Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

Entrance to our apartment (second floor)

Our beautiful apartment

 

View from our living room

The street below

Artwork on one of the city's many churches

In the beautiful art nouveau Café Casino

 

In the Obradoiro square

On the roof of the cathedral

 

Jen:

Santiago de Compostela was really just a stopover on our way from Galicia to southern Italy, but I wish we’d stayed longer than one full day. As soon our taxi entered the old town I was taken by the maze of largely pedestrianised cobbled streets; well-preserved, handsome buildings; and enticing shops (which, luckily for our budget, I didn’t get much of a chance to visit as most were closed on the Sunday we were there). Our spacious apartment on the second floor of one of these cobbled streets was palatial and beautifully decorated (https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/2632052). The ceiling to floor windows in the living room opened onto the Santa Maria Salome church across the street and were ideal for watching the pedestrian traffic below.
It was no longer summer but Santiago was still heaving with tourists and pilgrims. The town is the last stop on the Camino de Santiago (St James’s Way). People of all ages wearing backpacks adorned with scallop shells – the symbol of St James – would converge on the cathedral in the main square.
A highlight of our brief time in Santiago was a visit to the cathedral’s rooftop, which – as well as giving us an up-close-and-personal perspective of some of the building’s beautiful features – provided a birdseye view of the old town below. The electrical storm that started towards the end of the tour added a little extra excitement!

Della:

I loved it in Santiago. The lovely streets and buildings was a real delight to see. A big bell tower inspired me so I drew it. I drew it a bit different.
We went for a lot of lovely walks and saw the sun set. We went on the roof of the cathedral and boy, what an amazing view it was! I felt quite wobbly and it was very noisy when the bell rang.
Dad took us to a playground and I played on a whizzy-roundy thing.
It all went too soon. Our taxi drove up but unfortunately we had left the key to the gates in the apartment. So we had to climb it, and that was hard because the gate was very spiky. Mummy’s skirt got caught on a spike and she ended up with a big bruise.

Edie:

We went on lots of walks through the town. On the cathedral there was a great view, and at one point there was thunder, but dad and I knew, that unless our hair stood up, then we were all safe! Outside, we saw a man playing bagpipes, and Della recorded it and I took photos. We put some money in his bagpipe case. Our apartment was very roomy and pretty. My bed and Della’s were basically joined together! There were big cupboards that me and Della slipped into, and hid in. Then whenever somebody opened the door, we would yell boo, and they wouldn’t know where we were! It was hilarious!