Santiago de Compostela in Christmas, a flashback

In the last few days, we have been enjoying having our son at home. We have been running errands and visiting family but I realized that we have not made any walks to see the Christmas decorations in the city, we will do that in the next few days. We did take a couple of hikes to the mountains, but today I am more in the mood to share a Christmas walk. So I was looking at photos in my files and came across several from our 2019 Christmas when we visited my sister-in-law and her family. She has lived in Galicia, in Santiago de Compostela for over 20 years. On that occasion, we had several years without seeing each other and time has passed so fast that we have several years without meeting again, who knows what 2024 has in store for us, but hopefully we can see each other again.

But without further detours, I invite you to visit some of the streets and places of Santiago de Compostela decorated for Christmas.

That occasion was the first time we visited Santiago de Compostela in winter before we had been in summer. It is usually a city full of activity and bustle in the summer, full of tourists and pilgrims. But in winter, it is different. It looks a bit empty, and the decoration, at least on that occasion, seemed to me very sober.

But downtown Santiago is beautiful and always worth a visit.

Wandering through its streets when the weather gives a truce, and the rain allows it.

On that occasion, there was a small Christmas market in one of the pedestrian streets leading to the old town. Very simple to be honest.

We visited the area around the city's main market, the Mercado de Abastos. I was surprised to see that it had very little activity.

Many stores may have closed for the season.

But that didn't stop us from going into the market to eat a Galician octopus and having a beer and an Albariño in cunca. Cunca is the name given to the traditional Galician ceramic cup used to drink wine.

We also visited on several occasions the huge and impressive Praza do Obradoiro, the main square of the city.

In this square is the famous Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, among other important buildings of the city.

The Christmas Tree and the Carousel seemed small before the immensity of this square in summer is usually filled with pilgrims who come to the city to lie down on it to contemplate the Cathedral after doing the Camino de Santiago.

On one of our visits to the square, we went into the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos to see the Christmas decorations, but except for the tree at the entrance, the main hall looked quite sober. This old building that is now a hotel, was formerly a hospital that gave shelter to pilgrims who needed to be cared for after making the Camino.

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And no visit to Santiago is complete without a visit to the sculpture of Las Marias in Alameda Park. These two Galician characters are an icon of the city.

Las Dos Marias were two sisters who were well known in the city during the Franco era because they dressed outlandishly and wore make-up to go out flirting with the young people walking around the city defying the impositions of the time. Their sculpture at the entrance of the park has become a symbol in the city.

And so I end this tour full of memories of Santiago de Compostela.

This is my post for this week's #wednesdaywalk challenge hosted by @tattoodjay in collaboration with #makemesmile hosted by @elizacheng.

Thank you for reading.

_{All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.}

© CoquiCoin

December 20, 2023

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