I hope you all had a good entry into the year 2022.
MANY YEARS AGO
As I have been getting older, I have been changing my tastes in terms of enjoying our free time with friends. I remember years ago, one of the most important moments in terms of partying with my friends was New Year's Eve. I remember huge parties, staying up all night, drinking large amounts of alcohol and a nasty hangover on January 1st.
PRESENT TIME
NEW YEAR`S COFFEE
At present and since about 6 years ago it is a tradition for me to get up early on January 1st and one of the first things I usually do is to go to my favorite coffee shop and have the first coffee of the year with total tranquility because that day many people are usually still going to bed from the New Year's Eve celebration.
After this first coffee, because I was a little hungry, I ordered a toast with strawberry jam. Although this time I did not make this picture and not to saturate the depleted memory of my phone I chose not to take the picture and therefore I use this picture of a few days ago.
A WALK THROUGH THE VILLAGE
After drinking this coffee, I returned to my house and then I went for a walk through the village. It is nice to enjoy the nature with the only sound of the birds singing because there were no cars on the nearby roads.
AN APPOINTMENT WITH TRADITION
For the last 5 years, except in the year 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on January 1st we have been having lunch in one of the restaurants in the western area of Asturias or Ribadeo (Galicia) with my best friend Eduardo.
As last year we had met for lunch on January 1st in Asturias, it was my turn to go to Ribadeo which is the town where he lives and this time we were accompanied by his son.
Since I arrived in Ribadeo around 12:00 in the morning and it was still early for lunch, we met at the bar La Bugalla for an aperitif consisting of a vermouth and a tortilla tapa.
During this aperitif, we talked about what we had done in recent years, how we had spent New Year's Eve with the family and also talked about where to go for lunch in Ribadeo something different than meat or tapas. So, Eduardo came up with the idea of calling the restaurant La Cofradia de Rinlo, which is located in the village of Rinlo, 5 kilometers from Ribadeo, and placing an order for a rice dish with lobster for three people.
The restaurant La CofradÃa de Rinlo, is for me one of the best restaurants I know to eat rice with lobster in the north of Spain and the most striking thing is that it is located in a small village of just 300 people with a very close link to the shellfishing of spider crabs, lobsters and barnacles.
Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were quickly attended to. A key issue of the rice broth that we had ordered is that one must arrive at the exact time agreed with the restaurant, so that in this way they cook it just the right time and it does not cool before time and thus get a better quality of this tasty dish.
As you can see in the photos, unlike other rice dishes that can be enjoyed in Spain, this type of rice is cooked with a fish and seafood broth without letting it reduce its broth completely. In turn, the rice is very well accompanied with two lobsters, several prawns and some clams that give this dish a sublime flavor that I am unable to describe in words.
In turn, as you can see in the following photos, the seafood used in this restaurant is alive until the moment of its use in the kitchen, as they have a small ketaria where lobsters and lobsters live on one side, crab on the other, crayfish in the upper part and also crabs in another part of the cetaria. Quite an attraction when you go to this restaurant with small children who gawk at these crustaceans in the ketarea.
As the food was abundant for three people, one of them being my friend's son, it was difficult for us to finish the paella of rice and we had no choice but to ask for a lunch box to take the leftover rice home and we even refused to order dessert.
A VISIT TO THE PORT OF RINLO
After lunch, we took a short walk through the village of Rinlo and went to the dock of the port of Rinlo, where I had parked my car. From there I took some pictures of the village and also of some beautiful murals that are in a hut in honor of the women barnacle pickers.
However, we could not enjoy a more extensive visit of Rinlo on January 1st because my friend's son wanted to go home. So we returned to Ribadeo and after leaving him at home his father and I went to the beach of the Cathedrals which are 8 kilometers from Ribadeo to take a walk and take some pictures.
BEACH OF THE CATHEDRALS
The beach of the cathedrals is the most visited beach in Galicia. In summer time it is even necessary to reserve a place to be able to go to this beach. The great interest of this beach lies in the fabulous vaults, arches and caves that have formed on this beach by the action of sea erosion.
Along the length of the beach one can find an area dominated by tufts of rock separated from the cliff because the stone arches have been completely eroded.
Another area where you can see arches, but where access is complicated without getting wet because they are very close to the sea, even at low tide.
And another area which is the most spectacular where you can see a succession of arches formed by erosion, but which can only be accessed at low tide and with great caution, because even a strong wave at low tide can come with force and reach up to the knee as happened to me.
For this reason, after finding my shoes and pants completely wet, with only 10 degrees Celsius temperature and that the day before I was still limping from a flu process, we decided to abort the step completely and return each one to his home.
Because for me it was a short visit to such a beautiful place as the beach of Las Catedrales, today I have returned to Rinlo and I have been driving along the coastline to the beach of Las Catedrales again in order to make a more extensive article of this beautiful area of the coast of Galicia.
I hope you liked my Sunday January 1, 2023.
Best regards
