Monthly Archives: April 2012

From Madrid we went north and west to Santiago de Compostela. For those of you who might need a refresher on Spain’s geography, here’s a map.

We took the overnight train. Spain has an amazing train system (Renfe and Ave), but the Renfe site is reportedly a nightmare to navigate, in large part because of banking confirmations that they run through. Travel Tip: If you want to book ahead on a Spanish train, use Petrabax for the Renfe trains. It’s quick and easy. The train was just a little more expensive than the hostal room, so we figured it was a real deal. Even though we had sleeping berths, I didn’t sleep too much…

Our bunkmates were Carmen and her mom’s older friend Olympia, both schoolteachers (though Olympia is retired) from A Coruña (just north and east a bit of Santiago, on the coast). We had a lot to chat about.

We stayed in luxury in Santiago at the Parador… This was built by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1499 as a hospital!!! It was a pretty amazing place to stay in… the walls were about 3 feet thick. We got in on a promotion, 140 euro a night… upscale for us, but not out in the stratosphere.

The bidet was used first for laundry…

The Parador sits on the plaza with the Cathedral, a destination for pilgrims walking El Camino. Need a plenery indulgence? Make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago. More about the pilgrimage and Santiago (for mom!). Those are our windows at the bottom of the lower right photo…

The outside of the Cathedral is nuts. It’s a Romanesque cathedral covered up by all sorts of doodads and such and is considered a fine example of Plateresque architecture. The inside of the cathedral is still rather plain (romanesque), except for the nave and the chapels.

Apparently you can tell who a saint is by what they are carrying. But Ginny didn’t know who the saint of the rake is.

There are chapels all along the front (top) of the church, behind the nave, where pilgrims could stop and pray. It was kind of a money-making thing… these chapels range from simple to way way over the top. Creepily, many have baby heads around them… cherubim? It was hard to take photos inside as it was dark and they didn’t allow flash (and the camera didn’t know how to read all the gold)… but for your entertainment,

Lots of gruesomeness and head chopping involved… That last pic is of the mechanism to swing the censer, Botafumeiro the flying monster. Sadly, we didn’t see this happen!

If you ever make it to Galicia or to Santiago, you must try the octopus (el pulpo). Here we are having a snack of it at 9 pm! (note how light it still is… also note that Ginny is indulging me, and that this is not a flattering picture of her)

We also had an amazing lunch in Santiago, paella in the local style, with some crazy beautiful (and delicious) bread. There were langosta and langostina and gamba (all varieties of shrimpy to small lobstery type crustaceans). Food names were hard… especially since the menus were primarily in Gallego. Got the shy waiter talking by asking about the different beasties in the lunch, and afterwards he brought us some local liquors to try, telling us that it was important to know not only what to eat that is special to a place, but also what to drink. Basically it was two types, both what he called orujos, meaning made from grapes, so like brandy. One was quite like Bailey’s Irish Cream, the other like coffee brandy, but better.

Our lunch spot was where the tan chairs are. Note how there is really no difference between the road and the sidewalks… In some places there weren’t even things to separate them.

There were also beautiful doors here, with great knockers!

We had cockles (berberechos), and great coffee (we saw the woman next to us the next day at the strike)

Courtyard at the Parador,

Where the old leech tank sat when it was a hospital,

We think the stonemasons had a wicked sense of humor…

Some views around town. The first is just outside the walls of the old city. The last is the restaurant where we had paella, closed on the day of the general strike. Everything was closed.

There was a gorgeous park, where we were chatted up by a hopeful Austrian. Weirdly there were palms with ivy growing up them…

And everywhere in the walkways, cockleshells (scallops), a symbol of St. James and the Camino.

I have more to tell you about Santiago, but this is enough for a post!