Lugo to Tordesillas: We left Santiago de Compostella quite late in the morning and headed east towards the old Roman city of Lugo.This town has UNESCO-listed Roman walls in near-perfect condition.They were indeed impressive - it was just a shame that the city inside was so modern.In the early afternoon the place was dead! The afternoon siesta when everything closes has taken some getting used to.Even supermarkets close down and don't open again till 4 or 5pm...

Santiago de Compostella: The big drawcard in the very north-west of Spain is the city of Santiago de Compostella.All the way since Santander we had past pilgrims on the roads walking towards the city.Mostly with day packs on, it was obvious that they were on an organised pilgrimage and had warm, dry, comfortable beds for the night.Only the occasional one had a full backpack with sleeping bags and mats on board - doing it the hard way. The closer we came to...

Galicia. Getting the pronunciation right is important in Spain.Complete non-understanding follows if you get the words wrong; especially the 'c' followed by an 'i' or an 'e'.This is pronounced as 'th' so Galicia becomes 'Galithia' and gracias is 'grathias'.It ca n be quite a mouthful! So here we are in Galithia in the far north-west of Spain.It is frequently wet and quite cold.Reports of more southern parts of the country being warm and dry are a bit ...

Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia These are the three provinces on the north coast of Spain and we headed west from one to the next. The Cantabrian coastline is dotted with small villages, beautiful beaches and rocky headlands.The vegetation surprisingly consists of eucalypt trees.Vast mountainsides are covered with them; the roadsides are lined with them.In many places it looks just Australia - except for the towering mountains of the Picos de Europa to one...

Santillano del Mar We stayed our first night in Spain on the edge of this beautiful little medieval village.The streets are narrow and cobbled, and only local traffic is allowed in.The houses mainly date from the 15th Century with a few modern 18th century abodes dotted around. It was a pleasure to spend an easy day in warm sunshine (hooray) wandering around the laneways. We visited the Diocesan Museum, once an 18th century palace (so quite new really...