Day 20 Madrid

We awoke to pouring rain. That was the forecast so we had planned accordingly. After our usual breakfast we attacked the chore of packing for our return trip. We left the hotel at 11 and told Manuel that we would return for our luggage that night. We took the metro to the Prado museum. It has one of world's finest collections of European art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century. It was still raining when we got there and the ticket line was veerrry long. Luckily it moved pretty fast. We spent the day at the Prado. We left around 6 and walked to Plaza de Oriente stopping at a few places along the way. We spent the next 3 ½ hours at the Opera. We saw Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, an opera written in the late 20s. It is very political and very anti-capitalist so we were not surprised that it is not shown in the U.S. very much. It was quite well done and much more engaging than we expected. Our hotel is right next to the Opera so after a bite to eat we retrieved our luggage and set out for the airport. This was not pleasant. At 3 of the stations the escalators were inoperative. We had to carry our luggage down and up long flights. We arrived at the airport at midnight for a 6 am flight. There were no places to sit in departures; arrivals had some uncomfortable chairs. Many, many people were sleeping on the floor. Surely, the design of this terminal can be vastly improved. The trip home was long, but because we were so tired, we slept through much of it. Now, we are home and have to give some more thoughts to our original plan. Even though we didn’t find a place to buy, we discovered some important things:
1. Romantic and beautiful as it may be, we don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere;
2. We need easy and close access to a big city;
3. We particularly liked two areas: Lugo and Pontevedra;
4. We don’t want to be in a touristy area (like Santiago)
5. We really liked Galicia.

Life in Spain definitely has its positives and negatives. This is a list that our new friend from Pontevedra, Colin, created based on his experience of things that work and don’t work well in Spain:

USUALLY EFFICIENT
Bars
Restaurants. Especially menus del día.
Hotels
Utility companies. Especially in taking money from my account before I’ve got the bill!
Bank cash machines. Lots of these, though it’s important to use the right chain.
Private medicine. I’m not allowed to use the Spanish health service.
Pharmacies. Though very slow at times.
Trains – Local and national
Fiestas. Anything connected with fun is usually well done in Spain.
Concerts. Ditto.
The international wine, olive oil and fish industries (and doubtless several more)
The road construction industry
The prostitution industry, if the numbers involved are anything to go on.
The TV industry. Ruthlessly efficient at showing ads.
The ad industry. Highly regarded internationally, I believe.
The newspaper industry. Not sure there’s any day of the year when there’s no edition.
Street cleaning. Exemplary.
Long distance road travel. Magnificent roads, many of them new.
The traffic police. When it comes to speeding fines.
The national and major city football teams

NOT USUALLY EFFICIENT
Spanish bureaucrats: Whether at the local, regional or national level. Paper mad. Deliberately slow so as to preserve jobs and expand empires. Same as everywhere in the world, only worse than most.
Turismo offices: Sometimes seem to operate more for the benefit of the employees than tourists
Banks. Also wallow in paper. Dealing with a branch of your bank other than where you live can be a calvario.
Shops. Attitudes are almost invariably pleasant but efficiency can be something else.
Notaries. Still in the 19th century. Where, in fact, they belong.
Companies which don’t reply to your letters or emails. Possibly the majority.
Estate agents (Realtors). Take a huge fee for doing very little other than maintaining loose-leaf binders or, if you’re lucky, a disorganised computer database which you can
take a look at if you go to their office. No brochures. No real initiatives based on the listing of your criteria.
The judicial system: I have no personal experience but it’s reputed to be very slow and inefficient.
The property sales statistics industry. No one believes their numbers.
Driving. At least when it comes to the use of indicators.
The education system. If the international ratings are to be believed.
The property construction industry. Seems to take ages to complete projects and, judging by the piles of materials that lie around for a long time, there must be project coordination problems
Public works projects. Ditto.
The post office. Mail doesn’t arrive until around noon and parcels from the UK rarely arrive at all. Though they could go missing in Britain, of course.
The local police. At least when it comes to enforcing parking and noise laws.

Day 19 -- Madrid

Our normal breakfast of Napolitano and coffee. Senor Manuel must have figured something out for the overbooking because he didn’t throw us out of our room. We took the metro to museum Thyssen and met Pepe there at 11. We walked through this museum till 2 pm. Pepe then showed us the exquisite Palace hotel where he stayed while working for Hughes in 1970. We walked till we found an acceptable taverna and had a great lunch. The lunch includes a glass of wine but they give you the whole bottle. We walked back to our hotel and parted for siesta. At 6 pm we went out for a walk and visited a small church called Ermita de San Antonio de Florida, which has its ceiling painted by Goya. It’s called the Sistine chapel of Madrid. Goya’s grave is also in this church. Our return route took us by a mall and we had to go in. It was immense ( a converted train station) and it added to our walking total. We finally got to a pub where we had beer and snacks. Rejuvenated we wondered into a new neighborhood and were amazed at the numbers of cafes and people. At 10 pm at night, all the outdoor cafes were full, the upscale market with many different food stalls was packed to the point that you could hardly get through, there were more people in the streets than during the day. Madrilenos definitely live by night and we decided that in this city nobody eats at home.

Tomorrow is our last day in Madrid. We will probably spend most of the day at the Prado. In the evening we are going to the opera and right after that to the airport. We may not have a chance to post anything unless there is WiFi at the airport.

Day 18 --- Madrid

After our breakfast in Café de Oriente, which was a chocolate Napolitano and café con leche, we embarked to the barrio Salamanca. This is an upscale area of Madrid (Beverly Hills of Madrid). Bo visited many shops and made several purchases. Our plan for the day was to meet Cristina at 2 pm. On the subway back Bo got a call from her asking to reschedule till 4:00 We got off the train at the next stop and retraced our way back. Some more shopping then 3 o’clock comida. We picked an outdoor café at random. When you sit and order 2 beers, you are given a plate of appetizers gratis. We have had sardines and cheese on bread, cheese and sausage on roll, olives and radishes, salads, etc. This place gave us a dish of salad with shrimp, crabmeat, pimientos, tomatoes. The dinner of the day includes a 1st course, 2nd course, bread, beer or wine, and dessert. There are several choices for each. We choose the rice with clams, shrimps and pimientos, then grilled veal with fries, and a chocolate mousse cake. This one portion of meal of the day is sufficient for the 2 of us.
We then went back to our hotel changed and met with Cristina. She is a Spaniard who was educated in LA who has formed a company here for facilitating international student exchange. She described the Spanish higher education system and the work her company does. There may be some ways Bo & Cristina can collaborate.
After a little siesta, we met with Pepe and his wife Celia for our flamenco night. The performance didn’t start until 10:30 pm so we hit two tapas bars on the way. There are several well known flamenco places/clubs in Madrid, and the one we went to -- Casa Patas is one of the best known. It’s a small room tightly packed with small tables so maybe about a hundred people can get in. You have to make a reservation in advance. The audience was mostly Spanish, but there were some foreigners too. The performance was amazing -- six musicians and two dancers performed for 1.5 hours with incredible intensity. It’s really impossible to describe. Here is a link to Casa Patas performance http://www.casapatas.com/videos.asp. When we got home at 1 am, we couldn’t open the apartment door so we had to ring the bell. senor Manuel opened the door fully dressed (He locked the door by mistake) and asked us when we were leaving tomorrow. When we told him we were leaving the day after tomorrow, he was very surprised. Evidently, he overbooked so we’ll see how he solves this little problem.

Day 17 -- Madrid

We sleep in in Madrid. It is also nice not having a car and worrying about parking. Madrid has an extensive underground metro. The Royal palace was closed due to a monthly changing of the guard. so we walked. We visited and Egyptian. worship place moved from Egypt to Spain when the Aswan dam was created. Bo tried to do shopping but was frustrated by the inefficiencies - lots of shoppers but only one register with a a line around the block. In order to not take a chance on food, we ate at the same place as yesterday ordering the same thing -- a pimiento salad, roasted chicken and a fantastic dulce de leche cake for dessert. If you order from the menu del dia, you get a salad or appetizer, an entre, a dessert and a wine or beer for a single very reasonable price (9.5 euro in this case).
We also took a walk along the Gran Via, one of thr main streets of Madrid lined with architectural gems of the city. This week is architecture week in Madrid and many of these buildings have been open to the public so we followed the numbers given in our Madrid guide. We also visited an exhibition that proposed 9 very different future visions of Gran Via, including Gran Via as a public entertainment space (el teatro), free enterprise zone, a social network space, an atmospheric space, etc. It was very interesting and the visions were really creative.
After a brief siesta, we took the Metro to the Reyna Sophia museum of modern art and spent a couple of hours there. They have an great collection of Miro, Dali and Picasso and other mostly Spanish artists of the 20th century. The exhibitions are organized both chronologically and thematically, with very good background information in several languages and they include not just paintings, but also photography and films so it is really well done.

Day 16 -- Madrid

We left our great hotel in Toledo ( Whenever you are in Toledo you should stay at Abazara) and drove to Madrid airport. We dropped off the car and took the Metro into the city. We had to change trains twice, but Madrid metro is so well organized and so clearly marked that it was very easy to get to our destination -- the Opera stop. We got to Plaza de Oriente where our hotel is located but could not find it. We asked at a restaurant but to no avail. I asked a delivery truck driver and he produced a handheld and punched in the name and got us the address (Plaza de Oriente#2). It was 50 ft away but no sign. We entered this beautiful large building and they told us the hotel is on floor 3. This hotel (called Posada Real Manuel) is probably the quirkiest place we have stayed in. It is an enormous, old style converted apartment with 7 rooms. Ours overlooks the plaza with a fantastic view of the Royal Palace and the plaza. The owner, an older gentleman senor Manuel presides over everything. He explained the rules of the house to us and gave us 3 keys -- to the front gate, the apartment and our room and we set out to explore. Madrid is a beautiful city. Lots of parks, wide streets and stunning architecture. We walked and walked and walked -- did half of the historical walk suggested by the guidebook, had a very tasty lunch in an old -style bar/restaurant and then went back to the apartment for a little siesta.
In the afternoon my friend Pepe called and we made arrangements to meet at 9:30 pm.
After meeting Pepe, he took us to his favorite Tapas place called La Trucha located near Teatro Espanol. It is an old traditional tapas bar and it was jam packed. We had a few tapas (fish and tortilla Espanola) + a few drinks at the bar standing up. Pepe said that’s how you eat tapas -- standing up. Then we went to another for more drinks, and then we finished it off in an outdoor place in our plaza with a nightcap. The evening finally ended at 12:30.
Pictures: (1) view from our window on the Palacio Real; (2) the building where our hotel is located; (3) Museo de Jamon --- the Spanish are very serious about their ham.

Day 15 -- Toledo

We retrieved our car from the underground car park and paid the $37 fee. Parking has been expensive everywhere. The drive from Salamanca to Toledo was easy on good highways. One short piece was a toll road which cost $10. We looked on Trip Advisor for a hotel with parking this time so our hotel is not in the city center, but across the river high on a hill overlooking the town. The views are spectacular. Toledo is located on a hill, with the Alcazar and the cathedral close to the top. It is a very popular with tourists because of its history, the incredible cathedral and many other spectacular churches. It’s a town marked by three distinctly different cultures --- Muslim, Catholic and Jewish. It is also the city where El Greco lived and painted so the cathedral has a big collection of his paintings, not to mention the museum dedicated to him and his art. The cathedral is really immense and ornate. We were lucky because it wasn’t totally packed with tourists so we were able to get close to everything, but even on this Monday in October, we saw more tour groups and more tourists than any other place we went to.

Day 13 and 14 Salamanca

Leaving Portugal. We had nice food in Portugal - mussels, shrimp, grilled trout in green sauce, local green soup, and young wine, which is called vinho verde. When we left our hotel we would never have gotten out of the city without the GPS. There are no road signs or indications of where the way out is. The drive to Salamanca Spain was all freeway and easy. When we arrived at Salamanca we parked in an underground parking near where we thought our hotel should be. Bo went into a store to ask. A kindly gentleman in yellow pants walked us down to the corner and pointed the way. We found the hotel and checked in. We then walked back to the car park and got our bags and pondered what was the shortest way back to the hotel. The same man in the yellow pants appeared and asked if we were still lost. He showed us the shortcut back. Hours later, far away we were looking for a grocery store and the man in the yellow pants shows up again. This time, he not only pointed the store out to us, but also read us the poems he wrote. He told Bo that he writes poems every day and then sets them to music and sings. He also confessed that he wants to be a psychologist and get a B.A. degree on line. His name turned out to be Angel, very appropriately because he was our guardian angel.
Salamanca is different than any other city we have been to. It has one of the oldest universities in Europe. Founded in 1218 it is one of the premier schools in Europe. The city is mobbed with young people. The main plaza is immense with hundreds of outdoor tables from cafes and thousands of people. The cathedral and university buildings are spectacular. The whole city is built in sandstone, which gives it a golden glow.
We are staying in an apartment hotel a few steps off Plaza Mayor, the main square. It’s pretty big -- two bedrooms, a kitchen combined with living room + bathroom, enough room to spread out and repack.
We rested a bit and went out again around 9 pm. Plaza Mayor was jammed with people. We had sopa castillana and wine in a restaurant called Meson de Cervantes in the beautifully illuminated plaza, and then walked around until after 11 pm. The place was still hopping when we decided to call it a night.
In the middle of the night we woke up with horrible stomach pain and diarrhea. We are suffering at 2 pm the next day.

Day 12-- Portugal

Last night we had a very enjoyable evening in Pontevedra. First to a Tapas bar next to the church with no sign. It’s owned by an Argentinian friend of Colin’s. Only those who know of its existence go there. We had a dish of pickled shrimp and a bowl of mussels + a bottle of Ribeira wine. Then we went to an outdoor café and had drinks with Colin’s Spanish lawyer friend Elena and her British boyfriend. We got a lot of very interesting information about buying property and practices of real estate agents. We walked back to Dabarca after midnight and crashed.

We left our hotel in the morning and set out towards Portugal. We got to the town of Ponte de Lima. Portugal is different from Spain. This town is one of the oldest towns in Portugal has a Roman bridge from the 11th century. We had a great lunch in a restaurant overlooking the river Lima and the bridge, and set out to our next destination, a historical city of Guimaraes, which was not too far. However, we made the mistake of trying to get there on local roads. We got seriously delayed in traffic jams and road closures. When we finally got to our destination city we started an ascent up a hill to what we thought was our hotel, Pousada de Marinha. We went up and up and up and up on a very narrow and steep road and Bo was closing her eyes not to look down. It seemed like this ascent will never end, When we finally got to the top of the mountain, we saw a big stone building, which we hoped would be our hotel. When we asked a man inside, he told us that our hotel was 5 km down he same road. Somehow we must have missed it. We were terribly frustrated, but since were already were at he top of this mountain, which seemed to be a big tourist attraction, we started to explore it. It has a sanctuary/church on top with a magnificent view on the valley below. It also had a nature park and walking trails. We finally managed to find a tourist information office where a very nice young girl gave us very detailed directions how to get to our hotel. When we saw it, we were stunned. It is a huge and gorgeous building of a former convent that was originally built in the 9th century, but subsequently rebuilt several times. It has incredible interiors, huge grounds, a great outdoor pool and a lot of atmosphere. There were quite a few people there because of a wedding. In the evening we decided to walk to the city just to take a look at another little historical Portuguese city. It is picturesque, but it doesn’t have the same appeal to us as Spanish cities. The atmosphere is just not the same.

Day 11 -- Pontevedra

We left Ourense and had a choice of two routes to Pontevedra. We chose the slower scenic route over the faster freeway. It was a very picturesque over the hills through small villages. Pontevedra is a very picturesque city and our hotel apartment is luxurious. Whenever you are in Pontevedra you should stay at Hotel Dabarca. A few days before, Bo emailed a British guy Colin who lives in Pontevedra and writes a very interesting blog “Thoughts from Galicia” and we arranged to meet him at the steps of the post office at 2 pm. He gave us a very in depth tour of the old city. It is a fairly small old town, but very very picturesque. It was great to have a local take us around and point out the interesting places and details. After about 2 hours of walking, Colin drove us to the house he has for rent/sale. It is 20 minutes outside the city on a hill with a great view of the city and valley. It is accessible by a very narrow road. The area is very beautiful, and the house is located on the edge of a small village with a lovely rustic restaurant. It’s a fairly new house built in the old Galician style. It has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a nice terrace and a beautiful garden and lots of hiking trails around. After that, Colin drove us back to the city, to his city house high up on a hill overlooking the downtown area. The views from his house are magnificent. In about 30 minutes we are going to meet with Colin again and he’ll take us to his favorite tapas bars.

Day 10 -- Ourense again

The hotel As Galeras in Olerios is great and whenever you are in Olerios you should stay there. We left Oleiros early and went to Santiago de Compostela. The toll road is great and empty, but pretty expensive. The 90 km drive from Oleiros to Santiago was 5.25 euro. The locals probably use the parallel free road. When we were there on Friday the crowds were overwhelming and the line to get into the cathedral went on forever. Today, there was no line so we walked right into the cathedral. It is huge and the main altar is all in gold. There are many chapels that would take several hours to see properly. We walked in during mass so the cathedral was fully alive with locals, tourists and pilgrims enjoying this amazing place together.
From there we drove to Ourense. When we got to the city, the roads were blocked because it was a national day of protest against the government policies all over Spain, and there was a big demonstration in Ourense as well. We had to drive around until we found an alternative route into the center, which was not easy at all. The night before we found a hotel on the web that had parking so we made a reservation for a room and parking. Very few hotels in the cities have parking so were excited to not schlep our bags across town. When we arrived at the hotel they told us the parking was full - but we said we had a reservation for parking… We declined the room and went to the same hotel we previously stayed at. After walking for an hour we met Ana who drove us to the house. It is an old stone house that the owner has renovated. It is located about 20 minutes from Ourense close to a village called Amoeiro. It’s pretty big -- four bedrooms, 2.5 baths but on 3 floors. The top floor is just the master bedroom and bath. It has a nice size garden. It’s definitely on of the best we have seen. This and the house in Rabade are two we liked the most. Both have a lot of potential. This house has been renovated but it still needs cosmetic work. The one in Rabade needs a total overhaul. Tomorrow we’ll meet a British guy named Colin who writes a very interesting blog called “Thoughts from Galicia”, and see a house he owns near Pontevedra. Due to an international incident over a grant Bo applied for and was awarded she was inundated with many emails from California and Italy.. With a Blackberry there is no such thing as a vacation.

Day 9 -- Oleiros & Betanzos

On a vacation schedule with no commitments we slept late. We walked around the area where the hotel is located. It is on a bluff overlooking a bay and there are many large houses. One in particular is amazing. It looks like a half-dome with a terrace protruding towards the coast. It is still under construction.
We then set out for Batanzos, about 10 km from Oleiros. The guide book touted it as a picturesque place. The old medieval town is hilly like San Francisco. It is walled in and surrounded by two rivers, which meet right outside the city walls. There was a farmers market there so we bought some fresh figs, which are really abundant and delicious here, and some tomatoes. We walked around and then found a tapas place for lunch/comida.
After returning to our hotel we first went to a sales office of a new development a couple of blocks away. We wanted to find out what the prices were around here. The sales lady took us on a tour of the apartments. This company built three buildings with six apartments each. Two buildings are sold out, and the one that is left will be ready in March 2011. The apartments are about 85 square meters, but terribly cut up into small spaces. The building quality is quite high but so is the price -- 320,000 euros per apartment. Not for us. Then we went on a long walk to two beaches. The area here is very pretty. The walking and biking trails along the coast that lead from beach to beach are beautiful and we can definitely understand why it would be a very desirable area to live.
In the meantime, Ana from Ourense contacted us about a house that looks really good so we will go and see it tomorrow. We also have another house to see near Pontevedra and potentially another one near Lugo.

Day 8 - A Coruna & Oleiros

We spent the morning in our great Laxe hotel ( whenever you are in Laxe make sure you stay at Playa de Laxe) picking a hotel in our next stop (A Coruña). We picked one from a list of all hotels in Galicia in a town on the outskirts of A Coruña. We checked out of our hotel and started driving toward A Coruña. It was an easy drive. The hotel we picked in the town of Oleiros is a gem. It is a studio apartment including a kitchen, an eating area with table and 2 chairs, a large bedroom with a bed, desk and chair, and a coffee table with 2 easy chairs. All this for about $60. We were so impressed we booked a second night.
We then drove into A Coruña. This is the biggest city of Galicia with about 300,000 people, a lot of industry and one of the largest ports in Spain. Of course it has its peninsula and both waterfronts are magnificent. It has a fairly small, but pretty old town, and some nice pedestrian streets lined with shops. Bo did some shopping. We had our comida, walked around for a couple more hours and returned to our base in Oleiros. We walked along the Oleiros waterfront and sunset. It is on the other side of the bay, exactly opposite A Coruna so the view of the lit city is magnificent. We also passed some amazing houses here. We think that Oleiros is to A Coruna what Sausalito is to San Francisco (well, maybe not quite, but at least in terms of the view).
Just a note about food here --- we’ve been shopping for wine an snacks from time to time and the selection and prices of wine are amazing. You can get a bottle of wine for as little as 69 euro cents (about $1). The bread is fantastic, not to mention a huge selection of wonderful cheeses and very tasty chorizo sausages. They also have amazing peaches, plums and grapes in season now. We’ve been eating well.

Day 7 -- Coast of Death (Costa da Muerte)

This part of the coast is named Coast of Death for the treacherous coast line and the many shipwrecks which happened here (some caused by natives with erroneous signals for ships). The coastline is not straight but jagged with peninsulas and bays. After the morning coffee (mornings start after 10 am here), we set out driving along the coast toward the little town of Camarenas about 20 km from Laxe. The first stop was at a small fishing village of Camallo where a German man built a tiny house on the edge of the water and garishly decorated the land around with dozens of “sculptures” made of local stones. The largest oil spill in Spain in 2002 devastated it and he died soon after, the legend says of sorrow that his beloved pristine coast was damaged. There is a museums there in his honor. From there we drove up and up on a very narrow road with the sea on one side way down below. The views were absolutely spectacular. We were looking for a site called Cementerio de los Ingleses -- a cemetery of hundreds of English travelers killed in the shipwreck in the 19th century. We followed a sign towards the cementario, but the road soon changed into what looked like an unpaved walking path and there was even a sign there saying that it was a pedestrian route. Al wanted to continue, but Bo got scared that there will be no place to turn around later and wanted to go back to the paved road. That’s what we did and followed it to the bigger fishing village of Camarenas, which is know for lace making and its lighthouse. We drove to the lighthouse first, an imposing structure high up at the very tip of the peninsula. There was a field of windmills on one side of it and a big salt plant on the other. We had lunch/comida of fish empanadas and a platter of clams and drove back to Laxe We parked the car by the hotel, had a little rest and set out for a hike to Playa de Soeste, a secluded beach about 3 km away. Laxe is on a peninsula with ocean on 3 sides. Our 6 km hike took us over a hill to the other side. The scenery was magnificent. On the way we met a group of hikers, but the beach was totally empty. We spent some time walking on the white sand. The water was pretty cold and it got quite windy so after a short rest we walked back to Laxe.
Dinner (or rather the evening meal) here starts at 8 pm so after 8 we walked down to a tapas place by the beach and had mussels and fish croquettes with wine (Bo) and beer (Al). All drinks in tapas bars are served with little snacks for which they don’t charge. Sometimes it’s a tiny roll with local sausage, sometimes baked sardines with potatoes, sometimes little bowls of potato salad or a meat ball; this evening we got slices of cheese with sardines on top.

Day 6 -- Costa da Muerte, Laxe

We left Ames (suburb of Santiago de Compostela) in the morning and headed for the coast. We were on secondary roads but they are very good. After less than 2 hours we arrived at Laxe. It is a sleepy beach town. It is very picturesque but not very lively. Our hotel is wonderful. After the previous 3 sparse hotels this one is paradise. Right on the beach and the room is huge and very tastefully decorated + has a fridge and a jacuzzi. After we checked in, the receptionist gave a booklet with walking trails. There are a lot of them in the area. We decided to take a short one (5 km) called the Faro trail around a small hilly peninsular before lunch. It was very easy at first, but then somehow we got off the trail and it became very, very steep and difficult. There was no turning back so we kept climbing until we reached the highest point with a small lighthouse. Bo’s hand was bleeding because on the way up she tried to hold on to something and grabbed a very thorny plant. The way back to the village only took a few minutes because we took an easy paved road through the middle. Then we went to a tapas bar and had a plate of mussels, fresh sardines with potatoes and a plate of octopus. Fresh octopus is a big specialty of this area, but the big plate we had definitely took care of our yearly needs.
In the afternoon we took another trail through the village to a small church of Santa Rosa de Lima on a hill overlooking the bay. The views were gorgeous from there. On the way, we met a young German pilgrim who has been walking since August. He came from Santiago via a coastal route and couldn’t say enough about the beauty of the Galician coast.

At 9 pm Mark and his wife and two lovely daughters, Susie and Belinda came to pick us up at the hotel and we went out to dinner. We had fantastic mariscos -- marinated fresh salmon and cod, two kinds of clams and razor fish + salad, bread, cheese and wine. The food was delicious. Luckily the restaurant was right in front of our hotel so we didn’t have to drive home.

Day 5 -- Santiago de Compostela

Morning in Orense was uneventful. However, we managed to sneak into the Cathedral right after mass. It is spectacular. The amount of gold is unbelievable. We were lucky since as we were leaving, the lights were being turned off and the glistening gold all around became dark. The drive to Santiago was on a nice toll road going through a lovely green, hilly or mountainous terrain. It was an easy drive, but the situation changed radically when we got to Santiago. Driving through a maze of narrow medieval streets, most of which are one way and totally crowded with cars and people is next to impossible. In addition to that, our GPS lady doesn’t do cities very well so we often drive around in circles. So we gave up trying to get anywhere and parked in an underground garage and began walking. As soon as we got near the Cathedral the crowds were overwhelming. Hoards of people do a pilgrimage to this city from all over all the time. The pilgrims routes are called “Camino de Santiago” and thousands of pilgrims eventually get into the city. You can see them wearing hiking boots, carrying backpacks and walking sticks. They are young and old. They probably take up at least half of the available hotel rooms. They congregate around the famous cathedral, which is immense and architecturally spectacular, but the line to go inside was unending. The whole city is a gem with its amazing architecture and history. It’s a bit too crowded for our taste, though.
Hotel --- we didn’t even think about making a reservation because after all late September is not the prime tourist season. Our attempt to find a hotel was disappointing to say the least. We tried every hotel we saw, even the most expensive place in town where the room is hundreds of euros, but there was not a vacant hotel room in the entire city. The local tourist information office gave us a book with a list of all the hotels in Galicia arranged by city. We looked at a map and chose the closest city on our itinerary towards the coast, called a hotel and booked a room. Tourist information also helped us find the only vegetarian restaurant in the city -- comida ecologica. We have never been so excited about a salad. After eating heavy and meaty Galician food for days, this was heaven.
We finally got back to our car (after having to ask for directions about 5 times). Driving out of the underground parking turned into one of the most horrifying experiences ever. In a very narrow driveway full of very sharp turns we were suddenly faced by another car going down as we were driving up. We thought that for sure he must have made a mistake. We hoped he would back out, but there was another car behind him. We couldn’t move either because there were at least two cars behind us. All this took place on a steep stretch so sliding down seemed like a real possibility. Finally, the car facing us managed to move as far to the wall as possible and we barely passed it and got out. We found our hotel in a brand new suburb about 3 miles away from Santiago. It is modern, clean and quite comfortable.

Day 4 -- Ourense

We left the hotel after the sparse breakfast. Culinary wonders is not a strong suit in Galicia. (the woman was going to pour coffee into the bowl of corn flakes). We drove through the winding roads and found a house that a neighbor said was for sale. It was a lovely big house with a walled-in yard with a very big swimming pool. The location was perfect so we went to our friend Mark’s house to see if he could show it to us. He told us it was sold but took us to another house instead. This house was in the village of Rabade, on the main street. We actually liked this one very much. It is an old stone house hidden under an ugly purple façade. It is pretty big and has a lot of potential even though it needs a lot of work. It has a good size garden and a small barn where Al could have his workshop. This one may be worth considering.

We then drove to the city of Orense - about 60 miles away. On the way Bo called a realtor who agreed to meet us at 4 pm. Ana, the young and fun realtor, then took us to see 4 houses. One was right on the river and you could launch a boat from the property. Unfortunately, the house was not good because it needed a complete overhaul and was on the main road. The next two were so remote they were not acceptable. The final house and property were spectacular. It was like a park. It had a swimming pool, palm trees, vineyards, fountains… Unfortunately the beautiful house had only one bedroom. This burst our bubble. None of the houses she showed us worked out, but we got to practice Spanish with her all afternoon.
Back in Ourense we are enjoying the local night crowd in the outdoor cafes. The historical center of he city is small but really beautiful -- a maze of narrow streets with several gorgeous churches sprinkled here and there.
N.B. Galicia is bilingual. The native population speak Gallego as their primary language but all speak Spanish also.
On the drive to Galicia we passed myriads of solar panel farms. Spain appears to be serious about ecology.

Day 3 Ribeira Sacra

The day started with oversleep. We awoke at 10 am - the appointed time for our meeting with Mark, the realtor. He met us at the hotel while we were having breakfast. Then he drove us to his house, which is a traditional Galician stone house that he rebuilt himself from almost a ruin. Then, we sat down in his office and picked houses to see that met our criteria. There weren’t that many of them --- maybe 8 or 9, and most were located near the town of Chantada, in the area called Ribeira Sacra. We decided to see those 5 first so we got into Mark’s car and drove there. On the way we stopped in the village of Monterroso to pick up keys and information from Maribel, Mark’s associate and have comida in a local restaurant. The restaurant was completely full and served a fixed menu with just a few selections. We had beer and wine made by the owner with barbecued ribs and local sausage, salad and home made pastry served with chocolate liqueur. Then we set out to see the houses:
House #1--- about 5 km from Chantada was not a traditional stone house, fairly modern, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, nice big lot, but nothing remarkable.
House #2 --- also about 5-6 km from Chantada, traditional Galician house owned by two English women was in a little hamlet of 5-6 stone houses; it was small but livable and had a gorgeous stone barn that could be converted to a living area + a nice big lot. Has potential.
House #3 --- located in a beautiful countryside, but with nothing close by was a big (5 bedrooms, 2 baths) fairly modern house with a large garden and orchard. Too big and too expensive and too remote.
House #4 --- an amazing piece of property perched high up on a hillside overlooking one of the most spectacular views imaginable, including mountains cut through by a river and a large dam. It also includes acres of producing vineyards that bring in some income with local people doing all the work. The house itself is pretty large, but needs a complete overhaul.
House #5 --- a huge stately stone house in the middle of nowhere with two barns and a big piece of land. It was priced quite high and needed a complete overhaul too.
So far none of them spoke to us.
We will continue our search in a slightly different area of Galicia and hopefully find something that does.