Big Drive to Santiago de Compstela

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After a good night sleep and the finest free breakfast in Spain we were ready for our big drive to Santiago de Compostela where we completed our Northern Spain pilgrimage. Leaving Leon we saw large numbers of pilgrims heading in the same direction. We took about five hours to complete the drive, the pilgrims will take about two weeks. Once again we kept off the autopista (toll road) and kept to the autovia (dual carriage highway).
The early part of the drive was through scrubby dry countryside. Everywhere we noticed large splashes of purple which seemed to be some sort of flowering heath which reminded us of the thyme in Central Otago. One day we’ll get a chance to stop and find out exactly what the plant is. High on a hill we saw a very large outline of el toro so thought we must be in el toro country but we did not see any of the famous Spanish icon. Perhaps they were tucked away in their barns.
We pulled off the highway for our boot lunch on the outskirts of a small town, San Miguel de las Duenas. We chose a spot under some large trees in an area that looked like the makings of a new subdivision with several houses partly completed. We weren’t sure whether it was siesta time or the recession but not much had happened to these houses recently.
Highway driving can be tedious and this was no exception. But then if we hadn’t taken this route the journey would have been much longer (like the pilgrims – two weeks!). We can say one thing for the builders of these highways, they know how to build them. This highway was all viaducts and tunnels through some very mountainous terrain.
Leaving the autovia at Lugo we drove along a regional road, much slower driving and many little villages which meant watching the speed limit carefully. Some of these villages consisted of only one or two houses but the speed limit still dropped from 90 or 100 kph to 50 kph. It was time to let Miss GPS join us for the remainder of the journey so that she could help us find our accommodation.
Hotel Monte do Gozo is on a hill about 3 km outside Santiago de Compostela and is designed to cater for very large numbers of people (pilgrims). For those who enjoy the World War Two POW films then you will understand the layout of this hotel. It is made up of 30 concrete block buildings, each with a central corridor and about 20 rooms off these corridors. In the middle of this complex there is a cafeteria and several dining areas. Other facilities include laundry, mini-supermarket and tourist office (not open at the moment), self-service cafeteria, and a large 24-hour reception area. All this is set in a huge area of parkland. We decided to enjoy the delicacies of the only dining area open to us and for 9 euros each had a very large plate of ensalada mixta (mixed salad), a “hot” dish, desert (pottle of yoghurt or custard) and water. The meal was not quite the standard of the cafe food we have enjoyed recently but enough to keep us going for a few days.
If you can’t download today’s pictures don’t worry there aren’t any.

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