Happy Christmas

The Christmas holidays are upon us. Just a quick post to wish all our readers a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to include many new posts and articles in the coming year. If you have any ideas or want to see specific news please email us:
info@desinationgalicia.com

As we say in Galicia:

Bo Nadal e Feliz Ano Novo
(Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year)

The Cemetery of the English

In the Coast of Death, Galicia's and Spain's westernmost area, there is a small monument next to the rough coast dedicated to the 175 English sailors drowned off the coast here on 10th November 1890, when their ship, the Serpent, sank in a terrible storm. Only 3 sailors survived.
The locals recovered the dead bodies and buried them next to the beach on what is known as the Cemetery of the English. The British goverment thanked the people of Camariñas and the mayor was given a shotgun and the parish priest a gold watch.




Next to the cemetery there is a lovely stretch of coast, a lovely and virgin beach named Playa do Trece. You need to leave the car parked next to the cemetery and then a 20 minute walk to reach the beach. This is a lovely beach, for me one of the most beautiful, it has plenty of sand dunes and a lovely stretch of white sand. At the end of the beach there is a large hill covered in white sand, throughout the years the strong winds dragged sand towards this hill and eventually created a large sand dune. A great place to get a good view of the area and spectacular sunsets. This stretch of coast is usually empty due to its remoteness and wild sea, which makes it very attractive if you want to spend a relaxing day, just you and the sound of the crashing waves.

Let's live like Galicians!

Just thought I should include this advert from a leading Galician supermarket chain. This advert is currently causing a stir, many Galicians identify with the personality traits and traditions portrayed in the one minute and thirty second spot. Thousands have downloaded the advert from the chain's website and from YouTube, there's even a version with English subtitles, not a very good translation, funny in a way. There's also an ending inspired by Braveheart. If you are Galician you have probably seen the advert, if you're not, check it out and discover how many Galicians think and live.

See for yourself.

Autumn Festival - Magosto

Halloween and All Saints Day has gone, now comes the end of autumn and Galicia celebrates the chestnut fiesta of Magosto. This is a traditional festival celebrated in November, whereby the main ingredients are chestnuts and wine.

People get together in the village square or streets to roast chestnuts on the open fires and drink young red wine, everyone will drink, sing, dance and tell stories around the fires. At the end of the night people will blacken their faces with the remaining ash and jump over the remaining fire, this will bring luck.

The origins of this tradition are remote, but everyone agrees it's a celebration of the year's harvest and an opportunity to eat the plentiful chestnuts provided by Galicia's forests.

Adios Summer. Hola Autumn

A new season is upon us but the gorgeous weather we have been enjoying has not left us. Galicia has been enjoying continuous good sunny weather throughout the month of September, the same cannot be said for other areas of Spain. Our northern neighbours (Asturias, Cantabria and Basque Country) have had plenty of rain and the traditionally sunny south have endured heavy rain storms which have caused flooding in some areas.

Let's hope this Indian Summer continues so we can enjoy our beaches and final festivals.

Brits invade La Coruña!

Not since the invasion of La Coruña by Francis Drake has there been so many British visitors to this city. British tourists are now the largest group of international visitors to La Coruña, overtaking the Portuguese. Main reason for this is the daily Clickair flight from Heathrow to Alvedro (Coruña) airport.

Our visitors differ from the tourism in the Mediterranean. British tourists tend to come here for a long weekend or a week to make the most of Galician food, the many museums, the beaches and the beautiful landscape.

Visit Destination Galicia's hometown, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Blue Flags - Beaches

Spain is currently the world leader with 480 blue flags awarded. Galicia tops the list of Spanish regions with a total of 109 blue flags, confirmation that Galicia has the best beaches in Spain. Galicia has 772 beaches in total, 25% of all beaches in Spain.

A haven for any beach lover.

Continuing with this theme, The Guardian newspaper recently awarded the Galician beach of As Rodas in the Islas Cies as the best beach in the world, topping the Top 10.
The article can be read here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/feb/16/beach.top10

Camino de Santiago

This is another new advert aired on Spanish TV promoting the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, more information on this spiritual tour can be found here www.xacobeo.es

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog. This blog has been created to complement our own website www.destinationgalicia.com, we will use this blog as a site to place all news and photos/videos to show you all the best Galicia has to offer. To start things off we're posting the latest promotional video from the Galician Tourist Board, promoting Galicia as an Atlantic destination.