Post-Camino: A Coruña, Braga and Porto

After my first trek on part of the Camino de Santiago in Northwest Spain in August, I ended up spending a few days in nearby cities before going home. (Per the previous posts, since this was a first for me, I hiked just over the 100km required to get the completion certificate, over the course of 5 days)

Originally, I thought that I’d fly home from the trek’s end in Santiago, or take the train back to Madrid and fly from there. But, I noticed that there was a non-stop flight from nearby Porto, Portugal to Boston. Since I’d never been to Porto, I thought I’d take the flight out of there, and make a couple of quick stops getting down there.

These visits were all intentionally brief, and in retrospect, they were probably too brief. But, here I summarize my brief visits to 3 places in Northwest Spain and Northern Portugal on my way back.

A Coruña, Spain

A Coruña is a pleasant sea side city of 250,000 that’s a 30-40 minute train ride from Santiago, a place where I could have easily spent more time.

I ended up spending half a day there in A Coruña on my second day in Santiago, before the late afternoon Cathedral Roof/Tower tour that I had planned in Santiago that day.

I took a morning train there. After arriving, I effectively took a long 45 minute walk through A Coruña towards the downtown and to the seaside promenade, stopping at a cafe along the way. The downtown is full of restaurants and a pleasant place to spend some time.

One prominent site is the huge “Hercules Tower” by the edge of the coast, which was actually built in the 1st century, and is the oldest known standing Roman lighthouse. It is possible to climb this tower, but an advance timed ticket is needed. One general highlight of Europe is picking an effectively random city from the train station map and stumbling on cultural artifacts like this.

Note: Finisterre is probably the most popular day trip option from Santiago, albeit one that I didn’t do. This can be done as an easy bus tour, but I just wasn’t up for a full day on a bus that particular day. I’d probably try it if I were in the area again, though I did enjoy my time in A Coruña.

Braga, Portugal

Leaving Santiago the following morning, I took the bus ride over the border to Braga, a city of 200,000 people in Northern Portugal. I really enjoyed the day that I spent there – it’s a nice historic city with vibrant squares, gardens, and the Bom Jesus do Monte cathedral in the nearby hills. It was an unexpected gem for me.

On arrival, I stored my luggage at the hotel, and mostly started wandering – the churches, the squares, the gardens, the shops. I had a nice lunch in the square. It is a very pleasant mid-sized Portuguese city. It has a different feel from a larger and more international cities in Portugal like Lisbon or Porto, which is part of the point.

Later in the afternoon, I took a taxi to Bom Jesus do Monte, a Cathedral which is roughly a 15 minute Uber ride from the city center in the nearby hills. Besides the cathedral and the fairly iconic steps up to it, there’s a nice park, and a great view of the city below.

Otherwise, I took an Uber back to the city center and spent more time exploring in the late afternoon and evening.

Porto, Portugal

I came to this popular tourist city, home of port wine and with a beautiful riverfront and hills, with high expectations. And almost certainly with not enough scheduled time.

But (the realistic side of travel!) I got bit by a illness late in the afternoon that I arrived, and spent much of the rest of my time there in bed. Fortunately it was a relatively quick bug and I was well enough to fly on my scheduled flight the next evening. I got a quick overview, but also can’t write a super detailed post about it.

The city itself is fairly hilly, with a beautiful riverfront area. Before my sickness kicked in, I was able to do some of the basic “Rick Steves” walks through the city, which gave a good orientation. It was a place that I could definitely return to.

One scene that I didn’t expect was the Livraria Lello booktore, which inspired parts of Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling lived in Porto for some time before she was famous), and has thousands of fans lining up to enter every day.

In any case, if you do hike the Camino de Santiago, you don’t need to finish your trip in Santiago. There are several enjoyable cities nearby Santiago at the end which are quite worth some time.