The Last Blog

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2 days left!!!! Well we thought that this day, or week, or time would never come. We just kept telling oursevles that we have lots of time left on our fantastic adventure and that it really would never end. Alas, the end is near, this is not to say that we are excited about returing. We have 2 full days left, then our flight home is on the 18th, when we arrive in Calgary at 7pm.

But we'll catch you guys up on the trip up to that point. We moved on from Porto to Santiago de Compasilo in Northern Spain. Porto seemed beautiful, but because I (Danielle) was sick, we didn't see much of it. Although we did try some port...all medicinal of course. Santiago is an interesting town. It was recomended to us by several groups of travellers, and it boasted the title of the most beautiful town in Spain! We spent our two days exploring this city to find out if this saying was true. Indeed the city, the old town, resembles something out of a medieval story book. The town is, interestingly enough, the end point for pilgrims. We tried to learn why this was the case, but as the pilgrim museum we went to was all in Spainish we didn't catch all of it. But there were hundreds of pilgrims going to all the "pilgrim sites". It was quite fascinating. We saw all of the same sights as the pilgrims did, but from a decidedly different view point. The other day we were in Santiago we decided to avoid the masses and head to the beach. We spent the day at a beach about an hour outside of Santiago, a place called A Coruna. It was our last beach day. We soaked up all that we could, and reluctantly headed home at the end of the day. But it was great that we got in one last day of it. We also stood on the shores of the Atlantic and waved to Canada. Jan actually braved the cold water....I just waved.

From Santiago we left the pilgrims behind and headed to Leon. Unfortunately because Spainish trains suck, we were only in Leon for the night. So we saw none of it. But because it was such a chore getting there, we were happy to leave the next morning...getting back to regular trains! So, we were off to Salamanca. Salamanca was a city we had heard of for a long time...parents raving about it and so on...so there was a bit of hype. Luckily we were not disappointed at all. Salamanca was a great city. The hostel we stayed at was a bit dodgey, but the city was great. We saw the double cathedrals, and the old university. The University was by far the highlight of the old city. It was facsinating, and well kept up. It was started by Isabel and Ferdinand. It was a church before a school and retains some of the feel of a church. But the old library...which has over 60,000 books before 1900....was amazing. The murals of munks in the corners of hallways were my favorite though, because they were put there to prevent people from peeing in those corners! Ahhhh the good old days! 😊

Now we are in Madrid. Our last four days are here. We got in late yesterday so we saw little of the city itself. Today we used the last day of our rain pass to go north to Segovia. Segovia boasts the largest, longest, still standing aqueduct in the world. It was AMAZING!! The thing was huge! Those romans! The whole thing without any mortar! Impressive. We also wandered to the Cathedral, another BFC, and the Alcazar...a castle which we didn't have time to get into. We have tomorrow and the next day to still explore Madrid. We are excited because what we have seen of Madrid, we have really liked. A great way to spend the last of our time!!! See you on the 18th!

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