This fall, Melissa and I are exploring northwestern Spain. It’s a part of the country that we’ve never visited before but that many Spaniards have recommended to us. Unlike most of the country, this corner of Spain is known for being lush and green, and for raining a lot.
The catalyst for this trip—as for so many of our travels—is getting the opportunity to housesit someplace that sounds interesting and pleasant. This time, that place is Pontevedra, a city of about 80,000 people near the Atlantic coast in the Spanish region of Galicia, about 30 miles north of Portugal.
Thanks to a listing on Trustedhousesitters.com, we’ve been looking after four rescue cats (two friendly adults and two cute, squirming kittens) in a modern, light-filled apartment near one of Pontevedra’s main plazas, where the older part of town meets the newer part.
One of the wonderful features of central Pontevedra is that it’s been turned largely into a pedestrian zone. Traffic is diverted around the edges of the city. There are large, free parking garages under the main plazas. Some buildings have their own garages, but there is no parking on the streets. Taxis and vans can stop to make deliveries, and police cars patrol on occasion. But most of the time, the streets are full of people, not vehicles. Pontevedra has won international awards for its walkability and—unusually for an old European city—its accessibility for wheelchairs.
People are out strolling or running errands all through the day, but certain times are especially bustling. At 11 a.m., students at the big high school around the corner have a break and flood the small shops on our street, buying snacks and chatting with friends. That’s also the time when many people stop at a café for coffee or a glass of Spain’s exquisite, freshly squeezed orange juice. At around 2, people head to restaurants for lunch, the main meal of the day here. In the early evening, families, couples, and groups of friends of all ages paseo (stroll) through the streets, getting exercise, greeting friends, walking dogs, and sometimes stopping for a drink or a snack. (Dinner, which tends to be smaller than lunch, is typically eaten at 9 or 10 p.m.)
When we open the front windows of our apartment, we hear a constant hum of conversation from the street below. It feels like being in a coffee shop at home—but with your own comfortable furniture, where you can stay as long as you want and never have to buy anything. That buzz gives the center of the city a lively feeling, without the usual urban noise of honking cars and rumbling trucks and buses.
Pontevedra isn’t especially picturesque, but it does feel old and historical. Most of the buildings are made of stone: local granite or sandstone. The narrow streets lead from one small plaza to another, many filled with the tables of restaurants and cafes. Old houses are square and solidly built, without much decoration. Traditionally, religious and decorative art in Pontevedra has focused on stone carving. The city’s art school still includes a school of stone carving.
Old houses sport carved coats of arms of the families who built them (including the Sotomayor family, which makes me wonder whether the U.S. Supreme Court justice has family roots in Galicia). Many plazas also have cruceiros—tall, narrow stone crucifixes, often with a carving of the Virgin Mary on the reverse side, that are characteristic of Galicia. It’s hard to know how old they are; stone weathers quickly in Pontevedra’s wet climate. (Galicia is one of the rainiest parts of Spain, especially in the fall and winter. We’ve been getting a lot of rain during our time here, thanks in part to remnants of hurricanes that cross the Atlantic.)
Pontevedra sits at the end of a long estuary from the ocean and was once a major port. The Santa Maria, one of the three ships on Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas, was built here. The city’s port silted up centuries ago, and seafaring trades moved elsewhere. But Pontevedra’s maritime past is reflected in the wonderful seafood that is a local specialty. We’ve been enjoying lots of very fresh fish, scallops, and squid during our time in the city.
Pontevedra has several tourist sights, including a surprisingly good art museum, a small 16th-century basilica with some notable carved facades, and the ruins of a 14th-century convent a few steps from our apartment. The prettiest building in town, in our opinion, is the little Baroque Igrexa da Virxe Peregrina—Galician for the Church of the Pilgrim Virgin. On its altar, the Virgin Mary is clothed like a pilgrim walking the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), a historical pilgrimage route that led from many places in Europe to the purported tomb of St. James the Apostle.
Pontevedra is a stop on the Camino route from Portugal. Every day, we see people trudging into town with their backpacks, rain ponchos, and hiking poles. Besides looking forward to a good night’s sleep, they’re probably appreciating Pontevedra’s flat, walkable streets and the knowledge that they’re only two or three days away from their destination, Santiago de Compostela.
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