Santiago de Compostela

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 5 Aug 2008 20:00
 
Santiago de Compostela is in our "Thousand Places To See Before You Die" book, so we had to go to tick it off.
 
We took the nine o'clock bus from Portosin to Noia. The lady at the marina off said not to bother getting to the bus stop until nine thirty, the bus came at nine forty five. As we came into Noia we saw the ten o'clock Santiago bus pass us at ten o five. Right next to the bus station was a huge supermarket, so with an hour to kill until the next bus we wandered around. I made a shopping list which included rabbit, crab and veg to pop in on our return as it didn't close until nine fifteen. We had coffee an cake in the bus station cafe and paid three euros twenty each for our hour long bus ride to Santiago.
 
 
      
 
Noia is located at the foot of the Muros bay in the region of Galacia, there was a marina there until it silted up, on arrival at Santiago we found this chap in the university garden.
 
     
 
After wandering around the Cathedral ( see its own page) we found the Seminary, they offered a three course lunch including bread and a large bottle of water for nine euros fifty. Bargain.
Bear outside the Seminary entrance, the inner courtyard and when I saw the cloisters I wanted to know "Did they take women"
 
      
 
Once inside we were shown to a long table, I chose Lasagne, followed by lamb shank and potatoes, then mousse and bitter fruit jus. Bear chose Calamari (of course he would) followed by fish and the same pudding.
We choose a white wine from Portevedre (our next port of call). We had the slowest, least interested waiter but it gave Bear chance to write a postcard to his mum. Me ditto. The last photo on the line is our MYSTERY SHOT. Answers can be sent by email and I will let you know who gave the best guess.
 
     
 
These are pretty random shots of the city, the funeral car was spectacular with both sides and the rear bedecked with these huge bouquets, the one on the right has at least three dozen red roses just in the top plume. The Merc hearse was the nicest car we saw as every other vehicle we saw was bashed and dented, standard of driving very iffy indeed.
 
      
 
This road was called San Francisco Hill !!!, again some more random shots.
 
    
 
We saw a couple of chaps doing a bit of repair work to the pointing in thirty one degrees of heat. A pretty courtyard in the centre of the city. Which bus was it ???
 
 
Santiago de Compostela (Compostela = field of star) was founded in the fourth century by the Suebi people. The capital of Galacia and in five hundred and eighty four was incorporated into the Visigothic Kingdom.
The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was the year two thousand "City of Culture".
My comment of the day was to our Santiago bus driver from the bus station to the city centre. A strong Spanish accent but when asked the directions to the Cathedral gave a word perfect answer in English. I said "Your English is fantastic"  his reply "It should be mate, I was born there and left when I was twelve years old".
All in all an amazing place to visit and well worth a days bimbling. We rounded the day off back in the supermarket in Noia. Got back to Beez at eight thirty.