Finisterra

Finisterra literally means "the end of the earth" in Spanish. Today we skipped an optional tour with OAT to book a day trip to the end of the earth.

This is a very different mode of travel. Our OAT group has 13 of us plus a tour leader. Our day trip filled a 48 passenger bus, and the same company had a second one right behind us. There were a couple other companies running nearly the same itinerary with similar buses. So everywhere we stopped there were about 200 people getting off buses in the same place at the same time. 

First stop was Ponte Maceira. Ponte means bridge, and the attraction here is a Medieval bridge that was rebuilt atop the foundations of an earlier bridge from Roman times. There are also a couple of ancient mills here that used water wheels as power to grind grain. These are ruins now.

Fortunately, everyone on our bus was prompt and no one kept us waiting. Our guide said everything twice -- first in Spanish and again in English. His English was good, but he spoke very fast in both languages.

Next stop was the seaside fishing village of Muros. Mussel farming is big here. There are platforms out in the bay where mussels are grown. We watched a boat unload literally tons of fresh mussels onto a semi truck, and that was just today's catch!

We walked along the promenade and saw businesses beneath stone arches. These were previously homes of fishermen who used the arches as "garages" to park their boats at high tide. Boats have gotten bigger since then, so the spaces are converted and protected from the tides.

At the village of Carnota we stopped to see examples of "hórreos" or hoards which we were seeing all over as we drove along. These structures are built in the yards near houses to keep food dry in this damp climate. They are on stilts with discs or plates to keep rodents out, and they are ventilated to let the air flow through while keeping the rain out.

You couldn't prove it today, since the sky was clear and the temperature unusually warm for October, but this area gets lots of rain coming in off the sea, So a local church here built a community horreo -- the largest in the area.

The same church also had a very large cemetery. We saw more than a dozen like it today from the bus, but had the opportunity to get close to this one.

Down the road a bit, The Ézaro Waterfall is one of the few in Europe that empties directly into the sea. There are many more impressive waterfalls in the world, but it was nice enough just the same. The surrounding area is quite beautiful.

The town of Fisterra is simply "the end of the earth" in Galician rather than in Spanish. It, too, is a fishing village, but commercial fishing stands beside tourism as drivers of the economy here. Across the bay one can see the "pink mountain" -- a large block of pink granite that the pre-Roman Celtic inhabitants believed to be the dwelling of the gods. Thus, it's sometimes called "the Celtic Mount Olympus."

We enjoyed an excellent seafood lunch at a very reasonable price at a restaurant right along the sea in Fisterra. We then had time to walk it off a bit before we had to be back on the bus.

A short distance from Fisterra is the Cape of Finisterra which is the real "end of the earth." There is a marker here for "Kilometer Zero" which some pilgrims consider to the actual end of the Camino trek. All of the tourists come here to look at the lighthouse and gaze out to sea.

But this point isn't actually the farthest west in mainland Europe (that's a place up the coast a bit from here). And the west coast of Ireland is farther west by one full degree of longitude.

Another point that isn't the actual end of the earth, but should be if you were making a movie (such as the 2010 Martin Sheen film, The Way, which has its climatic penultimate scene here) is Muxia (MU-she-ah).

Here, even on this calm day, the Atlantic waves come crashing against the rocks. It's like watching fireworks. The crowd oo's and ah's with every wave.

A chapel built here features several hanging ship models -- just like a Danish church, except these aren't all sailing toward the altar. Prayers for sailors here go back into antiquity.

From Muxia the bus brought us back to within a few blocks of our hotel. Still full from lunch, we celebrated by going to "dinner" at a very good ice cream shop.