No More Mileage Counting
Sleeping in until 9:00 and not putting a 15-pound backpack on felt pretty good.
After cleaning up, planning out the day, and eating our leftover pizza breakfast, we headed out. Of course, our first stop was for coffee. We kind of wanted to check out Hotel Villar’s amenities, so that’s where we went. Nothing fancy at all, but the coffee was good and the cookies were a bonus.
Our intention was to go to the Cathedral for the Noon Pilgrim Mass. We got there at about 10:45, and about 1,000 people had the same intention. It was standing room only. We decided to try again tonight at 7:30. While there, we did visit the Tomb of St. James. Unlike last time, the Statue of St. James that people touch was closed.
We headed to the famous Mercado de Abastos. Only a short walk from our Pension, the Mercado is huge, with six aisles in two buildings. With aisles dedicated to fresh meat, seafood, cured meats, cheeses and produce. One aisle was all “sit down” eating, being served by more than a dozen restaurants. Too early for lunch, knew we would return.
We had been told by the receptionist at Hotel Villar that the best view of the Cathedral was from Alameda Park, which is located on the opposite side of the old city center from the Mercado. Great walk through tiny, winding streets lined with shops, restaurants, tapas bars and happy tourists and pilgrims. The views of the Cathedral were spectacular and worth every step!
All of this walking did work up our appetites and we started to weave our way back to the Mercado. All the tables in the restaurant aisle were full or had a reservation hold.
We hailed a host to see about making a reservation, got our name in his book and were told it would be about 15 to 25 minutes. He said he would call us, but because we had no phone service, we would just check back.
We enjoyed wandering through the market and people watching until a table was ready. The menu was all online, again, not being in wifi we couldn’t access it. No problem, our waitress gave us her phone. We ordered grilled octopus and grilled sardines, a glass of wine and a draft beer.
From an arm’s length away we watched the octopus and sardines being grilled. They came served on a bed of sliced roasted potatoes and some fabulous olive oil. You haven’t eaten sardines unless you have eaten fresh ones, and have never had better octopus.
After lunch we had to burn up a few calories, so back in the old city, we stuck our heads in almost every souvenir/gift shop looking for t-shirts, Camino patches for our packs, pins for our hats or a memento for a shelf - without something, how could we prove we were here?!?!
During our shopping spree, we ran into several pilgrims who we had hiked with, sat across from in a restaurant or shared an overnight location. We had a great conversation with the San Diego group, Dan, Janet, and Regina.
The day was flying by and we had to start thinking of getting to the 7:30 Mass. We got there at 6:45 and the scene was the same as it was at Noon. We figured that tomorrow being Sunday, it would be just as bad, so decided for Monday at 9:30 or Noon.
With a couple of hours before the restaurants would start opening, we went back to the room to do some blog work and follow Brennan’s baseball game on Game Changer.
We knew we didn’t want a big dinner and we hadn’t really had the tapas experience yet, the choice was obvious. We had walked by several, but the one that looked the best was also the busiest, Taberna do Bispo.
We either lucked out or jumped the wait line. We want to think the people waiting were doing so for a table and we wanted the bar. We got two seats at a little side counter opposite the bar. We were only there a few minutes and a couple offered their seats at the bar.
The ordering of two glasses of wine was easy and the food just as easy, because it was all spread out in front of us. Just pointing was perfect when you can’t read a Spanish menu. Plus, the guy working the tapas bar was very helpful and always seemed to have a smile on his face.
Don’t want anyone to think we are little piglets, all items were single servings. Started with salmon toast with pimiento. Next came deep fried Brie, rolled in chopped almonds, topped with jam. The sautéed mushrooms at the seat next to us looked great so that came next - in oil, garlic and pesto. The deep-fried croquette stuffed with pork was good, but probably ranked last. The clear winner had to be the grilled calamari (we have had a lot, but this was by far the best ever). Sue rarely orders dessert, this night she went right to the dessert page and ordered tres chocolate flan, wow!
What a great day, no packs, and got to walk for hours in a beautiful city.
2025-02-07