Camino de Santiago (Camino Inglés) Day 4 End: Relaxing in Sigüeiro
The town of Sigüeiro really felt like suburbia. And it is: being half a day’s walk from Santiago de Compostela, it actually sits just 20 minutes’ drive from the capital of Galicia, and 9 minutes from the Santiago airport.
But Sigüeiro really felt like suburbia because of the amount of cars in the city center and the nondescript buildings. Quite a departure from the other towns I had passed through on this camino. My lodge for the night, Sigüeiro Hostel, was on the ground floor one of these nondescript buildings at the south edge of town, right next to the river Tambre.
Despite being called “Hostel,” actually all of the rooms were private rooms. I wonder if the owners know that “Hostel” actually isn’t English for “Hostal,” the latter being translated into English more accurately as “Pension” or “Guesthouse,” and the former translated into Spanish as “Albergue.”
The rooms were very modern and looked new. And of course, having my own room after a couple days in hostels meant I had the liberty to leave all of my toiletries and clothes out without bothering to repack, and also meant that I could just lounge around with no concern for others! Floor to ceiling windows were nice in theory, but being on the ground floor next to a park, privacy was a bit of a concern.
I loved having my own bathroom, but it seems to be oddly common among Spanish hotels, that the sink is open to the room and the toilet and shower are separated from the room only by glass walls and/or doors. And in this case, the wall didn’t even extend to the ceiling. Good thing I’m here by myself!
One nice thing about this place was that there were two bottles of water by the bed, and also these complimentary “amenity kits” at the sink. These included not just the usual suspects like shampoo and shower gel, but also deodorant (in the green toothpaste tube in the upper left) and a stain remover towelette. Such luxury!
After dropping off my stuff and taking a quick shower, I headed off to Restaurante Cortés.
A large space seemingly popular among families, the restaurant offered a 9€ menú. I started off with their “paella,” because I was curious what paella meant so far from Valencia. It included chipirones (small cuttlefish), mussels, shrimp,… peas and carrots… chicken… and… bacon! Valencianos would have gotten a heart attack, but I’ve got to say, the taste wasn’t bad!
Next I had the “raxo,” which I tried precisely because I didn’t know what it was. It turned out to be marinated chunks of pork, together diced potato and green and red bell peppers. It wasn’t bad, but the meat was a bit dry and chewy.
For dessert, i had the tarta de orujo, or orujo cake. Orujo is that liquor typical of this region which I tried for the first time at O’Galo in Ferrol. It was all topped off with a cortado.
After lunch, I went back to my room and relaxed a bit, then went to the park we had passed through this afternoon to reach the town to have another look.
There, I had tuna pastry I had bought as an early dinner. It was mainly puff pastry, with little filling.
I also had an interesting cake with pine nuts and almonds.
Rather than being a tart, inside the pastry crust and under the layer of nuts was a yellow cake.
Then I went back to my hotel, which had a super pleasant terrace at the edge of the building next to the river.
It was so relaxing and peaceful here!
I ordered a Aquarius to drink (Gatorade, basically), and I was surprised by the plate of complimentary tapas they served with it! Jamón, some padrón peppers, a square of tortilla de patatas, and some bread. All to accompany a 2€ drink!
I stayed out as long as I could, just nursing my drink and writing in my journal. Locals seemed to also come out to this spot, since it was such a nice place to hang out.
