After packing our stuff, leaving a note on our 
Porto apartment’s wall, and making our way back to the car for the first time in 4 days, we embarked on the road north to Galicia.
Our first destination, about 90 minutes north of Porto and just over the Spanish border, was a Celtic settlement called Santa Tecla or Santa Trega. Ahead of the trip, I became fascinated by the pre-Roman connection of Celtic cultures between Galicia/Portugal, Ireland/England/Wales/Scotland, and Brittany/France. It’s not fully established, but seems possible/likely that the ancestors of the Celts in Ireland and elsewhere actually originated in Galicia. One of the strongest remaining connections is music, including bagpipes, melodies and rhythms. I’ve enjoyed, but still not gotten all the way through, a long playlist on YouTube (with little history lessons built in), and recently discovered the Maui Celtic website and radio show. One never knows where these wanderings lead.
In this specific case, our wanderings led well up a steep hill into a cloudbank. We came upon the excavated ruins of the village, with dozens of distinctive circular stone foundations, but we weren’t able to enjoy the alleged expansive views of the ocean and lands from the hilltop due to the clouds. 
We wandered the site for 30 minutes or so — it’s quite large and not all excavated yet — and contemplated life 3000 years ago. There’s not much actual explanation on site, and less in English, so we relied on our imaginations and Laurie’s archeology experience. Once we’d had enough of the chilly, wet breeze we headed up a bit further to a visitor center at the summit of the hill. There we found a quick lunch (a simple and adequate ham and cheese sandwich for me), but no real information about the site. We commended ourselves upon resisting the full lunch which looked pretty good, and the tacky tourist stalls in the parking lot, which didn’t.
Back on the road through southern Galicia (aka Rias Baixas), we skirted the cities of Vigo and Pontevedra. Laurie and I had discussed whether to spend more time in this part of Galicia or further north. There is a lot to see and do in Rias Baixas but a) I’d had a hard time finding an inexpensive place to stay, and b) Laurie had stayed in the Vigo area before. Once I found the apartment in Finisterre (via TripAdvisor, thanks very much), that sealed the deal for the more central Galician region of Costa da Morte as our destination.
As we got to Padron (home of Pimientos de Padron, about which see tonight’s dinner, below), we cut westward toward the start of the Costa da Morte (Coast of Death), so named for the many shipwrecks and treacherous seas. Most of the guides have the Costa da Morte starting at Finisterre going northward (here are two nice sites to entice, Explore Galicia and Turismo Galicia), but I will testify that the lower peninsula from Noia through Louro to Finisterre is well worth the drive. The weather cleared and we were treated to some lovely views and cute little towns which you’ll have to take my word for because we didn’t stop for pictures, for some reason. But it was a nice, scenic drive on less traveled roads.
We arrived in the town of Finisterre (or is is Fisterra? we never really found out — partly it’s a Spanish vs. Galician language issue, but the Internet and roadmaps are not consistent and sometimes point you to the wrong place entirely) around 4pm in the afternoon. We got to the general vicinity of our apartment at Alcalde Fernancez Street #2, in front of the Don Percebe Restaurant. We called the owner, Manuela, and she came within 10 minutes or so to let us in the apartment and show us around. It was a large, 3 bedroom place on the second floor of a 4-apartment building. It was an older unit, but comfortable and seemed to have all the amenities we needed, except for Wifi which was a disappointment. Manuela spoke little English so did most of the explanations with Laurie in Spanish, but there was not a lot of clarity nor much room to ask useful questions or get local guidance.
I bit the bullet and ordered AT&T’s $10/day 3G data plan so I could get Internet from my phone for the next few days. It proved useful to have wireless, non-wifi Internet access but I resent how difficult and expensive US wireless companies make international access. Seems like extortion.
We settled into the apartment then made a quick run to a nearby grocery store to stock up on some basics before the shops closed for the evening as we’d learned that Tuesday, Aug. 16, was Assumption Day, a national holiday in Spain and we weren’t sure what would be open. 
After that, we had a rest before taking a walk down to the harbor area of Finisterre. We had sort of a view of the harbor from the apartment, but it was from a small balcony of the back bedroom and not very inviting. So basically the apartment doesn’t have a view. But we were only a few blocks away from the harbor and it didn’t take us long to get there, despite a few wrong turns.
Finisterre is a small town but attracts tourists and pilgrim hikers for its proximity to the Finisterre lighthouse and end of the Camino de Santiago which we would visit the next day. There is a cluster of restaurants to choose from around the small harbor, and a few others scattered in the town. It was a big change from the overwhelming profusion of tourists, restaurants and activities in Porto, and I looked at it as an opportunity to calm down and relax some over the coming days.
For dinner that night, we decided to try the place across the street, Don Percebe, which was highly rated and most convenient. It’s not a touristy place but they had plenty of room and treated us well. The place is named for and specializes in percebes, or goose barnacles that are a distinctive specialty in the region. They are expensive, however, and come in large platefuls. Laurie has little interest in shellfish — certainly not these creepy looking critters (here’s an article with some of the lore) — and unfortunately I ended up never trying one. 
But we did alright that night with a big plate of razor clams (another first for me, and not the last), whole shrimp, and pimientos de padron. Each dish was cooked in oil and garlic and all were delicious. The pimientos are another specialty of the region (we passed Padron earlier that day) and it turns out August is the height of the season. We had them with almost every meal. They are reputed to be sometimes very hot but I never encountered one I didn’t like. A fine start to dining in Galicia.
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