Jul
24
36 Hours In…Santiago
Filed Under EN
Why go?
You don’t have to walk the pilgrims’ 488 miles from the Pyrenees on the Camino – the Way of St James – to enjoy the lovely city of Santiago de Compostela. With a third of its 100,000 people students, it is a little like Oxford, which goes for medieval and Baroque stone buildings, too. The food and drink are better, though.
Tomorrow is the feast day of St James, the patron of all Spain, whose reliquary the long-distance walkers have come to kiss. This is the high point of the pilgrimage year. Two decades ago, 10,000 a year claimed the pilgrim’s certificate; last year, it was 200,000.
Getting there
EasyJet has just started flying three times a week from Gatwick (easyJet.com), from about £238 return in August. There’s a bus ride of 25 minutes into the city every 30 minutes (€5.10/£4 return).
Where to stay
Special treat
Built in 1495 as a pilgrim hospital, around four lovely Renaissance courtyards, the Parador (1), overlooking the Plaza del Obradoiro and the cathedral, is one of the world’s great hotels (0034 981 582200; parador.es). Doubles in August from €175/£150 a night.
Mid-range
A clean, modern, air-conditioned example of a chain hotel, the NH Obradoiro lies one kilometre north of the cathedral (Avenida Burgo das Nacions; 0034 981 558070; nh-hotels.com). Doubles from €86/£74 a night.
Budget
The Hotel Entrecercas (2) (Calle Entrecercas 11, 0034 981 571151; hotelentrecercas.es) stands where the ancient walls once ran, in sight of the cathedral towers if you look from the right place. Doubles in August from €78/£67 a night.
On arrival
8pm
Spend some time taking in the sights of the vast granite square in front of the cathedral, the Plaza del Obradoiro (3). The westering sun lights up the exuberant towered façade of the cathedral, like fretwork against the sky.
Throughout the day, the square is scattered with new arrivals like a plate of octopus sprinkled with paprika: hundreds of little figures in neckerchiefs, T-shirts and walking boots, waving bicycles triumphantly in the air or sprawling in relief on the paving.
In the pedestrianised, arcaded streets, local couples, families and visitors make their paseo, moving from bar to bar for a little glass of beer and seafood tapas – their beloved octopus (pulpo), or perhaps a scallop or two sitting on the shells that have been the pilgrims’ badge for centuries.
Day one
10am
Climb the 100 stone stairs to the cathedral (4) roof (€12/ £10 for full cathedral ticket). It must be safer up there than it looks – like a very wide set of steps rising from the castellated walls to the ridge of the roof. All round are the far, misty, wooded hills of green Galicia. Looking in through the lantern window at the east end, you can see the exuberant Rococo high-altar canopy inside the cathedral. On each side below are dignified paved squares, such as the Plaza de la Quintana (5), where the geraniums at the windows of the enclosed nuns’ cells give colour to the austere granite walls.
Noon
Walk the short distance to the covered market (6), where each stone-vaulted aisle specialises in different produce. Knowledgeable local shoppers look in the eyes of fresh hake (merluza) or size up the knobbly goose barnacles (percebes) and razor-shells (navajas). The next aisle boasts heaps of artichokes and piles of lush green turnip tops (grelos), which the Galicians put in broth. You can eat a briny oyster or plump red cherry there and then.
1pm
Of the parallel streets within the old walls, the Rua Nova (7) is less busily beset by tourist bars. The bar Rua Bella is brisk for a drink inside or at a little table under the arcades. Time to pull the head off a prawn or two.
2pm
This is when lunch begins, perhaps at Porta Faxeira (8) (Rua do Franco, named after Franks, not after the late Caudillo). In the air-conditioned restaurant, sit down to a gilt-head bream (dorado) from the market or a lobster charged by weight (€60/£51.50 per kilo). Or order at the bar a ración of sweet little cuttlefish (chipirones) at €9.50/£8, or a helping of flat savoury pie (empanada) to share (€9/£7.75). Local white wine is exactly the right accompaniment.
4pm
Pop in to the museum attached to the convent of St Pelagius (San Paio) at the top of the Plaza de la Quintana, if only to see the remarkable Baroque statue of the Child Jesus dressed as a pilgrim to Santiago (holding a little staff, with bottle attached). On the way out, you can buy a tarta de Santiago (like a Bakewell tart with no jam) dispensed by a nun from a revolving wooden hatch.
5pm
Potter gently downhill a mile, south-east to the riverside church of Santa Maria del Sar. Its 12th-century walls lean alarmingly outward, supported by massive mossy buttresses. In one of the old-fashioned bars on the way back into town, you can see men drinking purple wine from white pottery bowls (tazas), and try it yourself.
9pm
Even if you’re not staying at the Parador, a reservation at its Dos Reis restaurant gives you a chance to have a drink in one of the splendid Renaissance courtyards before a dinner that is to Galician food what the building is to local architecture: more admirable, solid and costly. Expect to pay €50/£43 before wine. At the end, the regional equivalent of the French spirit marc, called orujo, makes a breath of fresh night air in the quiet square all the sweeter.
Day two
10am
Breakfast at the Pastelería Mercedes Mora (9), in Rua do Vilar. Orange juice, strong coffee or thick chocolate, and pastries that are oriental in their richness.
Noon
At the end of the pilgrims’ Mass in the cathedral, a giant thurible weighing 180lb is swung from a rope 80ft long until it almost crashes into the high vault. Find a place in the middle of the transept and this botafumeiro will hurtle down towards you with streamers of fire and smoke. It is a sort of vicarious roller coaster.
Checklist
Santiago is a good hub to explore Galicia and beyond by train – to charming Betanzos in one hour 20 minutes, or all the way to Barcelona in 12 hours. Timetable and bookings at renfe.com
For information about Santiago and the Camino, go to the non-denominational, London-based Confraternity of St James: csj.org.uk
The centre of Santiago is a delight for pedestrians, but 45 minutes on a Segway tour is fun. The starting point is Plaza de Juan XXIII (segwaysantiago.es)
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