Toronto to Pontevedra, October 16-17

Straight from Saturday morning's rehearsal to Pearson International... Emily, Praise, Sarah S, EunA, Xiaohan and Sarah B pause in the middle of the giant sculpture in the international departures wing while waiting for our flight out.



Sarah B and Tony join our Maestro
and Xiaohan in the boarding line
while Nurhan checks Xiaohan's cute mascot 'MeToo'

Smile of relief in Madrid -- Sarah S checks that her cello has arrived in perfect shape after its checked-baggage trip in her specially-built travel case. All is well!


Then Susana from the concert 
agency leads us out to our bus 
for the drive to Pontevedra.

Mig and Ani wait to board the bus -- the dedicated President of Sinfonia Toronto and his wife are accompanying the orchestra on its Spanish tour.














 


The trip to Pontevedra takes us through a fascinating sequence of different landscpes. First, up through foothills to the Sierra de Guadarrama north of Madrid, where we pass through the first of the day's many tunnels. On the other side, we emerge into a mountainous highland of centuries-old sheep and

cattle farms delineated by what appear to be kilometres of dry-stone walls built with sculptural precision.


Each mountain captures and holds its own cap of cloud, but our route is clear and sunny.

Every few minutes through the entire trip, we
can see wind turbines on ridges or solar farms on slopes. Spain must be many years ahead of Canada in committing to sustainable energy.

Have score, will travel: Nurhan reviews some of the repertoire, somewhere between Valladolid and Ourense... After climbing steadily on the way north, we turned left at Benaventura and then continued a gradual ascent westward across drier upland plains, following the A-52 highway next to vast grain fields.


From Ourense the highway twisted through spectacular river valleys punctuated by smaller towns that were a striking mix of ancient stone farmsteads surrounded by gardens and vineyards and newer Euro-style and traditionally-modeled houses perched up and down steep slopes. Well over an hour of downhill curves marked "Para seguridad, controle su volocidad" brought us to the coast and a warm welcome at our hotel in Pontevedra.

Never mind unpacking, time to see a little of the city and stretch our legs after bus-plane-plane-bus for so long! On Sunday evening, many residents are strolling through the historic centre of the city around the hotel. We pass the preserved remains of the San Domingo Cathedral, strikingly illuminated. A few of the interior support pillars were 'recycled' into the church from a 2nd-century Roman building.

Then we found the Teatro Principal, the hall for tomorrow's concert, a few blocks beyond the church through stone streets lined with lovely balconied apartments and chic shops. Finally, a typical and delicious late dinner as we split into tapas fans and those who headed for "mariscosarias" to enjoy the seafood for which this region of Galicia is famous.