Santiago de Compostela is the capital city of Galicia in north-west Spain, near the border with Portugal. The city attracted our attention as a travel destination for a few reasons: amazing seafood; medieval UNESCO listed architecture and cheap flights as it is only a short distance from the UK across the Bay of Biscay. However the city's main claim to fame is the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great. Pilgrims from all over the world have been travelling the 'Way of St James' route starting from Portugal or France to Santiago de Compostela from as early as the 9th century.London to Santiago de Compostela
Our process for booking a weekend city break usually starts by searching for 'cheap' destinations on Skyscanner.net. This site allows you to select a country or city, date range and then kick off a price-based search across a database of different airlines. We then play with the different combinations of 'departure time' vs 'total travel time' to come up with the flights that we want. The site directs you to the airline's own website to complete the booking with seat selection and other extras including checked-in baggage. The inclusion of taxes, card charges and other miscellaneous costs can result in a larger fare than the original quote from Skyscanner - however it is always a good place to start.
For this trip, we combined flights from Easyjet and Ryanair to ensure we arrived in on Saturday morning and flew out by Sunday night. The flight into Santiago de Compostela from Gatwick Airport took a couple of hours. A shuttle bus from the airport delivered us to the city center and we tailed a large group of pilgrims to find our way into the historic Old Town where our hotel was located.
The City
We spent the majority of our visit within the historic center of town that is small enough to be explored over a weekend. There are many narrow laneways with shops and restaurants in buildings that are a mixture of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque architecture. We were lucky with the weather - the June sunshine was perfect for alfresco dining and spending hours just wandering around.
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| Exploring the laneways |
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| The main road between the Cathedral and our hotel |
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| One of the original city gates |
As the city attracts thousands of visitors each year with a high proportion being pilgrims that have walked non-stop for the past month, there is a variety of accommodation options available for rest and relaxation. The most famous hotel is the Parador de Santiago - formerly the royal hospital. It sits on the large paved square (Praza do Obradoiro) shared with the City Hall and the Cathedral.
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| Front entrance of the Parador Hotel |
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| The City Hall overlooking the Praza do Obradoiro |
Camino de Santiago
The Camino de Santiago is the pilgrimage route to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims arrive by foot or bicycle and they are identified by the scallop shell (symbol of the Camino) that is worn on backpacks or hanging from wooden walking staffs. Pilgrims may also carry a credencial - a form of pilgrim passport that provides them with access to inexpensive accommodation along the trail. The credencial is stamped by the places that they have eaten or slept at. This document is used as proof that the pilgrim has completed the official route and is eligible to obtain the compostela - a certificate of accomplishment of the pilgrimage that requires at least 100km walked or 200km cycled.
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| Pilgrims on foot |
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| Pilgrims by bicycle |
Cathedral
The end goal of the pilgrimage is to reach the Cathedral and visit the tomb of the saint. When we visited the Cathedral it was under renovation and the main entrance was closed. The security guard directed us to a back entrance where we joined a packed audience attending mass. As such, it was difficult for us to explore the inside of the cathedral or the tomb and we made our exit in hope to visit the next day. However due to the large number of pilgrims that were in the city that weekend, the capacity of the Cathedral was soon reached and no further visitors were allowed entry with security guards manning the doors. Whilst we weren't that disappointed, we saw some upset pilgrims that had travelled extensively only to be refused entry into the site.
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| Pórtico da Gloria - Main entrance of the Cathedral covered in scaffolding |
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| The beautiful carved stone decorations |
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| Pilgrims making their way inside the Cathedral |
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| People waiting outside as the Cathedral was at capacity |
Hotel Monumento San Francisco
We booked our accommodation at the historic Hotel Monumento San Francisco, located in a Franciscan convent that dates back to the year 1214 AD. The convent is still active and the site houses a museum of items from other Holy sites and a glass walkway showing the original foundations of the city wall.
The hotel is also used for wedding celebrations in the hotel courtyard and cloister.
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| The grand cloister with its arched walkways |
Monument by day and night
Church by day and night
Mercado de Abastos
Eating the local cuisine was high on our 'to do list' and we made our way to the food market - Mercado de Abastos, busy with locals and tourists visiting the stalls to pick up all types of fresh produce. One thing we discovered too late as all the slots were booked out; is that the nearby restaurants offer a service of cooking your fresh seafood purchases from the market - a point to note for future travelers.
Vinoteca Do Mercado
In the market square we spotted a wine bar - Vinoteca Do Mercado where a number of patrons were enjoying glasses of white wine with the famous paprika sprinkled boiled Galician octopus (pulpo). This sight made us quite envious and we soon worked out that the octopus had to be purchased from a separate stall and brought back to your seat at the wine bar.
We shared our table at the wine bar with a couple from Belgium who spoke Spanish and helped us with ordering the wine. They had just completed the Camino and were on the way to pick up their certificate. They encouraged us to give it a try one day as the scenery and friendships made along the walk were worth the physical effort.
Restaurant O Dezaseis
Eating the pulpo wasn't sufficient to fill us up for lunch and we found another restaurant serving traditional Galician food - including fried padron peppers (of which you have a 10% chance of eating a hot one); a traditional pie made with a bread-like pastry; baked vieira (sea scallop) and grilled navajas (razor clams).
Out exploring
Between lunch and dinner, we burnt off calories by using the hotel pool and took a walk around the gardens near the hotel that were fringed by interesting buildings.
Restaurant - El Cayado
When evening arrived, we explored the laneways to seek out a restaurant. We decided on El Cayado as it appeared busy (most patrons were part of a tour group) and it had an English menu. We ate more seafood - prawns and thick chunks of grilled meat.
Cathedral Museum
The next morning we visited the Cathedral Museum in the Praza do Obradoiro. It had an interesting collection of artifacts relevant to the Camino and the Cathedral building. The highlight was the roof-top area that was decorated with sculptures and the balcony that overlooked the square.
Tourist Train
With quite a few hours to spare before our flight home, we purchased a seat on the tourist train and enjoyed a scenic visit past some of the city's other attractive buildings.
Video
The YouTube video below is a compilation from our trip to Santiago de Compostela. It did have a soundtrack and we do acknowledge the artist in the video however due to a copyright claim, the video was muted and we will need to find some 'copyright free' music for our future travel videos.
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.
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Church by day and night
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| Inside the Church |
Mercado de Abastos
Eating the local cuisine was high on our 'to do list' and we made our way to the food market - Mercado de Abastos, busy with locals and tourists visiting the stalls to pick up all types of fresh produce. One thing we discovered too late as all the slots were booked out; is that the nearby restaurants offer a service of cooking your fresh seafood purchases from the market - a point to note for future travelers.
Vinoteca Do Mercado
In the market square we spotted a wine bar - Vinoteca Do Mercado where a number of patrons were enjoying glasses of white wine with the famous paprika sprinkled boiled Galician octopus (pulpo). This sight made us quite envious and we soon worked out that the octopus had to be purchased from a separate stall and brought back to your seat at the wine bar.
 |
| Chopping up the octopus tentacles |
We shared our table at the wine bar with a couple from Belgium who spoke Spanish and helped us with ordering the wine. They had just completed the Camino and were on the way to pick up their certificate. They encouraged us to give it a try one day as the scenery and friendships made along the walk were worth the physical effort.
Restaurant O Dezaseis
Eating the pulpo wasn't sufficient to fill us up for lunch and we found another restaurant serving traditional Galician food - including fried padron peppers (of which you have a 10% chance of eating a hot one); a traditional pie made with a bread-like pastry; baked vieira (sea scallop) and grilled navajas (razor clams).
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| Entrance to Restaurant O Dezaseis |
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| Fried padron peppers |
We also drank the local beer - Estrella Galicia, a different brand to the Estrella known throughout the rest of Spain; and available in full strength or non-alcoholic varieties.
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| Zero percent alcohol beer |
Between lunch and dinner, we burnt off calories by using the hotel pool and took a walk around the gardens near the hotel that were fringed by interesting buildings.
When evening arrived, we explored the laneways to seek out a restaurant. We decided on El Cayado as it appeared busy (most patrons were part of a tour group) and it had an English menu. We ate more seafood - prawns and thick chunks of grilled meat.
The next morning we visited the Cathedral Museum in the Praza do Obradoiro. It had an interesting collection of artifacts relevant to the Camino and the Cathedral building. The highlight was the roof-top area that was decorated with sculptures and the balcony that overlooked the square.
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| View from the balcony |
With quite a few hours to spare before our flight home, we purchased a seat on the tourist train and enjoyed a scenic visit past some of the city's other attractive buildings.
Eating again
Our final meal in Santiago de Compostela had to include more seafood and we returned to the main street to look for small taverns that served small tapas style meals.
Restaurant: Petiscos do Cardeal
The highlight of this restaurant was discovering the local dish: clams (almejas) in green sauce (a garlic and parsley butter). Simply delicious, this dish overshadowed any other that we had eaten on this trip other than the pulpo.
Restaurant: Taberna do Bispo
Still hungry, we visited another restaurant on the same street - Taberna do Bispo and ate another serving of clams, another serving of pulpo, the local cheese (queso de perilla) and a creme caramel style flan. A great way to finish off our short visit to Santiago de Compostela.
Video
The YouTube video below is a compilation from our trip to Santiago de Compostela. It did have a soundtrack and we do acknowledge the artist in the video however due to a copyright claim, the video was muted and we will need to find some 'copyright free' music for our future travel videos.
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