Santiago de Compostela

After the sea, it was time for a city again, off to Santiago. The road that the navigation system had chosen for us was gradually getting smaller, and eventually, we found ourselves at a roundabout in a village, and we were supposed to go into the narrowest of streets. I hesitated, and the men in the village pub shouted something at us. One of the men came up to us (or was sent to us by the others, it wasn't quite clear) and greeted us with "Good morning". He spoke a few words of German, and we said that we wanted to go to Santiago. Uhh, Santiago...? Then he said to the others: They want to go to Santiago. The others, uhh, Santiago? It would have been a great scene for a movie. In the end, they advised us not to take the road suggested by the navigation system but to go back a bit and then take another road. We thanked them and hoped that the navigation system wouldn't send us there again...!

Just like in Bilbao, we chose a camping spot a little outside or above the city. The route for us by bike to the city was the same as the last kilometers of the pilgrims to Santiago. It was incredible how many pilgrims were on their way.

Equally incredible was the city itself. It seemed that after every corner there was another amazing historic building. The highlight was the square in front of the cathedral, where pilgrims arrived every minute and were overwhelmed by their emotions. They hugged each other, sang together, took countless photos, called their loved ones at home, and others just sat there and enjoyed this moment.

The dishes in the tapas bar we visited were simply top-notch, whether it was the langoustines, the Russian salad, or the pintxo with goat cheese on tomato jam. Our spot right at the bar allowed us to participate in the bustling activity, it was amazing how quick the waiters were.

On the way back to the bikes, we got to experience a brass concert in front of the cathedral; Werni, that would have been something for you!

Since the market halls were closed on Sunday, Tuesday was a public holiday in Spain, and on Wednesday apparently everyone needed to recover (everything was closed too), getting up early on Monday morning was part of the plan. There was fog over the city and it was even cool enough to wear a sweater. (The Spanish heat that is frequently mentioned in the German media is not present in the regions where we are traveling.)

The market halls are worth a visit, so many Galician specialties, various crawling animals, vegetables and fruits, as well as flowers, all in a very beautiful ambiance. The day before, we only saw the cathedral from the outside, so we used the morning hour to visit it as well. What opulence and the air filled with incense...

Since my phone said goodbye on Friday evening and all attempts to revive it failed, it was time for a visit to Mediamarkt. The phone saleswoman was happy to have an obvious potential customer, unfortunately her English was worse than my Spanish, because when I asked if she spoke English, she got really nervous and immediately started looking for a colleague who spoke at least a little English.

The selection was relatively manageable, the explanations of the salesman hardly went beyond reading the sales signs, but he was very nice and helpful. The phone that I selected after the conversation was unfortunately no longer available in the store, so I went for the other one... it just took a little longer.

For almost an hour, I tried to transfer my profile from the old phone to the new one. It either failed because of the Wi-Fi, and when a saleswoman unlocked another Wi-Fi for me (she entered the password), it worked. Unfortunately, after that, the old phone crashed again, and then the password for the Wi-Fi was missing... it was an endless story, so to speak. At least the new phone seemed to be working. Back at the campsite, I continued setting it up, and by 9 pm, almost all the data had been transferred.