A few weeks ago a friend and I went on a short trip to Ourense, in Galicia. Galicia is the region in the northwest of Spain, right above Portugal, and has cities such as Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Lugo, and Ourense. Santiago is the official ending place of the Camino de Santiago, or way of St. James, where pilgrims spend five weeks walking through the north of Spain. I visited there many years ago (not after walking the Camino, however – I took a 5 hour bus!).
We arrived late on a Tuesday and left early on a Friday, so we were left with two full days, the first of which we spent exploring the city itself. Ourense does not have many touristy sites – most of them are churches – but it does have half a dozen cute plazas with terraces, where we stopped for quite a few coffees and teas.
Main sites in Ourense:
-Cathedral of St. Martin
-Millennium bridge
-Puente Mayor
Church of Santa María Nai
-Church of Santa Eufemia
-Praza Maior
-Praza Eironciño dos Cabaleiros
-Plaza trigo
-Claustro de San Francisco
-Rua do paseo
-Mirador (lookout point)
-As Burgas
-Termas Chavasqueira (hot springs)
As you can probably see from the list, some of the names are in Spanish, but others are in Gallego, the official dialect of Galicia, which is a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. We hit all of these spots easily in one day, with the exception of the Chavasqueira hot springs, which we saved for the next morning.
The next afternoon we went to Monforte de Lemos, one of the biggest towns in Galicia, to meet one of my Spanish teachers. It is a picturesque place, set right on the river, with a big monastery (now used as a school) and a castle set on a hill (now a parador, or hotel + restaurant). It was a lovely place to go for a stroll and have a coffee.
I loved taking these short trips in Spain, and as of now, have only one comunidad (Navarra) and 13 provinces left to see!
