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| Leigh at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral (UNESCO), Spain |
We’ve spent the last month or so in Portugal, and now driven into north-western
Spain to Santiago de Compostela. This interesting and compact old town, with
its Gothic architecture and cobbled streets is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
and known for its historic cathedral.
But it’s been a roundabout drive getting here because the Tour de Spain
cycle race was on, and some towns and roads were closed.
Also, Leigh
had a bumble-bee sting her. It flew through the open window of our motorhome, and
down her back then stung her on the spine. Marg stopped the van and put ice on it and we moved on, but it was
painful for some time.
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| Marg in Santiago de Compostela (UNESCO), Spain |
Eventually,
we arrived in Santiago de Compostela, found a parking spot for our big
motorhome, Vanni, and walked around the town for a while. But the main attraction
was the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.
Its on the site of what is believed to be the burial place of
the apostle St. James. This has made it a centre of Catholic pilgrimage since the 9th century.
While we’ve been in Spain, we’ve seen dozens of people walking and
cycling on the ‘Camino de Santiago’ (the Way of Santiago, also known as the Way
of St. James). They were all headed to
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral on their pilgrimage.
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| Marg outside the ancient town walls of Lugo, Spain |
We stayed in Santiago for a night then moved on to Lugo, known for its
1700 year old Roman wall. It encircles Lugo’s old town, which is even older, dating back to 14 BC.
This huge wall with its 10 entry gates, is very imposing and surprisingly intact for
its age.
We climbed the wall for an overview of the old town, then walked down and through it. We particularly liked the ornate Baroque town hall and the main square. Then after enjoying an ice-cream from one of the many cafes, we moved on.
From Lugo, we drove to Gijón on the Northern Atlantic coast
of Spain.
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| Marg hanging the washing at our campsite in Gijón, Spain |
Arriving in Gijón, we realised how tired we were after travelling for
so long, and we were happy to just spend a few days at our campsite catching up on
domestic chores, emails and the blog.
After a few days, we headed into Gijón.
Gijón, began as a fishing village nearly 3,000 years ago. Now days, it has
a small historic fishermen’s quarter called Cimavilla, and the rest of the city
is big and industrial with lots of chimneys and very tall commercial buildings.
We visited the waterfront which has plenty of yachts, the Roman ruins, Revillagigedo
Palace, and San Pedro Church, before heading back to camp.
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| Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain |
A few days later, we drove to Bilbao, known world-wide for the Frank
Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum, one of Spain's most important museums.
While there, the weather turned very wet which hampered our sightseeing.
Also, this is a very big city with big distances between sights, so we settled
on a drive-through so we could see as much as we could in the rain. We managed to get photos of the Guggenheim, then moved on.
It was a tricky drive through the heavy rain and past lots of trucks.
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| Leigh in Donostia San Sebastián |
Our next stop was in Donostia San Sebastián, a very beautiful city
on the Bay of Biscay, with great beaches and a lovely seafront boardwalk.
The architecture is very attractive with many stately buildings, and it
was very vibrant.
It is a resort town and quite touristy, but we enjoyed walking around
exploring there. We saw quite a bit, including old churches, an historic
bridge, little cobbled streets, interesting shops, and several grand monuments.
We liked this place quite a lot, however, the day was closing in and we
had to find a place to park in our motorhome for the night.
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| Marg in Donostia San Sebastián |
Heading off, we drove toward the Spain/France border to
find something. About 30 minutes out of Donostia, we came upon a local
Autocaravan stop.
We stayed the night for the ‘huge’ sum of 6.25 Euros! This had to be paid for in a complicated, temperamental money machine that only took the exact amount of coin, but it was worth it for the price.
The next day, we said a sad farewell to fascinating Spain and its wonderfully friendly people. We've spent around 7 weeks in our motorhome travelling the length and breadth of this picturesque country, and have enjoyed it immensely.
Tomorrow we head off for another adventure. This time, just over the border in France.
This blog describes part of our 6 month
campervan trip around western Europe, which began in Prague in April.