A Coruña

`After a VERY long day of driving (and a frustrating story to tell at a later date) we miraculously arrived in La Corun~a.  By the way, in Blogger you can cut and paste in the title (thus the ~ over the n) but you cannot in the posts and we haven't yet figured out how to use Spanish accents in Blogger.

I'm not kidding when I say that we miraculously arrived in La Coruna...we were driving in the dark for several miles, reached a city called Arteixa that was a fair distance from La Coruna and decided to stay at the first hotel we came to, no matter what the cost.  Problem:  where are the hotels?  We saw signs, drove in circles, stopped to ask, etc.  After being lost and then getting lost again in Arteixa I was at the end of my rope (so angry I couldn't even speak...scary-angry) and just then we pulled out of the maze of buildings onto a large, well-lit boulevard (it's about 11:00 at night by now) with a big black blob over the end of the railing.  I asked my mom whether she thought it could be a river or lake, being that we were nowhere near the ocean.  Just then we passed the hotel Melia Maria Pita, a sight to behold.  Still thinking we were in Arteixa, my mom ran in to get a room while I waited for the valet (the Melia hotels are pretty swanky).  Handing over the keys to the valet is one of the highlights of my life so far...I felt such a rush of relief I just wanted to hug the guy.  It wasn't until after we had made it all the way up to the room and I looked at the Melia book that we realized we were in La Coruna...how we made it all the way there I have no idea, but we made it.  The next morning we realized that it was not a river that we saw but the Playa del Orzan and we were rewarded with this view (a little hazy with the morning mist):

The coat of arms of the city of La Coruna is everywhere...here, seen on a beach railing, painted on the front of a garbage can and embossed at the base of the lamp posts on the beach promenade.  It consists of the Tower of Hercules that is located in the city, scallop shells and a skull and crossbones all under a crown:

Our savior, the Hotel Maria Pita, named after a 16th-century heroine in La Coruna.  A woman so kick-ass that she deserves her own posting, which I will get to later...in the meantime, here is a picture of the hotel:

La Coruna is famous for its glassed-in balconies fronting the harbor, as seen below.  Not only beautiful, they are practical in use in Galicia where it can be very cold, rainy and foggy.



Some of the architectural details featuring women's faces:

Visiting the Plaza de Maria Pita, my new heroine:

Another practical idea in rainy Galicia is the enclosed seating in the plazas.  Typically there are many outdoor cafes and restaurants located in Spain's city plazas.  In La Coruna they have solved the problem of unpredictable weather by enclosing the seating in glass.  The walls are open on sunny days with the option of leaving the area entirely enclosed on rainy or cold days.

A close-up of the statue of Maria Pita which stands in the center of the plaza.  Awesome!

The plaza at night: