We got ourselves up reasonably early for the drive back to Segovia. Laurie had heard of a place along the way called Las Medulas, a former Roman gold mine with very interesting rock formations, so that became our midpoint destination. It took nearly four hours to get there, and we were ready for a stop …
Our last full day in Galicia featured a visit to A Coruna, the main port and second largest city in the province. It’s a longish drive of about 2.5 hours, mostly over highways that made it easy. The city is surprisingly big, with lots of traffic, especially after a few days in villages of Galicia. …
This was a day for exploring the Costa da Morte area north of Finisterre. We didn’t have a solid idea of where we wanted to visit, so I spent some time the previous afternoon scoping out various options on the web and my guidebooks. One of the things we confirmed once in the area is …
Today was deliberately a non-driving sort of day. We started with a very short drive (we considered the option to walk…but we drove) down the peninsula to the Lighthouse at Finisterre. This is the proverbial last stop at the “End of the World” for the Camino de Santiago. We passed a few pilgrims along the …
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 …
Today was kind of a spare day for exploring Porto and environs. We started with a walk to downtown Porto and made our way toward the Livaria Lello (Wikipedia, TripAdvisor). This is a landmark old bookstore where allegedly J.K. Rowling drew inspiration for Harry Potter (or did she?), particularly the moving stairs in Hogwarts. She …
Train to Douro Valley. We got ourselves up relatively early to catch the 9:10am train. Looked for a quick pastry at a cafe across from the station and saw they had hot ham and cheese sandwiches so we got a couple of those. Maggie had told us about the fabulous melted cheese sandwiches she’d had …
Walking tour Porto. Took a free walking tour through PortoWalkers which I booked a day or two before. It was about a 2-hr tour with a group of 20 or so from all over the world — Australia, Central Europe, Canada…I think we were the only ones from USA, but I can see the appeal …
Time to drive to Porto. We loaded up the car and got going by 10, stopping briefly in town to check on Laurie’s sun glasses (not there) and check the Audi’s tire pressure (topped off). Then headed toward Avila and Salamanca before reaching Portugal. There was a remnant of a border station between the …
After sleeping late again and having determined that Juan’s cousins were probably coming today after all, it meant that Juan and the boys could not join Laurie and me for an excursion to the mountain woods and Argentine place in Valsain (Tio Pepe). Laurie and I headed to the Argentine place and got there around …
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