Lugo day 4 (Monday, October 6th)

Lugo was a lot quieter this morning....the partying must be wearing some people out.  It was only about 14 degrees when we headed out this morning, with rain threatening, to do a quick circumnavigation on the wall before coffee.  Cafes were open, but business was nothing like Saturday and Sunday. 

We decided to do a walk down the river valley, to stay close to home, in case the rain got too heavy, but we ended up walking about 10 km, with the big climb from the river to the hotel at the end....aaaaargh!

All of the major entertainers in the area had their performances over the weekend, but lesser known groups were performing during the day today.  We happened across a performance by a local dance studio, with dancers of all ages.  The youngest were the funniest to watch, but I confess that I slept through a good portion of the show. 

Also, very little seemed to be open today, the grocery stores included, and those that were open had an extra long siesta. e.g. The grocery store was closed all day & the tourist office was closed until 5 pm, instead of the usual 4 pm, so we have done a fair bit of unproductive wandering today, in search of food and entertainment.  

We were determined to eat Spanish tonight....when 142 out of 150 restaurants in town are Spanish, what choice do you have, and where do you start?  We roamed the back streets of the old town and found a small but lively place, called A Tasca, where we all found something to our liking - Marty and I ordered omelettes, Marlene ordered a vegetable soup, and Randy ordered the ham dinner.  We all got what we expected, except Randy, whose meal was a plate piled high with ham....a ham dinner.  We augmented our meals with an order of palates frites (French fries), and a libation.  Funnily Marlene's wine was cheaper than Marty's water, so we had several laughs over dinner.  None of us was willing to try the Pulpo - they boil the whole octopus, then cut the tentacles into rings using large scissors, and serve them with the skin and suction cups still on the pieces. Maybe our next destination will have a more palatable regional dish.

While we were eating, a group of centurions, escorted by drummers came in collecting taxes.  We have no idea what charity the money was going to, as they did not ask us tourists for money. 

One of the public concerts tonight was Ara Malikian, a Lebanese violinist from Armenia, who has trained in Germany and England and performed at major venues around the world, including Toronto's Ford Theatre.  We caught the last few numbers after our dinner, and he is certainly a very animated entertainer, who can play a lot of different styles of music. 

Tomorrow we leave Lugo, and the Festival of San Froilan, for Segovia. We have enjoyed our time here, but after 5 days are ready for a change of scene.