Galicia is the northwest-most autonomía in Spain, and it has the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Cantabrian Sea to the north. Santiago de Compostela is the capital and alleged burial place of St. James (his tomb was discovered in Santiago in 814--St. James died in 44ad--during the Christian reconquest of Spain) . It's a very popular spot for pilgrims, and it's the final destination of the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), which is the pilgrimage route that goes across Northern Spain.
There is a very ornate cathedral that was built in 1122, but was re-clad in it's current façade in 1750, because the old one was starting to dissolve because of the rain, since Galicia is one of the wettest places in Europe.
This is the high alter, which has St. James' tomb under it.
Some pilgrims outside of the church. I was only in Santiago for a couple of hours really early in the morning because I was waiting for a bus to the coast. The trip was quite exciting (11 buses in one weekend), because it was Spanish Labor Day, so it was a bit more difficult to get transportation. I had to take a bus to Madrid to catch the bus to Santiago, but after getting to Santiago, I took regional buses to Cariño, so it was much less busy.Cariño is a popular vacation town, and near the northern-most point in Spain. I was there in the off-season, so it was pretty empty, but it was breath-takingly beautiful. The coast was really rugged and rocky, and I found some amazing eclogites, which were what I went to Cariño to see.
A street in Cariño.
Mountains of eclogite
The weather was beautiful when I was in Galicia, but the lush forests (it looked like rainforest) made it pretty clear that it is extremely wet in Galicia.
The northern-most point in Span
Cariño from the mountains
A 1 Euro-cent coin modeling with some eclogites
