Spanish Holiday Part 3 - Galicia

Finisterre
We drove over the huge bridge at Ribadeo and into Galicia, then went down to look at Lugo, which Bill had thought was a small Roman town much like Silchester! However it's a very busy city with a small touristy area enclosed by Roman walls, making it very difficult to park. In the end we found a dodgy space on a yellow line - didn't get caught though ;-)
The walls were good to walk around, having a wide path on the top. THere was also a good museum in the town, Museo Provincial, displaying pieces on seemingly every aspect of Galician life and history.
The drive to Finisterre was fraught, as we ended up in A Coruna thanks to the awkward Spanish road-signing, but we made it to the End of the World in the end - a little drive from Finisterre town up the Cabo Fisterra brought us to our hotel, the pousada 'O Semaphoro', the old semaphore house of Finisterre, right next to the lighthouse. We watched the sun go down from the cliff edge, magnificent, and watched as various pilgrims reached their final point on the Camino de Santiago and celebrated. We had the restaurant to ourselves, but the menu del dia was excellent value and delicious, especially enjoyed the scallops and the cheesecake. We also sampled some of the local white wine, Albarino, Bill liked it even though he's not a white wine drinker!
The rooms were unfussy, pretty and full of character - ours was called Soto Vente and had gorgeous sea views, with shutter to keep the lighthouse light out. But to my dismay there was fog in the night and the foghorn from the lighthouse kept blasting out! Was completely shattered the next day!!
Finisterre town was a hardworking fishing port, much as I'd suspected, there were some posh restaurants for tourists, some down-to-earth cafe-bars for fishermen, but the food at the pousada was so good that we ate there both nights. We explored some of the towns along the Costa da Morte, most of them disappointingly over-developed but some nice things to see, like the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de la Barca in Muxia, where the Virgin Mary supposedly arrived in a stone boat. Inland, we found the medieval castle at Vimianzo, restored at the cost of millions of euros, with all the information boards in Galego - not even in Spanish!! There were also lots of local craftsmen inside - lacemakers, woodturners and leatherworkers to name but a few. Bill was tempted by a handwoven basket but how would we have got it home?
Later, we found a dolmen near Berdoyas, and took it in turns to sit on top for pictures.
Quick stop for souvenirs, Bill bought a Finisterre t-shirt with Celtic designs and I bought a necklace with a scallop-shell pendant, then we headed off on the road to Santiago!

Santiago de Compostela
Worst nightmare of hotel-finding as Bill did not have a map showing the hotel on, the name of the village it was in, or any directions! The hotel was Hotel Congreso , 3km along the Estrada road (the only address that we had, confusing as Estrada also means street in Spanish!). Hotel Congreso was a big modern hotel, catering mainly for coach parties, the food and service was fine but it was a pity the pool wasn't open till after we left. It was a fair way out of town, so Bill drove to the outskirts of Santiago and we walked into the centre.
The Cathedral of St James was everything I'd expected and more - queues of pilgrims filing behind the breathtaking golden, laquered Baroque altar to kiss the bejewelled St James (I did as well, yes I know I'm an atheist but I couldn't resisit!). The vaulted building was packed with important works of art, and deeply meaningful religious iconograpy, including (conspiracy theorists please note) a Masonic all-seeing eye in a triangle above the altar.
There were many other interesting buildings and plazas to see, all with interesting histories, so we nearly wore our shoes out around town. Cafe Casino in Rua Do Vilar did the best raciones, cakes and coffee.
Time to hand in the car, and take the plane back from Santiago to Stansted - the airport was quite big, compared with Santander, and there wer a few weary pilgrims also waiting around - a good flight with views of France, Jersey and the Isle of Wight back to Stanstead, then train journey home in the rain.
Never long enough, holidays...