Looking for Spain - How long until we get there?

The sun rose up early in the summer of Spain. And so were we. Before having to leave the city of lions, we took the time to wander about a little more. The first stop was the beautiful St Marcos church. Although it looked simple-looking from the outside, I got surprised about what was inside of it. Likewise the facade, the interior was romanic, with a touch of baroque on the junctions of the church, making it a rather undressed, yet beautiful to see church. But the main hall was not the only surprise for us. As we walked in, soon we realised of the "hidden" rooms and exhibitions that the St. Marco's had to show us. From sculptures to pieces of porcelain to whole rooms, this was a rather encounter!

Yet, we couldn't afford to remain more time in the church, nor in Leon, as other lands were waiting for us. Thus, after a quick snack, we departed again to lands beyond our grasp. 

Our initial idea was that of setting course to Coruña but, the country surprised us with two unknown marvels. The first one, which was what convinced us to leave the road… was Astorga's cathedral. It's grandness can be compared with the one of Leon, yet less known. What we didn't know was that this cathedral would blow my head away. Such detailed, accurate work on stone; such dimensions and elaborate refinements; the light and colour cast inside it; it's incredibly large, tall pillars that sustain such presentation… no wonder that when christianism was spreading around, building like this would have an immense part on the convincing of the non-believers!

Astorga's cathedral was not the only surprise that Astorga brought to us. Oh no! Right around the corner, another building stood up for us to enter in. It was nothing but Gaudi's Palace. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take pictures and even if I tried to sneak some frames, few were the places where a CCTV camera wouldn't caught me doing it. Anyway, just to introduce you a bit about it, this palace was initially built by the hand of Gaudi to be a residential house for the clerk people travelling to Astorga. But the palace never did it's job and now what we see is a fully prepared palace, adorned in the same fashion as the Sacred Family's House, in Barcelona. Nonetheless, the palace itself is already taken out from a fantasy book from the outside and the interior of it only push it upper, to the realm of Heaven (thinking of this as a work to God's shepherds).

Being a bit frustrated for not having been able to explore Gaudi's palace more, and seeing the sun going ever more to west, we left and got back to our first set route. Having nothing to complain about, apart from the photograph issue at Gaudi's, and full of memories and stories to think about, I fell asleep.

When my eyes opened again, I was at the outskirts of La Coruña, seeing from the window the urbanised immensity of the city: the noise, traffic, agglomeration of people and the never stopping sound that a big city always makes. Yet, I was a awe, for memories of previous trips to Coruña had just came to my mind. Hence, not yet we had a place to stay, already was I talking about bits and deeds to see and do.

Our accommodation was arranged on the south side of Coruña. Even though we were a bit off the centre, this location was ideal to leave early in the morning, avoiding all the just waken up metropolitan peak-time. It was not much of a deal for us though, for we'd rather spend less and travel more over being closer to everything and pay double or tripple. Let those who have condition to restrain their wander to the best of comforts take such places. Let us walk, drive, sweat and feel, at the end of the day, somehow like our bodies are reaching it's limits, only to realize the next day that there are still strengths to carry on, for when the fire of will still burns, we shall always more forth.

Many things are yet to be seen here, but that will stay for tomorrow.

Because now, we stay here.