Coruna 43 22N 8 24W

Gryphon II
Chris and Lorraine Marchant
Sun 26 Jul 2009 20:48
Coruna proved a useful and interesting stop, despite the weather. An intriguing medieval fair was in progress with a wonderful atmosphere generated by the stalls selling all manner of galettes, chargrilled meats, eastern sweetmeats, baked potatoes, herbs and spices, cheeses etc.
There were also Medieval minstrels and jugglers, complete with a  leader who proceeded to dive into the fountain in the ancient town square!
 
Hams suspended over the tables in a local bar/cafe                                     Chargrilled meats of every description, galettes, pancakes, baked potatoes,
                                                                                                                       eastern sweet meats, herbs and spices flowed from the stalls.                          
 
                                              
       Throwing clay pots on a foot powered wheel                                                         Performers in the 'old' city square
 
                                        Artisan cheeses
 
We  also took a tram to the Tower of Hercules built by the Romans (and now the oldest operational lighthouse in the world) and to a rather high quality aquarium.
 
 
Santiago de Compostella
 
After a boring day of washing and shopping we took the train through the atractive countryside to Santiago, to see the city that Hattie had walked 500 miles to get to during her Camino across Spain. It was an important Saints's Day and we expected the town to be crowded with pilgrims.However when we arrived the streets were filled not with the devout but with Free Galician activists numbering many thousands. The crowd were good natured but there was clearly an undercurrent of something harder with various ultra left wing groups in evidence.
 
However the crowds thinned and we had an excellent day of site seeing and eating ( a rather good 4 course Galician meal with wine for 11.5 Euros!) These giants with giant heads appeared both in the cathedral and out on the street where they did some sort of square dance...but we never really found out who they were, except that they include black people, south American Indians , white people and others that the Spanish culture has collided with in the past.