Back in August of last year, I embarked on a road trip through beautiful Galicia, Spain with my ladyfriend Serena. Now, I’ve been to Galicia numerous times over the years as it is the region where my mother was born and I still have plenty of family there (my mother was the second youngest of 16 kids!) but I had never planned my own itinerary and explored the region on my own. Until this trip.
We would arrive in Madrid on August 2nd, spend a night there, then take the new high-speed train to Santiago de Compostela the following day and begin our trip by spending a few days with my family (and introducing them to Serena, who they only knew through our Facebook posts) then heading off to our first stop, Noia, a lovely town situated on the Galician coast.
The plan was to be in Galicia on August 3rd, rent a car (a hefty BMW X5 that we were talked into) and keep on driving through the region (with a stop in neighboring Asturias) until the 19th, hugging the Galician coast through some of its most beautiful towns, villages, and natural attractions while laying our heads for the night in Galicia’s more rural lodgings.
And my itinerary (that Serena totally trusted me to construct)? A work of geographic brilliance (if I may say so myself). From Santiago de Compostela’s historic Old Town to the Porto do Son, then up to Muxía and the Costa da Morte, then NE to A Coruña and Asturias (more on this in a future post!), then south through the Ribeira Sacra to the town of Monforte de Lemos, before heading back west to visit two of Galicia’s most beautiful villages, Combarro and Cambados.
Now, we did manage to catch a flamenco show in Madrid at the oldest flamenco tablao in the world, Tablao Flamenco 1911 (you can watch a short video I made from that evening in my previous post) but then things would get a bit complicated upon our arrival to Madrid – more on that in a bit…
Due to unforeseen (but ultimately fortuitous) circumstances, we would eventually arrive in Santiago de Compostela a day later and begin what would turn out to be be an absolutely remarkable experience for us both. A road trip through rural Galicia (with a few stops in neighboring Asturias) that would leave an impression on our hearts that, as of this writing, still lingers.
As for how things got a bit complicated upon our arrival in Madrid, you can read all about that over at my other half’s blog, Dan Perez Photography, as well as follow what will be a continuing series of spectacular photographs that will be posted weekly starting with that post. But photographs alone can’t properly tell the story of what we beheld in Galicia, so I’ve put together a short video (using an assortment of available cameras) to help illustrate how beautiful this region of Spain is. So sit back and get comfortable, I got you covered…
I’ll have a few more (far shorter but equally breathtaking) videos from our time is Asturias, which came after two days spent in A Coruña, so stay tuned for those. And remember to visit Dan Perez Photography and follow his series of photography posts from this remarkable trip (and yeah, we’re the same person!)
You can see more travel photographs from my other half HERE