16/08/2026
Santiago de Compostela Day 2.
Stayed on the roof top terrace last night until midnight reading & drinking not necessarily in that order 😀 . Jo Green had retired gracefully but I was reading about a particular element of Liverpool history & got engrossed & besides the wine bottle wasn't going to finish itself off 😉.
So this morning no alarm Jo knocked asking if I wanted to have a breakfast drink on the terrace. I thought that's good, however, it turns out it was hot water & a glass of fruit juice 😞.
So to business - fail to plan & ‘Bob the builder’ will be making rude comments & shaking his head. So we went & found the bus terminus - cleverly called
Estación de Autobuses to fool the thousands of pilgrims. It was about 15 mins walk away. 👌.
Then it was off to find the maze, you may gather, I attach a lot of importance to my stick besides myself. So the previous two times I've been here my sticks have crept away into the maze to hopefully live happily ever after - bit like the Wooden Tops for those of a certain age - sad to see it go but promises are promises & besides I couldn't get it in my rucksack unless I chopped it up - which seems to be against the spirit of the ‘Ent code’!
Then off to the Cathedral where we only queued for about 20 minutes to get in & found a pew for the noon mass.
I'm not saying it's just a tourist attraction but two ladies in front videoed the inward procession (despite repeated no camera / videos in a myriad of languages) and then spent the mass watching videos - one a tennis match (yes I did look over her shoulder) & then before the end both were off! 😞.
After mass we spent an hour following up & finding quirky signs & symbols Jo had identified but which I'd gone blindly past e.g 0 Km etc.
Then I remembered that the last time we were here there was a lovely gardened cafe (up a climb) called Xardín das Delicias🌷, one of Catherine's & John's favourite places. It's set in a smallish garden that overlooks the City. You sit shaded between flower bushes & trees with a temperate breeze blowing - I didn't really want to move from there but needs must.
Lunch al fresco on the rooftop terrace provided by my own fair hand!
Jo had in the meantime identified a market place to eat (more later) and that we should visit Parque de la Alameda - which has a statue to Jo's favorite Spanish poet & writer Fredrico Garcia Lorca. He wrote & initially came to fame through writing ‘Romancero gitano’ (Gypsy Ballads) a group of poems about life in his native Andalusia. Sadly he was executed in 1936 by Franco’s men during the Spanish Civil War.
Although from a personal point of view I remember Jo reading him out loud constantly when she was doing A'level Spanish - something about the moon & possibly white horses., maybe i’m just a philistine 😀. Another statue in the park & further victims of Franco was the Two Marias (As Dúas Marias). Now I’ve had fun with these statues in the past (see below) but didn't realise the sad story behind them. Again they found themselves on the wrong side of the Spanish Civil war & were r***d & tortured because of their brothers & own political leanings. Sometime later they took to dressing eccentrically- some people thought they'd gone mad but others that it was a clever disguise! Also whilst in the park we came across a statue to Rosalía Castro & both of us looked at each other puzzled trying to think where we'd heard the name before? Turns out that when we were in Padrón we'd been speaking to a group of her admires & they’d given me a postcard of her - oops!
So the long goodbye to Santiago has begun, but first a shower & then a meal locally.
Earlier I'm mentioned about planning & bragging about our roof terrace, however, who would have guessed that the apartment block would lose power just before we went out? Lots of confusion until we realised we weren't alone. It did however, mean that we had to walk down the seven floors to get out! - more Camino hills.
Of the recommendations Jo had received for tonight's tea we (well not me) had narrowed it down to two venues. The what turned out to be the modern Mercado La Galiciana with a tractor in the entrance. Here you had a choice of picking online from 7 or 8 restaurants in the ‘market' in theory a pick-a-mix, however, each business meal was a full meal & full price, so not really tapas, so we had a drink & left. Nice idea but still needed working on.
The second recommendation was Cafe Da Lucia a local place that promised tapas, however, no one mentioned Fawlty Towers. Went inside & there was about six people in there - two about to leave. Eventually a young waiter took our drinks order & eventually returned. By then we’d gone through the menu & Jo had listed it on her phone. We’d chosen 5 or 6 tapas including salad & bread & some hot stuff. The waiter nodded, listened to our order & trotted off. Suspicious both Jo & I said ‘thought he’d have written it down’ but no - maybe a good memory. About 5 minutes later he was back asking what we’d ordered - i did offer a pen but he huffily left -obviously now with the full order remembered. Patatas Bravos arrive, then a lull as most of hot dishes arrived, however, the bread & salad were nowhere to be seen. I tell a lie, the table next to us got a lovely bowl of salad - apparently one of the best free tapas they’d had, they’d only come in for a drink. They’d received our salad we realised eventually due to ‘una confusión’ Got to admit the food was very tasty, however, the bread never arrived until we were about to pay the bill - unsurprisingly we said no to it. Back to the apartment block & yeah the lights & more importantly the lifts are back on - get in!
From us both & the family thanks for all your support & comments ###
