Hotel Rey Fernando Santiago de Compostela

... have been gathering for centuries to visit the tomb of St James. The Cathedral itself was magnificent, and the surrounding buildings where also very impressive. Shopping in the narrow flag stoned streets was a delight. We stayed at were given refreshments in a former hospital dating from around 1513 which is a listed building and is now a first class hotel. It was all very grand.

... blast beautiful chords on occasion. We kept reminding ourselves that we were walking on top of a<br>building that has no beams or steal for support&#8230;&#8230;and built sometime in the<br>middle ages. Yikes. I&#8217;m attaching some photos, but don&#8217;t<br>want to miss getting a lay of the land here in Barcelona. Should have some photos of great<br>architecture while here.<br><br>Hasta&#8230;..<br><br><!-- EndFragment--><br><br>

We travelled through thick fog over and through the mountains on typically heroic Spanish roads. They cut through mountains and build viaducts over the valleys. We drove through and around weary looking Pilgrims to our campsite which was on the Camino de Santiago. It was closed. After some interesting encounters with some locals, one old man practically ran away when asked for directions, we found this camp site.<br><br>The centre ...

... in Santiago. He invited us to come have a drink with him at his friend's club, who was also Brazilian. We tried to tell him we were meeting our friends in the plaza in a few minutes, so we couldn't leave, but he was not having it, and tried to put his arms around us and lead us to this club. Of course, we hadn't payed at his bar, so we kind of felt guilty slipping away from him, but we definitely did NOT want to end up alone at a club with this dude. We get to his ...

... than it sounds (as it always is with them), because one place was too crowded, another too expensive, another didn't have good looking wines, and so on. Finally, we settled on a table in the back of a restaurant, where I got a bowl of Galician "caldo", a delicious soup made with spinach and white beans typical of the region, and we split a bottle of white wine. By the time we finished there, it was around 1am and my leg hurt, so Maureen, Liz and I headed back to the hostel.<br>

Day 32 - Tuesday, July 21 Arca de Pino (Pedrouzo) - Santiago 20.6 km (12.8 miles)<br> <br>Up early, ate a quick breakfast and started to walk at 4:50 am - luckily we had a headlamp! Do you know how dark it is in the middle of a thick forest at that time of morning? All Cathy and I could think of was, "lions, tigers and bears, oh my!". We hadn´t gone far, when we noticed two people standing off to the side. (I will guess at ages) A ...

... They completed our informational session IN SPANISH, which I think we were all shocked about. We were talking about really important stuff-medical insurance, the location of the hospital, not to carry our original passport with us, hours of the cafeteria, mandatory attendance at cultural events, etc. We were all too stumped to say anything so we just sat there quietly. I felt like one of my Spanish-speaking parents at a ...

The noise in the albergue was unbearable. At one point I awoke to the sensation of being stared at. Sure enough, some drunk guy was standing at the foot of the bed, just staring. It was, I must say, a bit of a creepy thing. Neither of us could sleep and we ended up leaving while the dark of night was still hanging in the air. We walked and walked and walked and walked some more. It began to rain after a few hours and still we ...

Well, I found a home! It's absolutely adorable. Actually, it's more like a jail cell right now but once I get all my **** in there it'll feel like home. It's about half the size of my dorm at UMKC, wood floors, a twin bed, an elementary school size desk and a great window with an awesome view! I will share a flat (piso) with one other girl from my program, 2 spanish girls and one italian girl, and 2 ...

Thursday morning found me on a plane on my way to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, a region of Spain above Portugal, with my Italian room mate, Francesco, and my travel buddy, Alejandro of Mexico. Obviously the plane was late - it's Spain - but eventually we arrived. We wandered through Santiago to find a hostel and then headed off to buy umbrellas. Galicia's landscapes are similar to Ireland, rolling green hills everywhere, but this requires lots of rain ...