My daughter and I booked a day trip from Santiago de Compostela, Spain to Finisterre and Muxia after finishing the Ingles Way of the Camino de Santiago. We wanted to see the “End of the World” (as the ancient Romans thought Finisterre and Muxia were)!
Our 9 1/2 hour bus tour, booked through Get Your Guide, was a lot of fun! I recommend it to anyone staying for a few days in the city of Santiago!
Our first stop of many that day was at a medieval Roman bridge in the town of Pontemaceira. It was fun scampering around the rocks amidst the ancient pillars under the bridge!
The next stop was in the tiny rustic town of Carnota, where the longest horreo in all of Spain can be found. (An horreo is a traditional structure in Spain, and especially in Galicia, that was used to store grain and corn.) This Horreo was built in 1760 to 1783, in two stages in a competition with another small rural town, and is 108 ft long!
Next was a stop at the breathtaking Fervenza do Xallas, the only waterfall in Europe, we were told, that empties directly into the ocean. It was spectacular to see!
Then to Cape Finisterre (“Fisterra” in the Galician language)! Said to be the end of the world by ancient Romans, its name in Latin means “end of the earth.” We had lunch at a restaurant there in this beautiful picturesque setting of ocean meeting sky.
And oh, the lunch we had! The restaurant we chose was El Puerto—it was the one that our tour guide and bus driver had chosen, so we followed their lead. It was an amazing meal! My daughter and I, as usual, shared all dishes. The seafood salad was beautiful, delicious, and fun, as we tried an assortment of seafood atop the fresh garden lettuces. The huge salad platter included razor clams, clams, prawns, mussels, shrimp, and zamburinas, which are a type of small scallop about half the size of other scallops. All the seafood was excellent! We also had one of the best steaks I’ve ever had (with apologies to my husband who grills some really good steaks)! This ribeye was perfectly seasoned, tender, and had been brushed with coarse pieces of sea salt. There were perfect fried potatoes, so good! Our coffee-flavored flan, and coffee, finished afterward, we walked around the pretty harbor at the ‘end of the world’ until time to bus-ride to our next destination!
This day trip had been absolutely wonderful so far, so we were complacent about upcoming Muxia, expecting to round out our day with yes, another great stop. But Muxia (it’s pronounced Moosh-ia’) to me, was more than that, it was the Grand Finale, and a memorable experience for sure! The wind was super-strong, the huge waves violently crashing against the rocks at this “world’s end”. We climbed around the big rocks, taking in the sounds of wind and crashes of ocean against rock; the sights of it all with ocean meeting sky in the distance; and, for me, the touch of the big rocks on my hands as I steadied myself on them against the enormous wind!
“Nature proclaims God, and when we enjoy nature, we enjoy God.” (Kristinkayjohnson.com)
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