Travels in Northern Spain

To Santiago De Compostela

Yes I do know we are running about a month behind on the blog - its been so busy!! Lets see if I can catch up over the next few days. Here is what we did in the last week in Spain.

We arrived in Santiago de Compostela (SDC) on Sunday 24^th July. This had been planned for a few weeks but we did not know it was the date of the Festival of St James. This is the biggest day of the year for the pilgrims and the cathedral in SDC! The town was humming with pilgrims and tourists and locals and it all culminated with one of the loudest, most random firework display I have ever been subjected to!

Pilgrims kipping outside the SDC cathedral.

Puppets that attended the church Masses

Because the day of the festival fell on a Sunday they also opened the “special door” on the west side of the cathedral that is only opened one ever 7 years. How exciting is that?! The queues were outrageous. Jane lined up for 2 hours to get inside for a “Pilgrims Mass” that they were running as a repeating service! We did not get to see the huge thurible swinging, only at the 7.30pm service unless someone pays 400 euro. Everything has a price here!

The old city was pumping all day and evening. We had dinner and then regrouped to try to get a good spot for the fireworks. As luck would have it we could not get into the main square with our backpacks – it was the week of the Nice truck attack and the policing was very evident. At midnight the fireworks started, accompanied by a concert in the main square. We were in another square behind the cathedral and found that we were in fact between TWO fireworks shows. And unlike the very measured performances we are used to in Brisbane this one went nuts in the last 5 minutes. Air shells were exploding all around, barely above the roofs of the buildings around the squares, scattering burning cardboard casings all amongst the crowds. What a humdinger.

Inside the cathedral

The next two days in SCD were spent enjoying the old town, the cathedral and other buildings and attending some of the festival events. There were big puppets, musical items, more services, museums and lots of shops. We did a walking sightseeing tour, which give us lots of background history of the place. The churches are mostly made of square granite blocks, which gave them a very dour square, squat appearance. None of the lightness of touch in the French or English cathedrals of the same era. Internally they were mostly 18C baroque carvings and plasterwork, but all pretty dingy.

We visited a huge Aussie eucalyptus planted 150 years ago in the main city park.

I also bought a local white paper hat ‘cos the sun was shiny all day and my head was getting damaged. The streets of the old town were lined with a range of shops selling both the usual tourist tat as well as others with great spanish goods, leatherwear, hats, local foods cheeses and wines, as well as many restaurants, so at night we ate great food and wine. What’s not to like?

Then we managed to find the local station to buy train tickets for the trip to our next port of call, Pontevedre. So lets go.

Typical street in the old town parts of SDC

After a good hotel breakfast (Hotel Campostela, on the south edge of the old town, good internet, well recommended) we packed and walked to the train station for the 12.15pm. train to Pontavedre.

The trip was just 30 minutes through the countryside and we were in another gem of a Spanish costal town, with an old city centre surrounded by very ordinary suburbs.

Alix Larry and Jane outside our Parador in Pontevedre

We were here for one night specially to stay in a Parador. These are special hotels in Spain, old castles and religious buildings converted into luxury hotels. This one was an old stately home. Lots of wood and granite and old oak furniture. But the beds were big and comfy too.