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Greetings and welcome to day 9! We’re heading into the twilight of my journey through Spain, but there’s still plenty yet to see. Today we make a stop in Lugo on our way to Santiago de Compostela. Lugo is the home of one of the finest and best preserved Roman walls in all of Europe. Santiago is the final destination of the Way to St. James pilgrimage. Let’s see what Spain has in store for us today!

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So we hopped on the bus and left Oviedo and headed towards Santiago de Compostina. On the way, we stopped in Lugo to visit some of the best preserved Roman walls in Europe. Old Lugo (the part inside the Roman walls) is a pretty cool little town and the walls are a popular spot for runners and other locals seeking a good walk or some exercise. Lugo is also in Galicia, a providence of Spain that is well known for preparing octopus. Apparently, they’ve developed a technique (freeze drying and multiple dunking in boiling water) for cooking octopus that renders it soft and delicious. I’m a bit skeptical of that, but I’m curious to try it.

We arrived in the town square of Lugo just in time to witness another wedding! My aren’t we lucky? Of course, I had to snap a picture of the bride. Then we headed off to a hole-in-the wall cafe for what ended up being a delicious lunch (thanks Sam!).

Now on to Santiago de Compostela! As I’ve mentioned before, this is the final stop on the pilgrimage known as the Way to St. James. The apostle himself is said to be interred at the cathedral here. Now we’ll get a full tour of the cathedral and environs tomorrow, so for today we just did a quick walk of the old town to see the restaurants and shopping district. I noticed quite a few pilgrims wandering the streets already. They were easy to pick out. Either they were wearing hiking gear (from doing the pilgrimage in the traditional way) or were decorated in matching garments to identify members of the same group (which likely came by bus or some other motorized means).

Later that evening, we set out to find dinner. I was still curious about the octopus we heard about in Lugo and decided to order a plate as my first course. I got the whole thing to myself as none of my dinner mates had any interest in trying some. Still, I ate most of it and didn’t find it to be too bad. However, I don’t think I’d order it again (except perhaps to impress others with my gastronomic fortitude).

We have another full day in this town which is great and I’m looking forward to checking out all of the shops and exploring the nooks and crannies of the old part of Santiago de Compastela. Tune in again to see what I discover!

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