A Weekend in Santiago de Compostela

This past weekend, Alexis surprised Jacques and me by planning a last-minute weekend excursion to Santiago de Compostela. Santiago, which is the capital of Galicia, is the ending point of the Camino de Santiago, an 800 km pilgrimage route through Spain, and one of the most important centers of Christianity. (Becky and Andrew, I know the length pales in comparison to the AT...but perhaps your next big trekking adventure?)

Since it was low Pilgrim season, we were lucky enough to find a family-friendly hostal complete with crib, private bedroom and most imporantly a shared kitchen right in the center of town. Although a light, cool, rainy mist was present most of the weekend, we were able to get out and enjoy all the sights without getting too damp. Once we returned to BCN, I read up a bit more about Santiago and was surprised to learn that the one constant of the city is actually rain, and people carrying umbrellas...so now I really do consider ourselves lucky!

One of our first stops we made while exploring the city was to the Cathedral and Plaza del Obradoiro, since all paths seemed to lead right there. We spent a good bit of time walking around and through the cathedral, watching pilgrims, and playing in the plaza (i.e., chasing the resident pigeons).

The Facade of El Obradoiro...the main entrance to the Cathedral

Visitors and pilgrims alike touch the bottom of the mullion for good luck

The rest of our time in Santiago was spent exploring all of the wonderful parks...it felt soooo good to be surrounded by a bit of green again. The one thing that Jack really loved about the city was all of the fountains. Everytime he spotted one we had to stop and have a look...needless to say, we spent a lot of time looking at water flowing and getting a little bit wet.

A view of the city from one of the many parks

A father-son moment....by a fountain

Jack striking a pose....with a cold Mama in the background

Watching the water

Jack and Alexis

Spring was right around the corner as well...there were tons of flowers and trees in bloom. Alexis did try to teach me the difference between certain types of flowering trees, but unfortunately my indentification skills (as well as my memory for remembering their names) were pretty rusty.

Spring is in the air...

Enjoying all of the colors...

Unfortunately, we didn't get too many opportunities to enjoy the Galician cuisine, since we tried to honor nap/bed times as much as possible...but we did make the effort to have at least one lunch out as a whole family. In spirit of being on a mini-vacation, Alexis went ahead and ordered the plate of the day and was surprised to see a stew arriving consisting of all different parts of a pig head. What surprised us most though was that Jack actually quite enjoyed pig snout. Here's to trying new foods!

Since we don't know how much more time we will actually be in Spain, it felt good to explore a little bit more of the country. Over the past 2 years, while Alex was finishing his MBA and Jack was still quite little, we haven't had too much time to take advantage of our great location. Hopefully, there will be a few more mini-weekend adventures in the future. But, until then...here is an album for those of you that are interested in seeing more of Santiago de Compostela. Enjoy!