Following the Camino de Santiago, we drove the final 350 km from Leon, past Las Udellas, the UNESCO site and former Roman gold mine and across the mountains into the region of Gallicia.
To our surprise we found that culmination of our pilgrimage and the capital of Gallicia, Santiago de Compostela is not on the coast but about 60km inland, at an altitude of 300m between some serious mountains.
The climate of Santiago is mild and humid with 1545 mm or 61 inches of rain per year, but I'm pleased to say it rarely snows. It is a university city and its economy is supported by education and tourism plus some new, modern industry. Wiki says that 250,000 pilgrims visited the city in the holy year of 2010 and about 125,000 people live here permanently. St. James the apostle preached here, and you religious folk will remember St. James' Letters to the Gallicians, hence the pilgrimage route.
Having deposited our rucksacks at our very modern pilgrim's hostel near the university's north campus, we thought we'd better join our fellow pilgrims in the plaza in front of the church where St James' relics are said to reside.
After congregating here for a while .....
... chewing the fat, having a few photos taken ...
... meeting a local ...
... we thought we had better try to find Rick Stein's two suggested restaurants in preparation for dinner. Much and all as I distrust TripAdvisor, I did notice that Rick's picks rated No. 6 and No. 9 of the 321 restaurants in Santiago de Compostela.
Our first find was Abastos 2, a tapas bar at the gates to Santiago's food market. Rick said it offered the best empanadas in northern Spain. An empanada is a little pastie-like pastry that can be filled with just about anything. What made the empanadas at Abastos 2 better than others was that they were filled with fish.
But it was closed - 'Come for lunch tomorrow' the signs on the window said.
After several street searches and finally asking a local for directions, we eventually located Taberna O Gato Negro - The Black Cat - where the specialty is razor clams. There was absolutely no sign of life at 6.30 pm but like the intrepid pilgrims we are, we returned at 9.15 pm to try our luck a second time. The people waiting for a table were queuing out the door. Too hungry to wait endlessly, we moved on up the street and were thoroughly underwhelmed. I had empanada and found it dry, oily and unpleasant; fish soup that was wishy-washy, and razor clams that we're just OK. The bread was awful. The Rioja was good.
Next day we thought we'd try the tapas bar around lunch time for an empanada, but after my experience the night before, Paul wasn't all that keen. Plenty of people sitting and standing but no displayed menu. Everyone was drinking but not eating. Discouraged, we decided to look around the food market in lieu of lunch.
They don't seem too concerned about display at this stall - just throw everything in the tray. Vegetarians note: do not look at this photo in detail! At least they are following the "nose to tail" principle of no food waste.
This young woman is a bit more customer focused - she displays prices!
The cheeses in this part of northern Spain, are made in the shape of a spinning top, conical and sliced into wedges to serve. The cheese on the right is the best known Spanish cheese - Manchego, made of ewe's milk, sweet and mild. The cheese on the left is called Tetilla and is a speciality of the Santiago de Compostela area. It has hello rind and is made of pasteurised cow's milk.
Breakfast at the hotel had been OK so we foolishly decided to eat there on our second night, rather than walk all the way into the old city and back - again. Paul had lamb as was pleased but I choose the pasta with mushrooms followed by the cod. It was truly amongst the worst food I have ever eaten!
I feel as though my food pilgrimage is a disaster. Paul says I'm just spoilt and impossible to please. He's probably right.
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