EUROPE BLOG April 25th, 2023 - PORTO to SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

4/25/23- Another day, another country. Our bus leaves Porto at 10:30am, so we take an Uber, arriving 30 minutes early just in case. It takes 4 hours with 4 stops in between for us to reach Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with some excellent views along the way.

Stretching our legs, we try to find an Uber or Bolt to take us to our hotel, but the apps don’t work here. We do find a lone taxi driver, tell him the hotel (Praza Quintana) and off we go. It takes only a few minutes to get to the city center, where the driver weaves through small passageways to get close to where we want to go, but unfortunately he brought us to the wrong hotel called “Plaza” Quintana. Luckily, our actual hotel is only a 3 minute walk away.

Check-in is smooth with our room on the first floor and quite large, and has a very nice and elegant bathroom to boot. This place looks like a converted castle as the exposed rock is still seen in the room, and we’re loving the comfort.

It’s now 4:30pm (an hour ahead due to the time change) and we set out to walk the city to get our bearings. The main cathedral is just around the corner and it is huge. The architecture is stunning, even in the cloudy skies. It’s no wonder this place is the final spot of a long walking pilgrimage people do year round.

 

Continuing through the narrow streets, we smell garlic and immediately our stomachs ache for food. We stare at a few menus to find mainly seafood on the menu (crab, shrimp and even octopus), but we’re hoping to find pasta instead. We circle around finding multiple restaurants with the same menu, as well as countless souvenir shops and bakeries. It’s a tourist haven.

Finally, we settle on a place to eat, walk inside and it’s like night of the living dead in this cafeteria. Empty, unclean dishes line the bar counter, the one worker looks to be completely disinterested and all of the patrons sitting at the tables have a very sad look on their face. I’m not feeling this one bit, so we dart out of this kidnap hole to find another. Not far away we actually do find a place and order a few burgers with sangria. It was very, very good.

With full bellies, we stumble upon a university (which was interesting to walk through) then venture outside the old town quarters to a grocery store. The atmosphere completely changes from pedestrians walking around to cars overtaking the roads. Modern stores are also on display, which is nice to know we have options while here.

The sun tries to come out, but it stays hidden behind the clouds which causes the chilly wind to pick up. Good thing we brought our jackets as it even begins to rain a bit. With our grocery items in hand, we walk back to our hotel for a spell and wait until night to prowl the city once more. We do have to wait a bit as sunset here is around 9:30pm.

We thought the cathedral would’ve been lit up, but for whatever reason it wasn’t. Still was able to get some fantastic shots, but a bit odd. We even stumble upon a crowd of people listening to local musicians dressed as if part of the clergy. It’s a very nice stroll, one with few people around and felt completely safe (even though one section looks like it’s straight out of a prison movie).

Overall, it's been a good day. Can't believe 3 1/2 weeks have flown by. Porto was definitely our favorite city so far, but we're not done yet.