DAY NINE PARADOR PONTEVEDRA heading to A CORUŇIA

We went to the breakfast room and for a change Paul and Jane were the first to arrive. The young Spanish girl who rode down in the elevator with us tried to sit at the table next to ours until we mentioned that had friends joining us. She seemed disappointed but wandered off on her own ultimately. We all enjoyed our last Parador buffet breakfast and tried to layout plans to find our next destinations (remember Dave & Joyce have an early AM flight Friday back up to Stansted England.

While the Floridian gypsies continue along their nomad trails across Galicia. Overcast and light Scotch mist necessitating the wipers intermittent settings but pleasantly warm at 19C. We took the N550 to Santiago and found an underground Parking garage less than a block to the Cathedral and Parador. Unfortunately there was already 4, 498 people already inside the church wandering around jockeying to take the “very best photo” while the priest asked over the PA for silence and photos but NO flash, please! Where in the hell did all the tourists come from? We both agreed that this place was way too crowded and hence we headed back to retrieve our car and to leave dodge as soon as humanly possible. Then the trip really took a twist when Carmen Garmin could not find the road to the coast at Muxia, Muxia was the final stop for Tom (Martin Sheen) in the movie, The Way. She told us to try this road, then after a couple miles and her re-calculating only to tell us to ‘make a legal u-turn”, we followed her instructions twice and noticed that after nearly a full hour we were still ONLY in the outer fringes of Santiago and had NO progress towards finding any highway that could lead us to the Atlantic coast in Muxia or any other city for that matter. Jane finally suggested we give in and select A Coruňa as our destination after all.

Somehow Paul found the Hotel Sol from memory of 2014 as Garmin did NOT have the hotel in her database and nor was she able to find the 10 Avedia Sol as well she had NOT a clue in finding our hotel but Paul drove us right to the front door! Unloaded the bags and drove the car to the first level and walked back up to reception.

A short siesta and off we went to explore the old town. A wandered around, drinkieis and Paul found the small Mom and Pop place we had tried Octopus for the first time two years ago. We wandered around remembering and enjoying the surroundings before heading back for a nightcap.