Hi Hivers, and members of THE WEEKEND community, I hope this weekend is a pleasant one for you.
When I saw this week's Weekend-engagement post and that one of the option is to post about a weekend you'd rather forget. I was reminded of an experience I had many years ago, I can't say it was the worst weekend of my life because except for the camping incident I'll tell you about, the weekend was great. But I would love to forget that I once spent a night in the quietest camp in Spain, or at least, it's what they claimed to be. And the truth is I don't have many doubts about that.
This happened in the summer of 2010. My sister in law has been living in Galicia for many years, in Santiago de Compostela. And that summer we had traveled from Venezuela to spend the summer with her and her family. My son at that time was 6 years old and my nephews 3 and 8 years old.
One weekend my sister in law and her husband proposed to visit Cathedrals beach in the north of Galicia. The plan was awesome, but the problem was they proposed us to stay in a tent in a campsite. The idea didn't excite me at all, I had camped a few times in Venezuela, on the beach and in the mountains and had had a great time. But being on vacation in Spain what I wanted was a nice inn where I could rest well and regain strength to see all the places I could. But everyone was enthusiastic about the camping idea except me, so I ended up giving in.
My brother-in-law did his research and one Friday afternoon in a green Mini we rented and in my brother-in-law's car we left for the north of Galicia.
On the road, Galicia, Spain 2010 Suddenly and as often happens in Galicia when we had already traveled several kilometers but we still had some to arrive began to rain heavily and it was near dusk so my brother in law suggested that we leave the camping for the next day and spend the night in the closest town. We arrived to Mondoñedo. It was so small town that the only hostel was the Seminar of the village, Seminario de Santa Catarina.
The parish priest who attended warned us that we had to control the children because it was forbidden to make noise and disturb the seminarians in their prayers. So you can understand that it was quite a challenging task to keep in line the three little boys who wanted to run through the wide corridors of the seminary. But getting them to stay quiet and behave there was nothing compared to what came next.
The next morning we visit Cathedrals beach, one of the most popular destinations in Galicia, and a amazing place to visit when the tides allow it. I can talk about my visit there in more detail on another occasion.
Cathedrals Beach - As Catedrais beach Then we went to the campsite my brother in law indicated to be the closest one. When we arrived at the reception, on the wall a big diploma of recognition of the quietest campsite in Spain was displayed. My alarms trigger on at this, but I preferred to keep quiet and not spoil the party. After checking in, we went to set up the tents in a plot where for my taste the tents were too close with each other. My experiences camping in my country were in huge areas and wild places in real contact with nature. But we set up the tents trying not to let the children make too much noise while they played around us.
Hubby setting up the tent After setting up the tents, we went to visit the city of Ribadeo and its surroundings, where we entertained ourselves until dark.
Los Santos Bridge Ribadeo We returned to the campsite around 9 pm to find that everything was already dark. As we could we got to our plots and got into the tents, the children were eager to play and my 3 year old nephew started to complain that he was bored louder and louder. So it wasn't even 5 minutes before a person came up to my sister in law tent telling them to shut the kid up or they would have to leave the campsite. I don't know how I managed to fall asleep, I must have counted a lot of sheep because it was too early for me to go to sleep. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the rain. The probabilities of rain were very high, we were in the North of Galicia, one of the places in the world where it rains the most. Of course, I soon felt like going to the bathroom and I couldn't leave the tent because it was raining harder and harder.
As soon as the sun came up I heard the voices of my sister in law talking in whispers, the water had broken into their tent during the night and they were all soaked including their bags with their clothes. Luckily she had left a change of clothes in the car. My little nephew was crying and his brother tossed him saying he was a crying baby. So it didn't take long for them to come and tell us to shut up.
To make it worse, it was still drizzling, with that rain that doesn't wet but soaks.So after arguing with my husband because I had always thought it was a bad idea to go camping that weekend. I got in the car and waited for him to pick up the tent in the rain. The mood was hot part of the morning, the children were ranting because the whole camping idea hadn't meet their expectations. My son couldn't believe since he had been in a camp before and he had so much fun. But our mood improved with the beautiful landscapes of northern Galicia and the places we visited before returning to Santiago.
Point view on the road, Northern Galicia I don't remember the name of the campsite or if it still exists, but if you are ever invited to camp in the North of Galicia with small children make sure it isn't a camp that prides itself on its awards for being the quietest.
If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading.
November 13, 2021