2017 northwestern españa: Wed, Jun 7

Some pilgrims extend their walk from Santiago de Compostela and continue on to Fisterra (Land's End in Gallego), a pilgrimage that predates Christianity. We set off and drove along the coast through attractive towns with beautiful coastlines and an occasional lighthouse,

Seaside Houses

Punto Louro Lighthouse

on a gorgeous crystal clear day. A few towns had a lot of mariculture barges floating in their bays, or seemed to be waiting for summer tourists.

We reached the town of Fisterra and drove past groups of pilgrims hiking the last stretch of their journey and reached the lighthouse which, ironically, was shrouded in scaffolding, as was the cathedral in Santiago! We passed the station where travelers had the last stamp put into their Pilgrims'

Fisterra

Passports. After hiking so far it must be quite an emotional experience to finally reach the ocean. In olden day, of course, they had to hike back! There seemed to be a lot of buses in the parking which, I hope, were there to take them to the airport or train stations. We wove our way back to Santiago on small inland roads through lovely countryside and reached our hotel around 4 PM.

El Ultimo Sello (the last stamp in the passport)

Laundry Issues: As our friend, Margaret, can attest, laundry can be a problem while traveling. We quickly get used to wearing clothes a couple, or several times, but there comes a time when you need to have a big bag of dirty clothes washed! I had counted on having the hotel here do it, as we were here for three days, but....after seeing their laundry charges...9 Euros for 1 piece of underwear!!? It would quickly add up to more than a couple of fancy dinners, so we Googled "Laundromat near Us" and up popped Lavanderia Caballo Blanco Santa Marta not too far away. Actually we set out last night with three bags of clothes and seemingly simple directions and got completely bollixed up on the very complex roundabouts in the city that combine highways, freeways, and unnamed streets!

Today we set off again, took a different exit at the roundabout and ended up south of the city and worked our way back to our hotel. Third time's the charm and we mastered the roundabout, then found the key half roundabout and the side street that our laundromat is located on. We spotted it, and on the second drive around got a parking space. Lavanderia Caballo Blanco is a gem: clean and pretty with little table and chairs for kiddies to amuse themselves. The washer only costs five Euros, dispenses its own detergent, and washes 13 kilos of clothes in 30 minutes - and 18 minutes and four more Euros later all our clothes were dry!