Drive Day 2

This post is a day late but we're playing catch up -- still recovering from feeling pretty badly.  Argh!

We had intended to ride from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela.  It would have been a fairly long day, about 140 km and 2500 m of climbing. But neither of us felt like even thinking about riding, after a decent night's sleep in the Parador we fired up the Toyota Whatever and drove down the AP highway toward Santiago de Compostela.  Unbeknownst to me, since I am pretty unaware of much of anything, a road that has an AP designation is a toll road.  No big deal, right, just pull into the booth, pay the toll, and roll!

Well, I pulled into the wrong booth, the one that accepts only good-to-go passes with their RFID chips.  Ooops.  I had to back out (the people behind me were not happy) and then cut in front of some other guy, also not happy.  But in the end we made it fine and the unhappy guys made it fine, too!

After turning in the Whatever at the Sixt station at the train depot we put the bike back together and rode about 4 km to the AirBnB we had rented.  The hosts are the most gracious people we've met and the place was fantastic.  I immediately melted into the couch and slept between coughing fits.  Lorie, who is on the mend ahead of me, did some work; somebody has to.

Santiago de Compostela is the ending point for all the pilgrims who are doing caminos.  It is a spiritual thing, but they all go to the cathedral and hang out in the piazza.  The cathedral is interesting but does not compare to elsewhere and it is really crowded.  And this is September.  Imagine what it would be like in mid-summer.

Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela

But beyond that, the old part of the city that surrounds the cathedral is like a Catholic version of Disneyland.  It is pure hucksterism and unabashed tourism at its worst.  It has to be a let down for pilgrims who have walked or ridden a long way on a spiritual quest.  Or maybe that's the spiritual key, if you're a cynic like me.  The commercialism has left the old town with little charm or allure, and that's too bad because it is a pretty area.  We beat a hasty retreat and walked around the rest of the town, which is pretty nice in a quieter kind of way.

There is a story -- Lorie knows it but not me.  Just some whimsical statue in some park.

There are a lot of parks

If you stand by this guy you have to pay him.  I think the same goes for taking a photo, but he couldn't chase us so no harm no foul!

The old part of town

The main cathedral

A cool old eucalyptus tree

Our AirBnB had its own kitchen so we made a simple cook-at-home dinner for our "deck" and enjoyed the evening to do nothing other walk around to look at town, and then relax.

A simple dinner, but nice to be able to make it at "home"

An interesting sculpture at the University

It feels pretty imposing

We'll be back on the bike tomorrow, riding to the Cangas area on the Atlantic coast.  We are feeling incrementally better, for sure, though I have some additional issues that will make riding a bit of a challenge.  All good, though, and we are for sure anxious to get back on the bike.

Ciao, and the Spanish in the part of Spain tend to say.