(DAY 7 of our trip)
I Know it is Tuesday morning, but we really must back up and start this entry by covering the Sunday (last night) in Verin Parador. We ate in the Parador which is always an enjoyable experience, good service and really good regional food. Cheryl and I had the scallops, rather appropriate considering we are on the Camino de Santiago and the symbol of the Pilgrims is a scallop shell!
After dinner we noticed that the smell of smoke was very strong, the wind had been keeping the smoke away all day, so we went outside. All the Hotel staff and guests were out there looking in disbelief at the forest fires which were all around us up in the mountains. We were in no danger as they were a long way away, but in the night sky it did look very spooky! We had to keep our windows closed that night, the smell was very strong. In the morning it seemed as though the fires had abated, but we saw in the newspaper that one of the pilot firefighters had died in a crash. When we were sitting on the patio writing our last blog, we heard the sirens of the police and firefighters and wondered what was happening. They are not sure yet what happened, but think that because the smoke was so thick that he became disoriented and flew into the ground. He was Basque. Very sad.
We left the Parador and headed out on our travels toward, Ourense, Santiago and Ferrol. Very pretty country still green in spite of the unprecedented heat for this time of year. We were going to stop in Ourense, but decided after driving around the town aimlessly for a while that we would press on to Santiago as that was our main objective for the day.(apart from getting to El Ferrol for the night). We stopped for a coffee in a very cute village bar and had a chat with the lady. Seems the Duchess of Alba had just got married and Spanish TV was obsessed with it. Given that she is the richest woman in Spain and 85 years old marrying a man 20 years younger, I suppose they have a point. Our new friend said “Why marry him? Just live with him!” Apparently she has about 6 children and they are not happy!!! Our new friend was most interested in our trip and asked if she could come with us! We said sure, but she decided to stay with her grandson instead!
Santiago! A big city and a lot of driving around looking for a parking place. Como siempre!! The weather is still incredible. Even the Gallegos cannot believe it! Usually by this time of year it is cold and rainy. No complaints here, but we would all have packed a bit differently. The cathedral is very impressive. Pilgrims have been coming to this spot for about a thousand years. The cathedral is built on top of the old shrines, churches and the tomb of St James. This building dates from about1075 to 1211 with additions etc ongoing afterwards. It stands on a huge Plaza, there, I guess the throngs of penitents would gather after finishing their grueling journey from all over Europe to atone for their sins. In the Cathedral is the largest botafumeiro in the world. It takes 8 men to swing this incense burner on huge arches through the Cathedral. I believe it was used to mitigate the ripe odor of all these earnest pilgrims!
Ferrol is located on the tidal inlet and hence was surrounded by dense morning mist courtesy of the cool Atlantic waters and unusually hot land temperature in 3 hours of sunshine we can barely see the Spanish Navy ships tied up less than 500 yards from the Parador hotel!!
Jane had run the calculation on the gas mileage after our first refuel and we are getting 35+ mpg running at 75/80 mph. Short drive today to Vilba so we might add more to the blog from there.
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