It is foggy again today, but we will leave anyway and fight our way through it until we are away from the sea. As farther in land, Santiago de Compostella is bright and sunny. The GPS does a good job of getting us to a convenient parking garage, and, even better, it has spaces to park. I am glad we decided to not take the bus from Fisterra.
Along the way, we stop for gas. Ana has been wondering why so many Galician homes have small stone houses, on pedistals in their front yards? We have seen them down the coast from Fisterra and now throughout the farm country east of the Atlantic. Yesterday, we asked several women what they were for, but neither said they knew. Ana asks the service station attendant. He tell us that they were used traditionally for corn drying. Another person, we later check this explanation with, says the same. Still, they don’t seem large enough for that purpose? I thought they might be chicken coups. Ana had guessed that they were religious shrines, or personal family chapels. I suppose not, but we will have to look into this more.
It is a short walk through an old city from the parking ramp. Narrow pedestrian streets are encircled by streets for vehicles. As in other places, only service vehicles may come into the old town. Our primary interest is the cathedral. We are doing the Camino Santiago de Compostella in reverse. We have already visited its physical end at the Fisterra lighthouse, and now we are at the spiritual end, the Cathedral de Santiago de Campostella.
Unfortunately, the church is a mess with reconstruction. The outdoor views are scarred with high rise cranes and scaffolding. We go inside and the same true there. It is an impressive little cathedral, but the renovations underway have made it more a construction site. Hundreds of people swirl around the the scaffolding and barriers trying to see the place. Most of the stain-glass windows are covered and the statues of gold are shrouded with cloths. A long line is cued up to see the interior chapel, but it will hardly be worth the wait. We have seen many better cathedrals, so our visit is brief.
We stroll down streets leading away from the cathedral and find a sidewalk cafe for lunch. Ana wants a Camino T-shirt and goes across the way to shop. I sit and wait for our pizza and watch the crowd. A wide variety of hiker/pilgrims appear in outdoor attire, hiking boots and backpacks. Some look like they have done the 400? miles others look like they have walked from a nearby parking lot. Everyone is a pilgrim in this town. There are groups of women with huge packs, who are extremely over weight. How far could they have walked? There are middle age men with nifty gear, who look like they have not walked a mile. There is a couple in sandels with two sheep dogs. (We will see them again.) The place is more like a halloween party than the end of a long trek. I enjoy the people watching, while Ana shops.
Ana shops some more. We walk about the old town. It is a fine place, but mostly a shopping mall. It is getting hot and I am tired of the scene. I suggest we get back to the car and drive to the coast north of Fisterra. It is a lovely day and it will be good to travel along the sea.
We drive an hour back to a town called Camarinas; a little fishing village on the coast north of fisterra. The drive is through sunny, warm farm country. It reminds me of upstate NY, rolling green hills with farm and fields of corn and other crops. As we approach the sea and Camarinas, the fog appears again. The port of Camarinas is shrouded in fog; it would be beautiful had the sun been out I suspect. But today, it is gray and dull and cool. We stop at a harborside cafe and have a drink. Ana asks the waitress if this is typical weather and she says it is not. In fact, she lives a few miles inland and has not brought proper clothes to work. She is feeling the cool sea air, too.
We take a few photos from the downtown pier of the fishing boats pulling in. Then, we see a sign for a lighthouse and drive several miles along the shore to find it. It is a beautiful spot, but the dense fog has muted any chance of a striking photo. Still we can see the rocky shoreline below the lighthouse and how lovely the sea might look on a sunny day. People here have created a trail linking many western coast light houses with trails along the sea. Hikers have a sea view and sea breezes for more than 100 miles. Doing this trek could be quite wonderful. Ana says she would be willing to do it. I have seen the terrain. She will have to prove herself in the NH mountains before we take this challenge on.
We come back to Fisterra hoping to eat at the restaurant where we ate two night before. It is mysteriously closed on a Thursday night? We go to another recommended place across the street. They have only tables with pine plank benches; no cussions? Rustic and uncomfortable. But it is time to eat. We have a good salad of watercress, walnuts, pickled tomatoes and goat cheese with a sweet dressing. Ana gets a fish stew with potatoes sliced thinly. I get breaded and deep fried prawns. Both are good. Tomorrow we go away from Fisterra to a place farther north, that is famous for giant rocks eroded by the sea. One could spend a month prowling about Galacia; it is too bad our time is coming to an end here!
European Trip 2019 