Our Trip to Northern Spain and Portugal

The Madrid Temple was closed during the past two weeks, and we as temple missionaries were encouraged to visit other places in Spain (and elsewhere) during the break. So Scott and Beverly, along with a senior sister missionary (Sister Miriam de Schweinitz), decided to go on a guided bus tour of northern Spain and Portugal.

The yellow dashed line on this map shows our route, starting in Madrid, right in the center of Spain, and ending in Madrid:

The trip covered about 2200 miles, with major destinations of

• Northern coast of Spain. The region has the nickname "La Costa Verde" (The Green Coast), a well-deserved name because of the high amount of rainfall.
• Santiago de Compostella, an official Catholic pilgrimage destination, that 150,000 people walk to from all parts of Europe along the so-called Camino de Santiago (Saint James Way).
• Lisbon, Portugal, and the nearby Cabo da Roca, the "End of the Earth" or eastern-most edge of the world as it was known before Columbus.
• And many wonderful, amazing places in between.

Here's a picture taken in Gijón, a city on the Bay of Biscay ("Mar Cantábrico"), as an example of the beautiful Costa Verde that we traveled along for many miles:

We will share information and pictures of beautiful northern Spain and Portugal in future blog posts.