Suances and the Menu Del Dia

A month on the north coast of Spain. Hot weather. Beaches. Surf. Good food. Perfect.

We approached Suances with great expectations.

Some were met. Others not.

We headed along the Atlantic past factory and factory, rows and rows of modern, ticky-tacky townhouses (interestingly, all the townhouses everywhere must be to house all the young families everywhere – so many young families! Everywhere! At least, everywhere in the north. I guess there was a post-Franco baby boom and now they are all growing up and having families and needing housing), and a tonne of eucalypts(think, looks like home). Hmmm. Wasn't shaping up exactly how I'd planned.

Spain, where messages about skin cancer and lung cancer don't seem to have gotten through, but the fluorescent light which I detest so, so much is hugely popular, though maybe more because they are cheap, than a misguided attempt to save the world.

Spain. Home of tapas, cava, and the Menu Del Dia.

We were hungry at siesta time. Pulling into a town on the way, we saw that siesta was a little different in the north. I guess it's not as hot, so a sleep in the middle of the day is not as necessary. Siesta time in the north means the bars are full to overflowing, and it's not for a lunch snack. There is no tapas at these bars. Just drinking.

We bar-hopped looking for lunch in a town past Mundaka, and were spied by a 'spotter' who pointed us to the back street and the only establishment serving food. Lucky really. Due to the fact that the woman serving us had zero English, and we had no Spanish, (funny thing about the Spaniards who know you can't speak Spanish, they don't slow anything down, or dumb it down at all. Million miles an hour they talk to us, our eyes wide, mouths open, nodding, wait 10secs and I may have picked up that she said 'carne' and 'pescado'. Yes we will have the carne!) we got what everyone else was having – the Menu Del Dia.

Possibly the only decent thing to come out of the Franco era, the Menu Del Dia consists of a choice of a couple of dishes for entree, main and dessert, with a bottle of wine (red or white) all included for a price around $10-$15AUD. We didn't know about it until then, though, so hooked we were on tapas, but after wolfing down the yummiest mountain stew – and that was just the entree -we were hooked.

Continuing on to Suances, my prevailing thought was how similar it was to the Australian coastline – not only the eucalypts, but the cliffs, the water, everything.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But I yearned for the Spain of clear, tropical water, and balmy nights outdoors, of white-painted houses, and sleepy siestas.

I thought we should wait for the weather to warm, and the surf to pick up, but the forecast for both didn't look good.

We saw some cool stuff while we were there. We just didn't stay for as long as planned.

The view from the back of 'our house'.

And pretty hydrangeas at the side.

There are some magical sunsets. Lots of headlands with views to the west.

Chapel in the rock.

We did go swimming one day at one of the many beaches, it looked like it would be pretty for snorkeling, but the water was too icy for us to stay in.

Surf-check with the cows.