Wednesday, 16 August 2017

The Monastery of Carboeiro

Hello!


 One of my courses at the University of Vigo was Galician Language and Culture. Part of the course was a series of free excursions around the region. The first would consist of a trip to the Monastery of San Lorenzo de Carboeiro followed by a hike through the countryside to a waterfall.

 A minibus took the class from Vigo to the Monastery. It was a lovely day with a blue sky.

















 The area around the Monastery was the epitome of lushness and greenness. It was shining with life. Everywhere I looked I saw more species of plant, fungus and lichen.





























 We looked inside the abandoned Benedictine Monastery. It was a cool, bright, open space. We wandered around, enjoying the architecture and the shade.






















 There was a visitor centre just across from the Monastery. It had some interesting photos and information, and its loo was much appreciated by the group.





Spider's web!






















 The Monastery grounds also boast a famous pombal - pigeon and dove house. Along with horreos - granaries - they are one of the signature small buildings of Galicia.






Botanical Route























 We headed down to take a look at the River Deza.
















Otter!

Caddisfly!

 I was overwhelmed by how beautiful and wild the Monastery's surroundings were. I can imagine how wonderful and inspiring a place it might have been for the monks to live in. I wished we could have spent more time there, but the next part of our excursion - hiking to a waterfall - beckoned.

 I'll tell you all about that adventure in the next post.

 Thanks for reading!

 Liz x

No comments:

Post a Comment