Our 2nd daytrip from Santiago was A Coruna, and it has nothing to do with Cerveza. This is a cool seaside town that is due north of Santiago (versus Finisterre which is due west). One of the coolest things to see in A Coruna is the Tower of Hurcules.
This ancient lighthouse was originally built by the Romans in the 2nd century, and renovated in 1791, and is the oldest Roman lighthouse that remains in use. Unfortunately they were closed since it was Christmas Eve, but you can go inside pretty much every other day (of course).
They had a beautiful compass rose between the lighthouse and the water that pointed to different parts of Spain.
This quadrant pointed towards Santiago of course has a scallop shell.
This quadrant points towards the west coast of this region of Spain, which is known as the Death Coast.
This section of coastline was referred to as the Death Coast because of how many shipwrecks happened here. There are even stories of pirates setting up fake lighthouses to get ships disoriented so that they run aground.
The statue in the background is supposed to be a conch shell. I think you are supposed to squint your eyes.
They had a fake Stonehenge nearby. Not sure of the signifigance, but it got us to walk over!
Fake Stonehenge or not, it was a beautiful spot and well worth a visit.
Since we had 4 days in Santiago, and had pretty much seen most of the town in the first 4 hours, we decided to take some day trips. First up was a trip to Cape Finisterre, which is the “actual” ending point of the Camino de Santiago. It’s an extra 90 km from Santiago, so I think a lot of the pilgrims skip this part, but we did see our share of people there who desperately needed a shower.
The Romans referred to Cape Finisterre as the “end of the world”, and the name is Latin for “end of the earth”. I take my wife to the best places!
So speaking of desperately needing a shower, a recent tradition of the pilgrims has been to burn their shoes and clothing at this site since they have finally finished their trek (they still have to go back to Santiago to buy their scallop tourist shit and visit the supposed ashes of Saint James, but forget about that detail for a second). Apparently this has become such a problem that they have had to post signs asking people not to burn stuff! I love the flaming shoe.
They have a brass shoe mounted to a rock to signify the end of the trip. I would prefer a beer mug…..full….but that’s just me. This is the apparent site of the burning ritual
It does somewhat look like the end of the world, I will give them that.
We drove back to the little fishing village of Fisterra (not to be confused with Finisterra), and had lunch. We then walked along the waterfront and watched what was either a homeless dude or a pilgrim (they can be hard to tell apart) pissing in the bay off of a boat ramp. This guy must have been German as he was wearing socks with sandals (I understand that’s a German thing…correct me if I’m wrong). Poor dude misjudged the waves on the boat ramp…..he was wringing his socks out the next time we saw him. Karma baby!
We saw these structures all over the place in this region of Spain.
Are they above ground crypts? My initial thought since they all have crosses on them. If not, fish drying bins? WTF? It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel that Kim looked them up. They are called Horreos, and they are used to store cobs of corn and other crops to keep them safe from rodents. They are everywhere. Sometimes you’ll see one right in front of a gas station. Bizzare.
On our way back to Santiago, I saw a sign indicating a “dolmen” off the roadway. A dolmen is a megalithic tomb, and this one dates from 2000 BC. We started driving on the very narrow dirt road towards it and suddenly found the road washed out from the recent rains. It looked unpassable, so I tried backing up, but it would have been about a half a mile before I could turn around, and it was VERY narrow with rocks on both sides. I finally said F*%$ it and forged ahead as fast as I could go given the conditions. I felt the car sliding from side to side and losing traction in the mud, and my thoughts drifted to “oh shit, we are a mile from civilization and it’s nearing sunset and we are going to get stuck out here and Kim is going to be oh so happy”…. but we made it through to dry land!
The trip back through the muck was almost as bad, and I bottomed out the car on a big rock….thank goodness they don’t check the undercarriage when you return rentals…..it was quite the impact.
I think we are done with Dolmens for awhile.
We had a really excellent dinner in Santiago at the Parador hotel. They have two restaurants there, the Dos Reis (where we had dinner), and the Enxebre (where we had lunch on Christmas day). If we stayed in Santiago again, we would definitely stay at the Parador versus the NH Collection. Right across the square from the Cathedral! Their lobby also has the most beautiful Christmas decorations.
