| Rías
Baixas lies in the heart of Galicia, the isolated
region in the northwestern corner of the Iberian
Peninsula above Portugal. Far from the traditional
travel poster image of Spain—hot, arid and
dry—Galicia is known for its mild, maritime
climate, coastline serrated by estuaries, called
rías, and its ever-present sea.
In many ways, this emerald-green region, where
verdant slopes sweep down to meet a mist-shrouded
sea, is more reminiscent of Ireland than Spain.
The name Galicia is Celtic in origin,
for it was the Celts who, as early as the 11th
century B.C., settled here leaving behind a legacy
of fair complexions and a Celtic-sounding musical
tradition. Oddly enough, Gallego, as the region’s
language is known, has no Celtic strain, being
instead a half-Spanish and half-Portuguese dialect.
The native bagpipe, called gaitas, produces
the region’s hauntingly captivating tunes.
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