Road to St. James - Camino de Santiago

Camino de Santiago
Sunday March 15, 2015

Today we awoke early and decided we would get on the road.  We had our breakfast with Virgilio and left by 9:30.  Remember early is relative here.  We asked the night before what time they usually get up and it is around 8:00 or 9:00 depending on when the children awaken.  For a Sunday morning in Portugal, that would be leaving at 6:00 AM in the States.

We set our Waze phone application to get us directly to San Francisco de Santiago Monumento Hotel in Santiago.  Our Camino Road pilgrimage trip was going to be a lot easier than those thousands who do the hiking trails from all over Europe and around the world.  Waze is a free smart phone application that will work for you as long as you download the directions while you have a WIFI connection.   One of the best things about it is that it updates you as to traffic and problems on the road, but you won't get that benefit if you don't have a data plan.  If you are cutting costs, it is your GPS without having to pay for one from the car rental businesses.    It saved us a bunch of money, frustration, and worry.

We left the city of Penafiel behind us and headed north into some really beautiful countryside.  We ended up back in Spain in just a short time and at the front door of the hotel with Waze.  We were amazed because I thought with all the tiny one way streets and narrow corners we would end up at a small dead end.  Kudos and thanks to Waze for awesome directions.

We parked our car and headed into the hotel, which is still a working convent on half of the grounds.  The building has glass floor panels that show the original foundations of the monastery in the early 1600s.  Lois checked us in and spent about 10 minutes informing us of all the places to go and what to do in Santiago during our stay.  The welcome really was very honest and thoughtful asking what we were hoping to do while there and if he had ideas for things to do, he would alert us to side trips.

Side Entrance to the Cathedral

Sunset from Plaza de Obrerors (Workers Plaza)

We dropped off our luggage and went out to see Cathedral, whose origins go back to the mid 800s AD.  While it's twin towers in front were scaffolded for a needed cleaning and restoration, it is still very impressive.  The plaza in front of it is dedicated to those who worked on the structure.  The side entrances are also beautiful and a quick way to get into the church for viewing.  Directly across from the Cathedral is the Municipal Building and closing the square is the Parador building directly on the Plaza.  Being the third most holy city for Christians in the world behind the Vatican and Jerusalem, you can imagine the wealth that has passed through the centuries to build the city and the government buildings here in Santiago.  It is a city on a high hill and has steep precipices, tiny passages, and a maze like layout that gets pretty familiar after just a few walks.  This afternoon we decided that we would walk as much as we could since we had been driving over the weekend.  It was a workout, but you didn't notice until later because there are so many buildings to see and views to absorb.

We stopped for a few tapas for dinner, much earlier than the normal crowds.  Back in Spain again, so dinner would be anywhere from 8:30 - 10:30 PM.  We chose to just get a couple glasses of wine and then head back to the hotel to relax.  We found a Tapas Bar on the main strip that had at least 40 types of tapas displayed in the case.  We asked the bartender which was his favorite and pointed us to a hunk of cheese that was like Camembert, rolled in chopped almonds and then they flash fry it and drizzle blackberry jam over the top and put it on a piece of toasted bread.  Always trust the bartender.  It was so good my mouth is watering just writing about it.  Then we had some local churizo and more bread.  As we were getting ready to go back, people were just starting to arrive for dinner and people were moving towards the back dining area.  Children were playing in the bar.  Running around and back and forth into the alley and back into the restaurant was the norm.  If your the type of traveller who wants to see children and not hear them, Spain isn't the place to be vacationing.   At least in this area of the city, their trucks only come during the morning to service the restaurants and are out by lunch.  So by the evening it is rare to see anyone driving in the historic areas.

Tapas or Pinxtos in Basque

We enjoyed a couple of wines as you can imagine.  The standard pour was about $1.50 a glass of their Rias Bajas wines.  And to upgrade to their better ones were only about $1.00 more.  Very full of flavor and a little fruit forward, they tended to be a little less strong than the tempranillos that we had been having in Rioja, but really enjoyable wines.   A famous white wine in the area is the Albariño varietal, and it is a little more expensive than the reds.  We tend to prefer reds - but we do love a good Albariño, so we were going to get some recommendations on where to go for a vineyard visit.  Back in the hotel room, we had a bottle of Vina Ane, a Rioja wine that was recommended to us in Valencia at the Mercado Central.  It was a 2010 and was really smooth and full bodied.  We wish we could have bought some more of that - it was really a deal at 7 Euros in the market.  Something at home like that would have costs $35 - $50.

While tasting the Rioja and comparing it's body to the local Rias Bajas, we finished unpacking and making it a night while we did our laundry in the sink in the hotel room.  So when you see the pictures of us out and about, we've skipped the glamorous pictures of us in the hotel room scrubbing and hanging clothes from all types of hangers, hooks, and doors.   Not to mention the back window of the car where the sun beats down as you drive along - a nice place to dry the stubborn wet cottons.