Tuesday, August 30, 2022 – Happy Birthday to my Father A day trip to A Coruña.

Travel Blog 3 Minutes
This is my father, Robert Marinus Hansen.
He is such a good man. A great husband, father, friend and mentor.
This is my father with my mother, Rita Theresa Hansen. We call her Saint Rita for more reasons than I have time to share in this blog. They have been happily married for over 70 years.

Today is my father’s 94th birthday. That is a pretty big deal. My father has always been my hero. When I was a kid and someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would always say my father. I still say that. He is the best father there has ever been or ever will be. He has always been my best friend and an amazing mentor. Everything I am and everything I have ever accomplished I owe to my father and of course my mother. A heartfelt happy birthday to my favorite person in the whole wide world. Love, Mark.

We decided to take the train to A Coruña and be tourists for the day

Train station in Santiago.
This is our high speed train pulling into the station at Santiago.
On the Spanish passenger rail lines they are all in on the concept of concrete ties.
We have arrived in A Coruña. The skull and crossbones ☠️ tells you that A Coruña was a pirate town at one time and the tower in the middle is the Tower of Hercules. The Tower of Hercules is the oldest extant lighthouse in the world. It was built by the Romans and is still in use today. The Romans were really outstanding architects, engineers and builders.
This is the Tower of Hercules.
A Coruña is an interesting blend of old and new buildings.
Surfing is a really big deal on the northern coast of Spain.
A guy was renting Segways so we decided to try it out.
We rode Segway’s up and down the beachside promenade for about 30 minutes. It is not as hard as it looks and I was very careful.
This shows one of the paths where we were riding our Segways.
We decided to walk back to the train station through old town A Coruña.

We found a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant and decided to give it a try.

This is my triple delight stir fry. Ángel hair pasta with veggies and chicken, pork and shrimp. It was delicious and with an iced tea the bill came to 7 Euros.
Spiderman climbing an obelisk in downtown A Coruña.
While Batman looks on from the top of a building across the square.
What are the chances of running across a golf tee on the sidewalk in downtown A Coruña?
Right across the street from our pension in Santiago we found this great steak place
We started with a nice cold glass of white wine. I know you are thinking that red wine goes best with steak, but the owner suggested this white wine and it was great.
Our first course was Caldo Gallego. This is a delicious local soup full of meat and cabbage and potatoes and beans.
This is the owner’s daughter who bakes the bread and tends the bar.
This is our second course. Roasted peppers and fries.
This was our third course. It was basically a thick cut sirloin cooked medium rare. It was soooooo good.
The owner gave us each a complimentary chilled glass of Drambuie and when we thanked him profusely for the phenomenal meal, he refilled our glasses.

That’s it for today. We walked 25,000 steps, 17 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 18 flights of stairs.I hope you had a great day wherever you are. Good night from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

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Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

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