Foreign Perspectives

Santiago is world famous for its magificent cathedral and the thousands of pilgrims that it attracts throughout the year, but what is the town really like?

In fact the section of the town that is most famous is actually quite small. It’s very easy to walk right around the famous section in under an hour if you don’t dawdle and in fact almost all of the tourists and pilgrims (it’s often difficult to distinguish between them) see a very small portion of the town which is consequently incredibly crowded. Even in the evening you can find it difficult to get a table in a restaurant, despite the large number of them in this area.

However, it doesn’t take much of a walk to get outside the touristy parts of the town. Almost everyone appears to cross the road from the park and walk along the Rua Franco to the cathedral which makes this, of course, one of the most crowded streets in the town. But, if instead of going straight towards the cathedral, you turn right within a few hundred yards you’ll find yourself in the modern section of the town which is full of “normal” shops and almost completely devoid of tourists. You almost get the impression that the inhabitants of the town like it that way as you’re immediately into a very Gallician area with signs in the local language rather than Spanish.

Whereas the tourist sections are lively at night with street theatre, in the modern town you don’t get any of that and the streets are almost deserted when it gets dark. If you’re looking for nightlife it seems to be best to stick to the areas around the cathedral as we found that most things seemed to close down around 10pm in the new town with just a few things such as some restaurants and cinemas staying open a little later than that. If you want to watch a film, bear in mind that in the new town all the films are in Spanish and there are no subtitles.

If you’re looking for a quiet stroll in the evening, try some of the numerous parks in the new town. In many cases, you’ll find that you have the places pretty much to yourself which makes a welcome change from pushing through the crowded streets in the cathedral area. There aren’t nearly as many restaurants in this area but it’s very easy to get a table and, of course, you get much more authentic Gallician food than you’ll find in the restaurants in the tourist area.