I had to clamber all the way back up the stairs to the person checking tickets to learn that the arches are all the way at the far eastern end of the beach. Once the kids were on the beach all they wanted to do was play in the sand and they couldn't understand why I kept making us walk further and further down the shoreline.

The walk to the arches ended up being a half kilometer hike requiring traversal of large rocks and navigation of several pools. The obstacles hadn't deterred several hundred other beachgoers who were busily filling their Instagram pages with cathedral arch selfies. Besides the arches there were several interesting caves and crevasses in the rock. It was quite a beautiful place even if it wasn't the idyllic, romantic natural tableau I had envisioned.

By the time we had changed the kids and shaken off the sand we were already exhausted. It was just late afternoon but we'd already toured old Oviedo, explored Cudillero, and hiked the whole length of Cathedral Beach. Nevertheless I was reluctant to give up my last stop on the day's itinerary. Mondoñedo is a small town on the inland route to A Coruña that has a reputation of being especially pretty and typical of Galician culture. When we arrived on Sunday evening there were very few people in the streets but a surprising amount of traffic on the main thoroughfare. There was an impressive cathedral for such a small town and some lonely, atmospheric streets. The obligatory stop in Mondoñedo is at O Rei das Tartas to buy the eponymous tart made from pumpkin jam, chopped almonds, and candied fruit.

Thanks to the stop in Mondoñedo we got into A Coruña very late. Despite a dark staircase with peeling paint and remarkably large spiders on the walls, the Airbnb was quite pleasant on the inside. Hardly any restaurants seemed to be open on Sunday night and we ended up at a Chinese place downtown. I was a little disappointed to begin our experience of Galician cuisine with generic Chinese food but given the hour and lack of options we had to prioritize sustenance over cultural exploration.

Thanks to our late arrival we only had the morning to see A Coruña. Our first stop was the municipal market to see the amazing tableau of seafood I had been anticipating from the beginning of the trip. What we found was ... nothing. The market was open but the seafood counters were completely empty and abandoned on Monday morning. No one goes fishing on Sundays. A few butcher and produce stalls were open but it was such a shadow of what we had hoped for that we immediately retreated to the car and headed for the old town.

A Coruña is an oddly shaped city that resembles a polyp sticking out into the Atlantic at the northwestern corner of Spain. On the northern side of the stalk of the polyp is the beach and on the sheltered southern side is the port. Between the two lies the old town with most of A Coruña's tourist attractions. The main exception is the Tower of Hercules, a restored Roman lighthouse at the northern end of the peninsula.

An architectural touch that A Coruña is known for is the enclosed balconies that cover the facades of the townhouses that line the port area. These galerias were designed to protect the balconies from the cold Atlantic winds and quickly became popular in the modernist period of the late 19th century.

The centerpiece of the old town is Praza de María Pita, a large open square fronted by A Coruña's enormous town hall. In the smaller streets around the square we found a good seafood restaurant to assuage the pain of having missed the covered market. Afterwards we viewed the ornate Iglesia de San Jorge in its baroque splendor.

Before leaving A Coruña we drove to the Tower of Hercules. This structure is often described as a Roman lighthouse and the oldest operational lighthouse in the world, but it has been rebuilt several times and the current structure is only a couple of hundred years old. The tower is so pristine now it looks like it could have been constructed yesterday, and it certainly has little in common with other Roman remnants in Europe and the Middle East. Towards the shoreline is an enormous blue mosaic compass that represents the different directions of the world in which the Celtic peoples have migrated. It was amazing to watch the kids playing on this isolated spot at the edge of one of the most treacherous shorelines in the Atlantic.

We hadn't rushed ourselves in A Coruña and now we were facing a stark choice. We could either spend the afternoon visiting fishing villages in the jagged coastal area around A Coruña, or we could venture back inland to the walled city of Lugo. In the end the thought of Lugo's perfectly preserved Roman walls was too much to resist. We jumped back in the car and set a course southeast.