Galicia

Heather and Simon headed south to enjoy Granada while we used the Puente de Mayo to head north.  I knew this would probably be the last vacation that we could take.  I thought Hollis would really love northern Spain, so we rented a car to drive to Santiago de Compostela.  We paid extra so Hollis could drive too.  When we got to the car rental place, we were given the choice between a Mini or a Ford Ka.  We took the Mini.  And LOVED driving it.  Hollis is posing in our car at the gas station.

And this is me with the Mini after we got to our AWESOME hotel.

Just look at the view!  So green!  And just gorgeous.

Our hotel was built in an old farmhouse (600 years old).  It was very quaint and quiet.  And gorgeous.

The inside had beautiful beams.  And the rooms were located around an inner atrium that housed a community living room and stone oven.

Each morning they served breakfast - so much food that was so delicious!  Outside they had play toys for kids (that I would totally use if we go again with kids).

This is another view of the wonderful place we stayed.

And this was the view from our window:

Just gorgeous.

We went into Santiago each day.  We loved the city.  We visited the Cathedral (my favorite in Spain).  It is so rainy and humid there that the cathedral has moss growing on it.

The facade you see above is actually the "new" one they built to protect the old one.  You see, this cathedral is built over the burial place of Saint James (or Santiago), the patron saint of Spain.  The legend goes that people were led to the grave by a starry trail, and found St. James' grave beneath a field of stars, or Compostela.  This cathedral is the end of a pilgrimage to see St. James' coffin (pictured below).

There is a pilgrim's mass each day at noon.  It was full for ours.  I enjoyed the organ music.

The original facade is being restored, so we couldn't get any pictures of the whole thing.  But I did get a picture of the place where people touch to officially end their pilgrimage.  If you look above the head, you can see a smooth part with five indentations around it.  It is where hands have touched for hundreds of years and have worn an awesome hand print into it.

Behind the cathedral there are some awesome staircases.  I love cool stairs.

There was also a protest going down the streets while we were there.  I'm not sure exactly what the protest was about, but I'm sure it had to do something with the Spanish government cutting entitlements.  We tried to walk away from it, but every street we turned down turned out to be the one that they were going down too!

After finally escaping the protestors, Hollis and I tried to visit a few museums.  However, they all closed early because it was a holiday apparently.  But we found this awesome park instead and had a photo shoot.

And then there was this totally random statue.  I'm not sure why it is there, but it made me laugh.

And just a few more pictures of the awesome greenness that is Galicia:

I love the farms on the hills.

We used Heather and Joey's GPS again.  We wanted to go through Portugal on our way back, and this is the way their GPS took us.  Onto a tiny road.  We decided to just go with it.  I told Hollis that we would turn around if it turned into a dirt road.

And this was the little sign that told us where to go.

Down this tiny overgrown road.

I was worried that the road would end because there was a cliff on one side and the road was about as wide as the mini.  It did indeed lead to Portugal, and we got to see a lot of awesome small villages and BEAUTIFUL countryside.

We are going to go back someday.