Time: 4:30 pm, October 4, 2014. Location: Ribeira Sacra in Galicia, Spain.

Instead of napping after our huge two hour lunch, we carried on towards the ruined monastery Santa Cristina in Ribas de Sil.

On the way to the monastery we passed many fields that reminded us of Wales and Scotland, and learned why ‘Galicia’ is Spanish for Gaelic.
The ruins of the monastery were fun to explore… A nearby tree tree served as an alter for some interesting objects of worship.
A little further on we came across a river with nearby trails but it was getting late. We had wanted to visit the Cañones del Sil where the wineries have their vineyards terraced up impossibly steep cliffs.

mural of picking grapes on the steep terraces along the River Sil

Alas it started to rain plus, of course, that Menu del Dia had us all in the mood for a siesta. I also think we might have been slightly off-season – it appeared that most of the grapes had already been picked by early October. There was a lot left to see on this ‘Back Roads’ route but we instead headed back to Santiago for a light tapa dinner and bed! More on our October 2014 trip to Northern Spain.