Spain – Galicia – Santiago – Part II (En)

On Thursday we went to Santiago de Compostela which is the capital of northwest Spain’s Galicia region. It is known as the culmination of the Santiago Way pilgrimage route, and the alleged burial site of the Biblical apostle St. James. His remains reputedly lie within the Santiago Cathedral consecrated in 1211, whose elaborately carved stone facades open onto grand squares within the medieval walls of the old town. We started our tour in the narrow streets of the old town full of bars and restaurants, pilgrims and bagpipers until we arrived at the Cathedral.

Ben, Raquel and I went inside the Cathedral and Pepe stayed outside with Asha. Ben saw for the first time the Botafumeiro (incense-burner) that goes flying through the Cathedral and the buried site of the apostle James. Now you cannot go to hug the apostle, you need to pay to go to that part of the Cathedral.

We kept seeing the city and then we went to lunch in a restaurant that Pepe and Raquel knew where we ate free tapas first and then we shared octopus, mussels and clams. The biggest clams we have eaten and delicious! And we finished with the typical herbs liqueur.

After lunch we kept tourism and we saw the San Martiño Pinario Monastery and the city market until we finished in front of Alameda Park where we had a drink with more free tapas and Ben and I tried for the first time the pie with octopus, yummy!

Then we went to see Alameda Park, a 16th-century park with historical monuments and a garden featuring many ornamental trees and shrubs. The views of the city and the Cathedral are breathtaking and we took a picture on the lover’s bench. Ben had a picture taken with the two sisters, two sisters that went a little crazy when Franco killed their husbands and they wandered around the city so everybody knew them.

We finished having another drink and free tapas and then we come back to our motorhome where we said bye to Pepe and Raquel as the next day we were going early to Villagarcía de Arosa where we are now. Ben was really impressed with Santiago city and now is one of his favourite cities in Europe.

Thank you very much to Pepe and Raquel for showing us the city, I had never been to Alameda park before and it is amazing and worth the visit. And my meetings with my cousins have finished, it has been great to meet them all, they are amazing people and had shown us amazing places, they have been great with us and they are super nice. Ben thinks all my cousins are fantastic and we hope to see them all again soon!