Wrapping Up Our Holiday Season in Galicia (Spain)
Happy New Year everyone!
As we forewarned, we’ve been super lazy slow making posts while we’ve been relaxing in the Galician countryside this winter. Enjoying the extended holiday season with friends has been nice, although all the delectables available here have not been kind to our waistlines.
And in what seemed like the blink of an eye, two months have passed! On January 3rd we headed to Barcelona (Spain) for 5 nights, and then moved onward to Sarande, Albania for an additional two months on the Adriatic coast.
Perhaps we can train up and slim down a little while we are there.
In the meantime, we thought we should post a summary of what we have been up to during our second visit to Galicia, Spain during the holiday season.
The holidays in Galicia have been a ton of fun!
Winter Weather in Galicia
Astute readers of our blog may remember that when we were in Galicia last Spring, it rained for nearly 1 month straight.
Not so this time.
The weather has been pretty spectacular for this part of Spain.
Now, we have to manage expectations here. What we mean is that there were far more sunny days than rainy ones, with the occasional foggy day thrown in.
And the temperatures have been cool, which is normal for winter in northwestern Spain. Generally, the highs have been in the 50s (degrees F), with most nights getting down into the low 40s to mid-30s. But once in a great while, we get an evening that dips a little below freezing.
In other words, the weather has been perfect for hiking. And our wood stoves have had no trouble keeping up.
So Galician winters may be chilly compared to southern Spain. But for anyone who has ever lived in the northern USA, the temperatures are downright mild. Snow and ice are rare occurrences here, compared to the USA where these are what often drive retirees to relocate.
Food for thought.
Getting In The Holiday Spirit, Galician-style!
Although most of our days were spent helping our friends Lisa and Stewart with projects, hiking, and hanging out in downtown Taboada, we made a point to travel to more exotic locales to enjoy the holiday. And Rhonda imported a proper USA Thanksgiving for our friends to enjoy!
Halloween – A New Holiday in Galicia
Halloween isn’t much of a holiday in Spain, at least as US residents know it. So it was a big surprise when we arrived in Taboada that we saw posters around town advertising family events for October 31!
Not only are new families in Taboada interested in the holiday, but it also helps enhance local engagement in a town whose population is in decline (like most of rural Spain).
The local community center put on an evening of activities involving a hot chocolate and tapas get-together, traditional trick or treating, and a haunted house-style town walk. Although the events were similar to what you might see in the USA, they had a definite Spanish flair about them.
A USA Thanksgiving in Galicia
When we stay with our friends Lisa and Stewart, we take turns making a feast at our respective homes each Sunday. And during Thanksgiving week in the United States, Rhonda decided to make a traditional meal for everyone to enjoy!
She cooked everything using our old-timey wood-burning kitchen stove/oven, and the dinner included roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, and green beans. Lisa and Stewart brought a pie for dessert made of butternut squash, as pumpkins are less common here.
It was a feast of epic proportions and was delicious!
In hindsight, we probably could have invited our local neighbors and had enough food.
Live and learn.
Enjoying the Christmas Lights and Markets in Pontevedra and Vigo (3 nights)
In mid-December, Rhonda and I felt like checking out a new area of Galicia for a few nights. Lisa and Stewart mentioned that the cities of Pontevedra and Vigo decorate themselves nicely for the holidays, with Vigo’s Christmas light display being a locally famous event in recent years.
We first took a bus to Pontevedra ($9.26 USD per ticket from Monterroso) and arrived at 10:30 am.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the quaint historic downtown area, went on a nature hike at the local park near the river, visited their excellent (and FREE) art/history/archaeology museum, enjoyed an outstanding menu del dia, and then checked into our hotel near the bus and train stations.
After relaxing in our room for an hour or two we went out to enjoy the small, but quaint, Christmas market and light display before heading back to our room for the night.
Our hotel room was good considering what we got for our money ($42.10 USD for 1 night), but the temperature was freezing at night! Apparently, the heat is only turned on at specific times of day, much to the consternation of another group of local travelers who were checking out before us the next morning.
Pro-tip: when the hotel staff wears winter coats inside, the rooms won’t be much warmer.
The next morning, the low temperatures motivated us to check out of the hotel ASAP and head to the bus station to catch the direct bus to Vigo ($2.74 USD per ticket), about 20 minutes south of Pontevedra.
Vigo is a much bigger city than Pontevedra, so we wanted to spend 2 nights here so we had adequate time to explore.
Upon arrival, we first went to the mall connected to the Vigo bus station to caffeinate and warm up for an hour or so. After the freezing night’s sleep we had in Pontevedra, we needed it!
Then we walked to the Vigo waterfront area and enjoyed the coastal sights during the morning hours. The weather was perfect!
At 11 am we checked into our hotel, a studio apartment very close to the area of the historic downtown where all of the Christmas festivities were being held. The location was fantastic!
The studio was pricey compared to Pontevedra ($73.63 USD per night), but it was extremely spacious, well-appointed, and had fantastic heat! It was actually the best deal by far we could find for its location, so we were more than satisfied with the place.
We rested for an hour or two until lunchtime, where we went to Milongas Parrillada Vigo (an Argentinian barbecue restaurant) to sample their all-you-can-eat meat lunch option for €16.40 per person.
Gorged to the point of suffering, we attempted to lower our blood lipid profiles by exploring the historic center, getting lost in atmospheric side alleys, and getting properly oriented so we could enjoy the Christmas lights that evening.
The light displays were pretty spectacular!
Thousands of people were out and about enjoying themselves in the streets, as well as the Christmas Market area in the parks near the waterfront.
We spent our first evening absorbing the atmosphere, taking mental notes on specific things we wanted to do the following night.
The next day we woke up early and hiked to the top of Monte O Castro, to see the fort and the many lookout points of Vigo city.
The hike and fort exploration only took a couple of hours, so we decided to pick up a public bus to Playa de Samil ($1.65 USD per ride) in western Vigo, and enjoy some of the best beaches in the area. We first grabbed a coffee (we started our morning too early to caffeinate properly), walked the beaches, and enjoyed the views for a few hours.
The beaches were lovely in the off-season! We wonder how bad the crowds must be in the summer though.
We then headed back to the main city for lunch, at a sadly mediocre Indian restaurant that punched well below its weight class for value. Even in Spain, you can have a disappointing meal out once in a while!
We returned back to our studio and rested for a couple of hours, to recharge ourselves for another Christmas market exploration that evening!
This time, we enjoyed the big Ferris wheel that was set up (€5 per person), partook of expensive Christmas market munchies, and took a ride on the Christmas “train” (€5 per person) down all of the streets where Christmas displays were set up.
It was a fantastic way to finish off our time in Vigo!
The next morning we took a bus from Vigo to Ourense ($8.65 USD per person), where Lisa and Stewart met us for coffee before we all headed back to Taboada by car.
Overnighting in Lugo on Christmas Day
In the USA, businesses usually are closed down on Christmas day. But not so in Spain!
Lisa and Stewart started a tradition some years back to meet friends in the nearby city of Lugo for lunch on Christmas Day. They would all then check into a hotel for the night, and explore the Christmas lights and cafes until the wee hours of the morning.
This year was no exception.
Lisa, Stewart, three of their British expat friends (Val, Deb, and Mervin), Rhonda, and I all met up and enjoyed each other’s company on Christmas Day.
Our Christmas lunch was at a hotel in historic Lugo, and was very good. We then explored the old medieval streets, taking in the city’s Christmas displays. We then checked into our hotel to rest a little before the festivities that evening.
And when nighttime came, instead of doing dinner we enjoyed the Christmas lights while bar hopping to 4 or 5 different places, enjoying affordable drinks and free tapas in place of dinner.
We had a great time!
When morning came, we all partook of the hotel’s breakfast offering, wandered the streets of historic Lugo during the day, and went our separate ways before dark.
It was a memorable way to spend Christmas!
Barely Staying Awake During Our New Year’s Eve Celebration
Our New Year’s Eve celebration was spent with Lisa & Stewart at their place.
We had a great time hanging out and eating the wide variety of tapas that Lisa made, not to mention the celebratory fizzy drinks that went well with everything.
After our feast, we all enjoyed playing a cooperative escape-room-style tabletop game and did reasonably well. It surprised us how well the tabletop versions of these games capture the spirit of the real-life escape room experience.
And then at midnight, we followed the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes…one for each toll of the bell sounded at midnight during a nationwide broadcast of the New Year’s Eve celebration. The challenge is not to choke on them!
Onward To Barcelona (And Beyond)
It was great to spend another two months in Galicia with our friends Lisa and Stewart.
We met a bunch of their expat friends, strengthened our ties to the local Taboada community, and completed several important projects on their property.
But we admit that by the end of our scheduled time in Galicia, we were getting itchy feet to explore new places! And our next destination was the city of Barcelona, where we planned five nights to explore this famous city.
Our flight to Barcelona was scheduled to depart from Santiago de Compostela on January 3rd at 11:30 am. As a farewell gift, Lisa and Stewart were kind enough to drive us there the day before, where we all checked into an Airbnb for the night and explored the city.
We had a great time and it made our morning check-in at the airport the next day much less stressful.
Our thanks go out to our friends for allowing us to hang out with them over the holidays and we hope to see them again someday, travel gods willing.
Once we get settled in our next long-stay destination (Sarande, Albania) we will let everyone know what we did in Barcelona, and what our immediate future holds.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading!
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2 thoughts on “Wrapping Up Our Holiday Season in Galicia (Spain)”
Great travels! Thank you for sharing! God bless!!!!
Thank you Mario!