Porto Do Barquiero

From now on in until we reach the Pyrenees next week we are winging it. Both metaphorically and sort of literally. We chose to stay a couple of nights in the small fishing village of Porto Do Barquiero after I took myself off on a little reconnaissance flight along the north west coast of Galicia. I swooped down on a few likely looking pueblos on the coast looking for accommodation and a few nice restaurants and bars. In this village I found a perfectly placed pension on the harbour front-it's the red one just left of centre. I gave them a call and booked two nights.

(I should add that I took this flight, quite virtually, from the comfort of our hotel in Santiago De Compostela using Google Earth and street view. Google Earth must be one of the best pieces of free software ever produced and I cannot understand why it comes in for so much criticism from privacy groups. It's an absolute must for travel planning).

We had a reasonable meal in the restaurant downstairs where we ate percebes for the first time. Percebes are snake-like goose barnacles that cling to rocks near heavy seas and they are a delicacy here in Galicia. They're harvested by hand in very dangerous sea conditions and are therefore very expensive. To be honest they tasted just like the whelks I used to pick for free back on the beach in Garelochhead where I grew up. The only danger involved in that was radioactive contamination from the nearby Faslane nuclear submarine base.