A Coruña

Today is Thursday, June 26- Review of events- Took a taxi to the train station in SdC about 10 AM. We arrived in A Coruña about 11 AM. We met a nice father and daughter, Australians, who had walked the Camino down from France to San Sebastian. They found it very difficult and really did not recommend it. It took them five weeks. Donna and Lennie stated that they wanted to spend the day at the beach. We had a slight kerfuffle, as I walk pretty quickly even when I am trying to slow down. It was about a mile and a half to the beach, and Donna could see that I was primed to do one of my quick walks, but I had agreed to walk them to the beach, so I could know where they were.  With permission I launched myself on my walk. I wanted to take the walk around the peninsula. The wide beach was almost devoid of people. The low clouds as well as the chill in the air seemed to discourage swimming altogether. The wide walkway followed the beach and then rose with the cliffs. In the distance I saw the famous tower. I had heard about the tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse that had persisted through the ages.  As I came closer, the sight was more and more engaging, set out on a cliff, surrounded by trails. As I climbed the hill, I saw more and more visitors, some just hiking or exploring and some headed straight for the lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself was a reasonable 3 Euro to enter. The detailed exhibit elucidated the history of the tower, its phases as well as the numerous artifacts that archeologists had found. The most amazing, I thought, was the enormous carved stone with a large hole in the middle. It housed the fire for the light house as well as large polished mirror (not found) that intensified the light from the flame. The tower is about as high as the Campanili in Venice. Climbing the stone stairs was made easier by reading more about the tower on different levels. Also the tower was designed and built with very high arches inside to add to the strength of the tower, as well as using the minimum amount of stone- Roman engineering from 2000 years ago is truly amazing.  At the top was a beautiful windy view of the city.

Also the guidebook recommended a walk through the old part of the city as well as Bellas Artes, the art museum. The old part of the city was elusive, as I thought that I was walking in the correct direction. I suddenly ran across Bellas Artes purely by chance. It is a wonderful museum, neatly organized by rooms and time periods. I really enjoy the unusual and this museum had more than its share. I love to see extreme versions of heaven and hell.  There was a nineteenth century painting of the end of a battle and the two armies are facing each other with the dead in the background.  On the left a dashing man on a horse looks  apologetically at the leader on the other side. On the ground was an elderly well-dressed man who had been obviously held up in a turned over bearer with a seat. Most of the other army was either looking at the dead man or the dashing soldier.  Especially one who looked like a military leader in the front with a stunned and hurt look in his eyes- almost to say, “Why did you do this to him?” Another wounded soldier is being carried off and cursing the other side angrily.  The horse of the dashing man has a bit of blood on it, apparently hurt a bit in the fray.

Other paintings showed prominent and humble people from the Galician coast. Also the rocky coasts, mountains and country side were painted.   I could go on like this, but for your sake I won’t. I will try to remember to include some of the images.

There was at once a wonderful and horrifying exhibit of Goya’s etchings of war. Also there were some of bullfighting and cartoons that seemed to make fun of the bourgeoisie (if there were officially a bourgeoisie in the early nineteenth century). Those were really cartoons. If my Spanish were better, I would have gotten more of the jokes.

After leaving the museum I started finally to find parts of the old center of the town. Frankly I was disappointed. Probably the reason is that Santiago is such a preserved and beautiful medieval town, it would be hard to match.  I wanted to connect with Donna and Lennie again, as our parting was not uncivil, but a little edgy. Unless I did, it would be the last time I would see either of them until after my trip. I chose a restaurant purely because it had Internet service. It turned out it had all the worst features of a Galician restaurant. Don’t get me wrong. Galician food can be delicious, but it tends to lack vegetables. I had the experience last night when I ordered pickled sardines. Twelve pickled sardines came on a plate. That was all. Today I ordered grilled shrimp, and again 12 salty grilled whole shrimp and that is all- bread is extra- twelve Euro, a real rip off. But I had Internet, and I messaged Donna and sure enough I got a message back.  I saw the address on a napkin and she found it on the map.  They were  walking from the beach, so it took a bit of time and we finally met up.  Now for some reason in A Coruña all restaurants seem to close from 4 PM to 7:30 PM and this was just the time that they arrived. We could not get anything to eat there. We decided on taking the train to Santiago and having something to eat there.

I felt a little pressed for time, as my plane was supposed to leave at 9:40 PM, so I took a cab. As things go I could have walked to the airport. It is now 11 PM and no sign of a plane, only the words “DELAYED.”

The upshot of the delay was a 1 PM departure time- arriving in Barcelona at 2:15 AM. I finally crawled into my room on Calle Bruc at somewhere around 4 AM.