August Road Trip to Northern Spain & Portugal

Just like in 2022, we decided to leave Tavira for several weeks during August to avoid the heat (which worked out well because we avoided a small heat wave) and the many tourists.  This year we chose to go to Galicia, a region of northern Spain which is directly north of Portugal, and the Portuguese city of Porto.  Of course, since we drove, we were able to take Ryder with us.

Vigo, Spain

We chose Galician towns to visit primarily based on their proximity to a dog-friendly beach.  Unlike Portugal, Spain has a network of dog beaches which allow dogs off-lead all year round.  Our AirBNB was just on the edge of the city limits of Vigo (a city of over 200,000 people) but within a five-minute drive of a dog beach.

Santiago de Compostela

About an hour drive north of Vigo is the town of Santiago de Compostela, which is world famous for its cathedral -- where the remains of St. James the Great, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, are believed to be held -- and for the many pilgrims who from all directions have made their treks or "caminos" since the 9th century.  

Ares, Spain

After one week in Vigo, we continued north to the province of A Coruña and the small town of Ares.  In this case, there were two dog beaches within close proximity to our AirBNB, one in Ares and one in nearby Cabanas.  We determined that the one in Cabanas was the much nicer of the two, with the dog beach simply being part of the regular people beach and with lots of restaurants and shops nearby.  

The Ares dog beach wasn't that great, but it did have a nice dog statue

Cathedrals Beach

A little over a one-hour drive away from Ares was Cathedrals Beach (Praia das Catedrais).  The beach has a variety of natural arches and caves which can only be viewed at low tide.  Admission tickets were required, and for safety reasons, people were only allowed on the beach for two hours on either side of low tide.  

The bagpipes in this video are due to Galicia originally being populated by Celts.  In fact, the name of Galicia was derived from the name of this Celtic complex. The "Gallaeci" were originally a Celtic people who for centuries had occupied the territory of modern Galicia and northern Portugal.

The Food of Galicia

The Galician food was wonderful, just a little different and a nice break from Portuguese cuisine.  Lots of fresh seafood, grilled meats, and great Spanish wines and sangria.  

Back to Portugal: Porto

After two weeks in Spain, we made our way south to spend a few final nights back in Portugal, in the city of Porto.  Mark visited Porto back in 2019 during his first visit to the country.  But when it became apparent that the city was not a candidate to be our Portuguese home base (too wet and cold in the winter), we haven't been back since.

Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, and it has a rich history much of which is tied to port wine.  Traders would bring Portuguese wine from the Douro Valley (about 50-100 miles east), down the Douro River, and ultimately to processing facilities (with names like Taylor's Graham's, and Sandeman) located on the south shore of the Douro, in the Porto suburb of Vila Nova de Gaia.  Much of the finished port wine would then be sent on to England and beyond.

We had Ryder with us for most of our walking tour of Porto, and the city was quite crowded with tourists.  So we decided to do a quick (mostly outside) tour of the major sites, with the idea that we would come back to visit another time.  Porto is an easy 5-6 hour train ride from the Algarve.  

The São Bento train station has extensive "azulejos" or ceramic tiles.

The Yeatman Gastronomic Restaurant

Another reason to come to Porto was to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary.  We decided to dine at the two-star Michelin restaurant at the Yeatman Hotel, just over the river in Vila Nova de Gaia.  It was a lovely setting and a wonderful meal.

We started with champagne and small bites in the bar before being shown into the kitchen.  

​Then to our table which had a great view of the Douro River and the city of Porto.

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We had a great time on our August road trip.  We are already thinking about where we will go next August.  Ryder is, too!