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.