When we turned into Rias Muros yesterday afternoon the sun was certainly shining and we even felt hot enough to think about swimming. Quite a change! We stayed at a relatively new marina which was not developed to suit boats our length but there was plenty of depth so we managed at the end of one of the arms. We thought it was going to be our last night with Peter and Elizabeth so we all went out to dinner at Petros, with no menus in English forcing us to figure out what to order using a dictionary and the Translate App on our iPhone. The main problem is that in different parts of Spain they have a local dialect so it is very difficult to translate by using Spanish guides. We managed to figure out the mussels, baby squid, octopus and asparagus but we thought we ordered langoustines and were given large prawns instead. It was all very good except the asparagus was from a can! We are craving vegetables because meals are only served with potatoes - either fried chips or thick slices boiled. It is possible to also order the little green pimentos which are usually served as a starter or as part of a tapas menu.
Muros is a much more interesting town, with very narrow lanes and older houses which were built with arcades underneath where originally the fish was dried. There is a beautiful old stone building which is the permanent mercado (market), a variety of stores including a fruit shop, bakeries and some charcuteries (both butcher and delicatessen) and a fresh fish stall, so food shopping this morning was much better. We particularly loved the top floor of the mercado where local women sell whatever vegetables they have grown plus fresh eggs, all at ridiculously low prices. I bought a huge bag of beans, two bunches of parsley, a lettuce, a dozen eggs and a huge bag of tiny potatoes for five euros.
Today there was also a big market along the foreshore where the merchants sold every kind of clothing and shoes, plus bed linen, towels etc. and it seems as though that is the main way the locals purchase any of those items. In the entire area the only sort of fashionable shops have been in La Coruna and they were all Zara and other Spanish labels.
There are several very good sandy beaches around Rias Muros and one of these is just beside the marina. The water temperature is increasing (now 21C) so we decided we should spend another day with Peter and Elizabeth and their daughters Caroline and Sophie, travelling to the next bay, Ria de Arousa and stay on anchor at one of the beaches so that we could have a swim. We are heading there now ( sailing again for a while), but so far we have not seen the sun and the day even started out foggy, meaning that we are not likely to have that swim.