Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Trekking the Camino Days 26++ (Madrid and Barcelona)

Greetings from La Playa de la Barceloneta. It is cloudy and overcast and kind of perfect for sitting and enjoying a beverage while staring at the ocean. We’re the only folks at a beachside cafe, and while the Eurovision nnncha nnncha music is not to my taste, it’s a pretty good set up.


Can you see Jeff?

Before I get in to Jeff’s and my side quest adventure to Barcelona, I’d like to go over the last official day of the Westminster trip. In someways, the farewell dinner in Santiago actually felt like the official close to the trip. Once we got to back to Madrid, participation in group activities became a lot more optional for students, which seemed like an ideal wind down after a very intense month of togetherness :).

Day 26 / June 8 - Final Day in Madrid

Happy birthday, Zennon!!

Zennon, Amy, and Alivia in Barcelona in front of La Casa Battló.
Photo credit: Amy

Jeff, Deya, and I offered students the option to join us at El Prado in the morning. El Prado is arguably the second best art museum in Europe… Maybe the world? It was my first proper European art museum. Looking at art that was hundreds of years old was—of course—incredibly moving. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m not much of an art historian and know very little about various artistic movements. Much of the art in El Prado is based on early Christianity, and while the religious pieces didn’t especially speak to me, many of the works associated with Greek mythology, particularly The Metamorphosis, really brought out a lot of curiosity and emotion within me. I didn’t know much about Rubens or Goya (my sister is probably tsk tsking me right now) but I definitely was fascinated by many of their pieces. We spent several hours there easily, and someone could really spend a full day in El Prado if they were taking their time and reading every plaque associated with each work. Folks back in the day painted some next level carnage...

Saturno devorando a su hijo
Goya 1820-1823
Source: Wikipedia
Not saying I'd hang this on my wall, but it certainly solicited an emotional response from me

Diana and her Nymphs hunting
Rubens 1636 - 1637
Source: Wikipedia

After finishing up the museum, Jeff and I went back to El Mercado de San Miguel for more tapas. Holy moly, that place was wall-to-wall people. Deja eventually joined us, and we got into a rotation where two people would hold the table while one person would go get more food or more drinks and we kept this rotation up for the better part of an hour. The tapas were among the more creative ones we'd had all trip.

Wall to wall people at El Mercado

I wish I would have taken better photos...

Phone eats first. Different spreads on pan

Empanadas

Daily cheese board is the primary reason I did not lose weight while walking 12-20 miles a day lolololol

We went back to the hotel for a little while so folks could nap before visiting La Reina Sofia museum. This museum was also free, and while I’m grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to visit it, I will say that the art didn’t speak to me nearly as much as the art in El Prado. I’ve learned that I’m not much one for Cubism or Vanguard art. I felt like a lot of the art was dark and brutal and colorless. Still sparked curiosity, but not the same type of wonder as the works in el Prado. Getting to see La Guernica in person was neat. It’s huge.

Photos were allowed in Reina Sofia but I felt weird about it so this was the only one I took.
I'm fascinated by propaganda art. And this was like...the most color in the entire museum.


Guernica
Picasso 1937
Source: Wikipedia
If you don't know the story of the piece, check it out here from La Reina Sofia website

Jeff, Deya, and I ventured out after the museum for some dinner. After some mold debate and a little walking, we ended up at this cool little restaurant whose name I can’t remember for the life of me—Jeff, help me out! Service was great. Atmosphere was great. Food was great. Would strongly recommend if you find yourself in Madrid. After dinner, we met up with the Salazar family for a nightcap, some goodbyes, and called it a night.

Delicious delicious tuna

June 9, 10, 11 - Barcelona

The next morning, Jeff and I went to the train station to board a high-speed train to Barcelona. I had never had any high speed train experience prior to this trip, and I have discovered that I absolutely love trains. Might be the most superior form of public transportation.

We arrived in Barcelona around 1130, bought some tickets for the public metro system, and made our way to El Poble Sec, where our hotel was located. Our hotel is great! It’s located near the magic fountain, which is turned off due to a major drought, which is a huge disappointment, but I do like that we’re staying a little further off the beaten path where it doesn’t feel so overrun by tourists. I didn’t take any pictures, but much of the hotel art in the lobby is held up by clothespins, so it felt like life was sending us a sign that we needed to stay there.

A note on tourists in Barcelona: I fully recognize that I am one. That said, I have now been in Barcelona for about 24 hours, and to be honest, I’m a little underwhelmed. We haven’t gotten to see La Sagrada Familia or any of the Gaudi architecture, so I will withhold judgment, but right now, it just feels like a large city with a ton of people. 

The first day was mostly getting our bearings and doing a lot of walking. Any time we net over 11 miles walking, we call it a "Camino." We got a camino. We talked to the beach, we walked around the port, we walked around some different neighborhoods, and most importantly, we walked up to a tent selling handmade party shirts out of recycled fabric and chatted with the designer who was super nice and we both ended up accidentally buying party shirts. Oops.

This photo does NOT do the shirt justice. It's so much more amazing.

The shirt just screams "I'm a professional. And I know how to party."

Check out the designer's (Esteve Vicens Pinto) website: https://link.v1ce.co.uk/aad2ss/956190

Barcelona does do gelato and ice cream pretty well

tacos de pollo at Taps Bacelona. This place was cool.

Churros y chocolate. Surprisingly only the second time I had churros the entire trip.
Also, the chocolate to churro ratio is always off, in my amateur opinion

La Playa de Barceloneta

Love a good old wooden sailing ship. This was at the pier.

Another daily cheese board and patatas bravas, which Barcelona is known for

Barcelona Day 2 (June 10)

Barcelona has redeemed itself a little. I still don’t think it’s my jam compared to places like Pamplona or Leon, but days 2 and 3 were better. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I started writing while we were beachfront on La Playa de Barceloneta. Jeff actually got fully in the water. I got my legs in but know myself enough to know that I’d be *bummed* if I was cold and wet the rest of the day, so I stayed within my limits.

Jeff and I decided to fully learn into our tourist identities and took a sky bucket / gondola from Barceloneta to Miramar. It was probably like a 5 minute ride, but it was totally worth it! What a cool way to get a full scope of how large and varied Barcelona is. There were only 2 standing spaces with open air windows in the little sardine can of a gondola, so naturally Jeff and I beelined it for those spots :)

Leaning into being tourists

It was a pretty killer view

Jeff and I had primo spots

View of the pier

Looking north

After the sky bucket ride, we split some patatas braves at the Miramar overlook cafe—we paid tourist prices but felt like the view and ambiance were worth it. We walked back toward the beach and pier after our snack, and since we had a ton of time and our restaurant-of-choice wasn’t open until 6, we figured we’d hoof it over to La Basilica de la Segrada Familia. En route, we ended up in a super cool neighborhood that reminded me more of the parts of Pamplona and Leon that I really liked, so naturally neither of us dropped a pin and despite efforts, we were never able to find that neighborhood again.

A terrible shot of the really cool neighborhood that Jeff and I walked through that we could never find again...

Another side note: Jeff and I are tourists. And we are TERRIBLE tourists. Apparently if you want to actually tour the Basilica, you should book your tour WEEKS in advance. We missed the general admission tickets by weeks, but then we hedged on whether to do one of the mildly-overpriced guided tours and missed those too! Total bummer. The exterior of the basilica is incredible, but I do feel like my personal sense of wonder and amazement was tempered by my lack of context.

From Brittanica:

Sagrada Família, Roman Catholic minor basilica in Barcelona, Spain, designed by Antoni Gaudí. Begun in 1882 and still unfinished in the first quarter of the 21st century, the Sagrada Família, notable for its tactile organic form, is one of Barcelona’s most famous landmarks. It is an unexpected sight in its urban setting, with its bold flying buttresses and twisted towers looming over the city.

The project, originally envisioned by Francisco de Paula del Villar, was funded by donations to encourage Christianity in Barcelona, which was becoming increasingly secular. In 1883 Gaudí took over as chief architect, and the project would occupy him throughout the rest of his career. In his drawings and models for the church, Gaudí equilibrated the original Neo-Gothic design into a structure designed to stand on its own without internal bracing or external buttressing. The result, modified beyond recognition, was a complexly symbolic forest of helicoidal piers, hyperboloid vaults and sidewalls, and a hyperbolic paraboloid roof. It was to be Gaudí’s Expressionist vision of a 20th-century cathedral, where he would use visual symbolism to express the many mysteries of the Christian faith. He became increasingly pious while working on the church; after 1910 he abandoned virtually all other work, and he eventually secluded himself on its site and resided in its workshop.

When Gaudí died in 1926, only the Nativity facade, one bell tower, the apse, and the crypt were finished; his disciple Domènec Sugranyes subsequently took over the project. Gaudí, whose tomb is beneath the cathedral, knew he would not live to see the completion of his vision, believing it would take 200 years—but, as he said, “The patron of this project is not in a hurry.” The works of Gaudí, including the Nativity facade and the crypt of the Sagrada Família, were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. In 2010 the uncompleted church was consecrated for religious worship and designated as a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI.

Work on the project has continued since Gaudí’s death. The remaining three bell towers of the Nativity facade were completed in 1930. The Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s interrupted construction, and the subsequent loss of most of Gaudí’s designs and models greatly hampered efforts to continue. The present design, parts of which have been met with criticism, is based on surviving and reconstructed materials and a number of modern adaptations.

La Sagrada Familia -- get your tickets early, kids!

Lots of details

In a constant state of construction

After La Basilica, we walked back toward the beach on our way to La Plata, an especially well known tapas bar whose speciality is fried anchovies. The place is itty bitty tiny. It opened at 6. We showed up at 6:04 and had to wait for a table, but it was not a big deal because we could hang out by the bar while our boy Pepe, a server at La Plata for….50 years???…slung plates of fried anchovies and itty bitty glasses of wine poured from barrels. We also discovered that sweet vermouth is a thing in Spain. Who knew. Probably a lot of people. We didn’t. I will say that La Plata might have been my #1 favorite experience in Barcelona. I like food.

View from the bar looking into La Plata

Known for fried anchovies

We got the best table for people watching. I don't think we can see Pepe in this photo :(

Add the anchovies to the bread = perfection. Might be the best tapa of the entire trip

Sausages were good, but nothing compared to the anchovies!

After La Plata, Jeff and I walked back to our hotel and got distracted by party shirts and party shorts. We accidentally bought them. Oops. I don't have a picture of Jeff's new shirt, but it's excellent. A friend told me my shorts look like if a disposable Dixie cup was turned into a pair of shorts, these would be them. He's not wrong.

I am pretty sure these things will immediately disintegrate in wash

Party shorts confidence 

The next day, we knew it would be dumping buckets so we tried to plan accordingly. We checked out of our hotel on a quest to see Gaudí architecture. A friend who had spent a fair amount of time in Barcelona gave us a route recommendation that would take us past la Casa Batllo and La Pedrera. On our way, we took a little side quest and checked out the University of Barcelona, which was very pretty!


Gardens at the University of Barcelona

University of Barcelona

University of Barcelona

University of Barcelona

La Casa Batllo was another highlight for me of Barcelona—I am a bright colors person and this house absolutely had them. 

This post is already super mega long, so rather than posting context about Casa Batllo here, I'm going to direct you to this website. For what it's worth, I'd skip all the other ticketed attractions and prioritize this site the next time I'm in Barcelona. It looks super duper cool from the outside, so I can only imagine what it looks like in person from the inside. While at CB, we were approached by a group of Spanish 8th graders who asked if they could interview us for a school project on our existing knowledge of Barcelona/Spain. We happily consented. And boy, did we probably come off like idiots. At least they said we were the nicest tourists they'd talked to!

La Casa Batllo

La Casa Batllo

One of the pages of the tourist quiz

One of the pages of the tourist quiz

After CB, we continued north to La Pedrera. Some more background on La Casa Mila (La Pedrera) can be found here. Jeff and I enjoyed an overpriced zumo de naranja inside la Padrera’s cafe (which we referred to as the Gaudi tax) before continuing a few more miles—uphill—to Park Guell, where—surprise! It was sold out and neither Jeff nor I had even remotely considered that we might need to buy tickets to a park. So we got to walk 3 miles uphill to a closed park. But the limited amount of the park that what we could see from the outside looked super cool. Womp womp.


La Casa Mila (La Pedrera)

La Pedrera

Overpriced but delicious zumo inside the Pedrera

Chairs designed by Gaudi

We licked our wounds, hopped a bus and a train, and went back to the beach. It was dumping buckets at this point so we enjoyed some snacks and bevvies while the rain poured. After a few hours of ocean-gazing and rain-listening, we decided to relocate a little closer to the train station, so we braved the weather and hopped aboard another train toward Bacelona-Sants and ended up at a fantastic Syrian restaurant (lololol our last meal in Spain was the one non-Spanish meal we had in a month) before boarding the train back to Madrid.

We stayed the night in a small but clean hostel in a different part of the city than we’d explored previously, called an uber the next morning, and boarded our MAD—> ATL flight without issue. And we’re here now. I’m writing this post from my upgraded Delta Comfort+ seat (first time ever!! I feel so bougie!!) while Jeff enjoys an entire row to himself.

Thanks for caring enough to follow along this journey. It’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know these *amazing* students and to work with Jeff and Deya. Deya is my queen, but I need to give an especially special shoutout to Jeff—he and I spent many, MANY hours together, often just the two of us—and I am so grateful for how our friendship has grown as a result of this experience. Thanks for everything.

Truly grateful for all of the experiences. All of the friendships. All of the memories. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks to Westminster for giving us all this opportunity. 

I’m going to finish my posts on the Grand Canyon over the summer—it’s looking very likely that I will be back in Thailand for May 2025 (YAY!) with my good friend and professional troll, Han, and there’s a pretty good change I’ll get to return to el Camino in May 2026…until then, adios!

Thank you, Dream Team! Ciao! 

Friday, June 7, 2024

Trekking the Camino Days 23-24-25 (Arzúa to Pedrouso to Santiago/Vigo back to Madrid)

I am writing this entry on the high-speed train from Santiago back to Madrid. I'm excited to catch everyone up on the last few days--including finishing our trek (!!)--but I'm also super bummed because I, along with another student, had knives (that were going to be gifts for friends at home) confiscated in train security. We'd been given certificates by the knife-maker to get them on the train, but we learned today that those certificates are only good for 72 hours, and we would have needed new certificates reissued, which would have been impossible to get from Toledo to Santiago. In addition to being bummed that 1) my gifts were confiscated and 2) they weren't cheap, I"m mostly annoyed that I've been toting the extra weight for 3 weeks only to have them confiscated 2 days before the trip officially ends! In the immortal words of Liz Lemon, "Blerg." Okay, enough self-pity. Good to know for next Camino. Also, Spanish train stations, you're missing out on a real profit maker by allowing folks to mail their confiscated knives at a premium. Food for thought.

Let's get back to the trip.

Day 23 / June 4 - Arzúa to Pedruouso (12.29 miles)

Today was the penultimate day of walking. Jeff and I once again got an early start to beat the heat and enjoyed a few quite miles of mist and dappled light. Since today is kind of another "we did a lot of a walking, had a snack, and reached our destination," I'm going to use this day as an opportunity to reflect on ways to enhance my next experience on the Camino (because there will be a next experience!)

Knives as gifts:
Don't do it unless you can ship it from the store from which you bought it.

Cafe stops:
As it pertains to documenting this trip, one of my regrets is that I didn't do a better job documenting our cafe stops along each stage. It's always a bit of a crap shoot as to when you're going to stumble across a cafe for a snack or beverage or lunch--for the most part, the cafe stops were generally available every 4-6 miles, but not always. Good to have emergency snacks on hand. Jeff and I tried to have a policy of never stopping at the first cafe in town (usually super crowded) but if you skip the first cafe, you run the risk of not running into another one. I'd say that 80% of Jeff's and my cafe stops were fantastic--only a few misses. But other than a few food pictures, I didn't do a good job of remembering cafe names or dropping pins each day. Lesson learned for next time.

Typical cafe stop for us. Banana, tortilla, coffee, and juice.

I might have already posted this picture but it deserves a second posting because it was the best breakfast of the trip.

Another example of our standard cafe stop.

The pilgrim passport:
At the very beginning of the trip, we were issued pilgrim passports that at first I thought were just some sort of schlocky touristy thing a la the passports you might get at Epcot's Food and Wine Festival or Flower and Garden Festival (ask me how I know). The pilgrim passports are actually quite different. You need them to 1) officially register as a pilgrim on the camino 2) check into some albergues (that are specifically reserved for peregrinos as opposed to general tourists) and 3) get stamped along the Camino to prove that you're actually walking it. I was pretty lax the first 5-6 days of walking and maybe got a stamp a day. I didn't realize that virtually EVERYWHERE you stop along the camino (cafe, restaurant, albergue, person selling gifts in the middle of a forrest, someone playing music, etc.) will have a unique stamp (sello) for your passport. It actually becomes quite important in the last 5 days of the trip. If you're traveling el Camino Frances (like we were), you need to prove that you walked (no taxis, no busses) the last ~100kilometers (I think starting around Sarria) in order to receive the compostela at the end. I was fine and got all the stamps I needed to prove that I walked, but I regret not collecting more stamps because they're just very cool.

Pilgrim passport with stamps

So pretty minor changes for next trip, but good to keep in mind.

Back to the road. Jeff and I stopped for some food and a beverage about 2 miles out of our final destination of Pedruouso, where we reunited with about a half dozen students. We enjoyed our break and meal with these students and walked together for the last 2 miles. Jeff and I always enjoy walking with students--it's a highlight of the trip--but we also understand that students may not always want to walk with us depending on what their topic of conversation is. That said, the last two miles went by very quickly with this group. Thanks for letting us walk with you.

Another foggy morning in Galicia

Beautiful forested trails 

Worth waking up early for!

Ellie, Madeline, Hunter, Necie, Max, Amy, Jeff!

We made it to Pedruouso, where the customer service was warm and welcoming, the lodging was clean...and that's about all I can report on Pedruoso. Not a lot going on in this town. I can't even remember where or what we had for dinner. I just asked Jeff and he had the same response. It's like trying to name a main character (first and last) in Rogue One. Totally impossible. Yeah, I said it. Rogue One didn't work as an effective story because it didn't have memorable characters. Don't @ me. Would probably be one of very few towns I'd recommend skipping in future itineraries. 

We concluded the day with our last presentation on Santiago from Necie, Tia, Amy, and Alivia (well done!) and then ate dinner...somewhere.


It was a great presentation spot until someone discovered ticks in the ground.
We are not winning the bug game on this Camino.

Change of presentation venue

Day 24 / June 5 - Pedruouso to Santiago! (12+. I think I logged 19 total on the day from there-and-backs between hotel and city center)

Our final day of walking! WOW!! And we got to celebrate the birthdays of Nicole and Chris! Happy birthday, y'all!

Nicole and Chris, the birthday folks!

I think folks were pretty stoked to start the day en route to our final destination of Santiago. We agreed as a group to walk into the plaza together, so we set a meet-up spot (kind of) about 2 miles away from our final destination so that folks could meet up. We gave everyone a 12PM meeting time to walk approximately 10 miles. Folks could leave Pedruouso on their own time depending on their pace, how many times they stopped, and what time they woke up.

Jeff and I hit the road around the same time as most students and logged about 5 or 6 miles before stopping at a really great little cafe. I actually remember the name of this one: Kilometro 15. I think. A few students also stopped when we stopped, so we had some company on and off the trail, which was great. After the cafe stop, we had a few forested miles that had a few artists posted up playing music, providing a wax stamp (so cool!) for pilgrim passports, and selling local art.

Another beautiful morning start

Things went a little sideways (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being total disaster, it was a 2), trying to get everyone in the same spot for our meetup. We had decided on Monte do Gozo as a meet-up location, but the problem with this is that Monte do Gozo refers to a lot of stuff. There's a park, an albergue, a Google Maps pin, etc. We wanted to choose a spot that would have bathroom facilities and ideally a place to sit and get a bite to eat, so while the park was a good landmark, it didn't have the infrastructure we needed nor did it provide much shade. A student who wasn't having an especially good day got to the general meeting area before us. He had some issues navigating around construction, trying to communicate with a cab driver, and identifying a good spot to wait for us. Fortunately, he found a great spot and Jeff, a few students and I were ablet too connect with him in not too much time. Once we'd established a meeting spot, it was pretty difficult to communicate this information out effectively AND flag people down/keep folks from overshooting the meeting spot/help them avoid construction, but we eventually got everyone together and there was much rejoicing.

One of many potential Monte do Gozo meet up spots...

Bye byeeee Lil' Sebastiaaaaan....

A couple that gets clipped together...

To quote my fellow ATLien Ludacris:
"Man, I ain't got nothin' to prove, I paid my dues, breakin' the rules, I shake fools while I'm takin' a cruise"
^Seemed appropriate for this photo (?)

With less than 2 miles to go, we, as a group of 29 (24 students, 3 faculty, 2 parents) started our final walk into Santiago. Somehow, Jeff got separated from the group so I positioned myself between Jeff's location and the group's location (which was a half-mile difference) while Jeff ran to catch us. Traveling in a large group is tough, even in the best of conditions. My sister sings a song that we sang a lot on this trip: "Patience is a virtue that we all need to haaaaaave...." :)

So close, home stretch!

Jeff eventually caught up to us and he and I positioned ourselves slightly up route from the group so we could video and take pictures of the group entering the Plaza housing the famous Cathedral of Santiago. Entering the plaza was pretty special. There was a bagpiper serenading us as we walked through the tunnel that opened up in to the giant plaza. And so, so many people celebrating! Lots of emotions from folks--joy, relief, celebration, tiredness, contentment. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves

Heading into the plaza

We did it!

Faculty love

Lily and Berkeley

Necie, Amy, Tia, Chris, and Matt

Kimmy and me

Students relaxing

Students celebrating their achievement!

Students celebrating their achievement!

Students celebrating their achievement!

(Jeff and) Students celebrating their achievement!

Daily Kelfie

After spending some time in the plaza, we gave folks a little bit of free time to explore Santiago while Jeff and I went to the pilgrim passport office to get the official compostela for our group members. This is another experience that will be good to document for future Caminos.

1) The passport office is very strict about what goes on your compostela. Even though we started walking in Roncesvalles, the office staff was very clear that our certificates needed to say Molinaseca because that was the last location from which we stopped using a bus or taxi. Your compostela is based on your consecutive walk with not breaks. So Molinaseca it is.

2) We were able to batch register our group, but we needed to know everyone's birthdays. We had this information as DOB but not as age. All totally figure-outtable, but it would have sped up the process a lot if we'd collected this information ahead of time.

3) Turns out you can pre-register your group online. Good to know. 

Okay, so Jeff and I registered everyone, checked certificates, and then spent a few minutes painstakingly rolling the compostelas into canisters that we labled to avoid damaging the certificates in transit. Mega shoutout to the staff at the compostela office--they were super friendly and helpful and were not the least bit judgmental as Jeff and I faffed around trying to convert birthdays and match certificates and make sure we were spelling names correctly. Good times. 

Jeff and I faffing about

More faffing

Stuffing compostelas

My compostela (in Latin)

My compostela (in Spanish)

Afterwards, we met up with the group to enter the cathedral for the pilgrim's mass. After sitting down and waiting for about 15 minutes, we discovered that we had the time wrong for the mass (d'oh!) and it wasn't going to start for another 2 hours, so instead we visited the tomb of St. James' relic (allegedly) and visited the statue of St. James--pilgrims are encouraged to give it a hug: "el abrazo del apostal." We did. TBH felt a little awkward hugging a statue, but when in Santiago, gotta do what you gotta do.

Some history on the cathedral itself (from official website)

"Bernard the Elder, Admirable Master, and Roberto, began the construction of the Romanesque Cathedral in 1075, during the reign of Alfonso VI, when Diego Peláez was bishop. After that initial stage, a number of historical changes suspended or, at least, slowed down the works until they were newly launched during in times of Archbishop Gelmírez, in 1100. The works were commissioned to Master Esteban (also known as “Maestro de Platerías”); little by little the construction of the Cathedral progressed throughout the 12th century. In 1168 Master Mateo was commissioned to complete it, including the western closure and the building of the Choir in the main nave. In 1211 the Basilica was consecrated before Alfonso IX.

Although the fundamental medieval structure has been preserved, over the centuries the Cathedral has changed its physiognomy as a result of the building of the Cloister and its annex areas, during the Renaissance, and especially during the Baroque period, when works such as the main chapel, the organs, the closing of the chevet or the Obradoiro facade were carried out, among other important developments. During the Neoclassic period the new Azabachería facade was executed and over the past one hundred years different actions have continued to be carried out.

Okay, after cathedral visit, there was free time and dinner on your own. I ate dinner with Deya and the Salazars and then had second dinner with Jeff. I turned in early and missed the tuna performances, but I did see them the following night so I'll discuss them then."

After discussing the plan for tomorrow, folks were free to go about their business. Many people stayed for the tuna performances (started around 10pm) but I was back in the hotel by then...

Total mileage: between 230-240 miles (varies slightly for everyone--I think I ended up at 238)

Day 25 / June 6 (no more mileage to log!) - Vigo Beach Day

Wow, how great a feeling to not have to repack a backpack and/or put on hiking shoes, because today was a BEACH day!! Wooooo!

The group walked or cabbed to the train station and hopped aboard a 1-hr train to Vigo, where we met our bus driver, Francisco, and hopped aboard a bus en route to the beach. We stopped off briefly at an overlook so students could see the port. As a port town, Vigo is known for car production, shipping--stuff like that. You've got an old, historic part of the city as well as a a lot of industrial looking parts. And cruise ships. Mostly smaller, European lines. 

The beach itself was beautiful. It wasn't very crowded, and while the water was a tad bit on the cold side, it was pretty perfect weather for hanging out on the sand, throwing or kicking a ball, reading a book, or taking a nap. There was a section of beach with really hard-packed sand, so I immediately went into gazelle mode and went on a beach run--one of my favorite activities in the world. A few students joined me for the last half mile and it filled my heart with joy. And my muscles with lactic acid. We were booking. It was obvious that everyone--faculty included--were ready for a day to relax and celebrate being done with our very long walk.

Stages of professionalism. Hard to see in layers, but I'm in the full Ken beach outfit.

At the overlook in Vigo

Overlook in Vigo

My resting beach face

We bussed/trained back to Santiago, got ready for dinner, and headed to Restaurante Cotolay for our official farewell dinner. Cotolay was lovely! They had the entire interior restaurant reserved for us and the food was quite good. Patatas bravas, croquetas, tortilla, chicken milanesa, flan and tarta de Santiago. It was all great. A few folks gave toasts of gratitude and there were lots of smiles and hugs exchanged. 


Fairwell dinner at Cotolay


Flan for dessert

After dinner, we headed to the plaza to view the best sunset of the trip and to listen to the music and the dancing of the tunas. I stayed in the plaza for about half an hour to listen to the music and watch the sunset before calling it a night. I want to add some info and context for the tuna performers, but I'm feeling a little lazy and don't want to translate, so if you're feeling froggy: https://tunaderechosantiago.com/


  View of cathedral just before sunset


Tunas performing


Tunas performing


Tunas performing

Sunset Kelfie 1A

Sunset Kelfie 1B

Sunset in Santiago

Sunset in Santiago

Sunset in Santiago

Sunset in Santiago

Sunset in Santiago

Day 26 / June 7 - Santiago back to Madrid

We are caught up! We've got about another half hour on the train before arriving in Madrid. 

(finishing post at 12:45am)

Okay, so we are back in Hotel Mediodia in Madrid. After getting folks sorted in their rooms, we offered the option to join the faculty at El Marcado de San Miguel in Madrid, which is a super fun market with TONS of food options for adventurous eaters. 

Tapas!

El Marcado de San Miguel

El Marcado de San Miguel

Empanadas from el Marcado

I will probably have one more post for this trip, which will include the official end of the Westminster May Term Study Experience (today and tomorrow) as well as Jeff's and my unofficial side quest to Barcelona from June 9-11. Cheers!