A quick but tasty visit to Ourense

Today I am going to tell my experience two years ago visiting the Galician city of Ourense, a city that normally is not among the destinations of those who visit Galicia. It is much less touristic than for example Santiago de Compostela, but it was a great surprise and left me a pleasant impression.

Our visit to Ourense was by chance. We wanted to go from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid by train. But there wasn't a direct train. We should have to change trains in Ourense. And since the train was very early in the morning, we decided to spend one night there.

We arrived in the city shortly after midday. And after check-in in at a hotel near the train station, we went to the historic downtown. To get there we had to cross one of the bridges that cross the Miño River that runs through the city. We crossed the most emblematic one, the Ponte Romana or Ponte Vella.

_{Ponte Romano, Ourense and a view from the bridge.}

The Ponte Romano is a pedestrian medieval bridge that despite having undergone several reforms throughout history, its foundations were built by the Romans and is the oldest bridge in the city.

_{Ponte Romano, Ourense}

After crossing the bridge we walked through some streets until we reached the Praza do Ferro.

If there is something famous in Galicia are the tapas and Ourense is not an exception. From the Praza do Ferro there are several streets that lead to the surroundings of the Cathedral of Ourense and conforming within the historic center an area known as "Os Viños" which is the route of bars and tapas of this Galician city. With very emblematic locals as the Bar Orellas, where the specialty tapa of the house of course is the pig ears. Which I must say are not my favorite, but still, we went in for some wine.

_{Praza do Ferro / Bar Orellas}

Then we continued walking towards the cathedral area of Ourense. We had seen the night before on a travel page on the internet a nearby place to it where we wanted to eat, the Casa do Pulpo.

_{Rua Lepanto with Ourense Cathedral in the background.}

And there between wine and beer, we ate Pulpo a Feira (octopus Galician style) and some zamburiñas (sea scallops). Everything was so tasty. Then we continue our tour with a full belly and a happy heart.

_{Casa do Pulpo}

We walked through several streets until we reached the hot springs that are in the city center, named As Burgas.

_{As Burgas}

The water here is at a temperature between 64 and 68ºC. These hot springs in the center of the city are as emblematic to the history of it as the Ponte Romano.

From what I have read the hot springs complex has three springs, we touched the water emanating from the Burga de Abaixo. The middle Burga is what today is a complex of pools that during our visit were closed to visitors. And the source of the Upper Burga (Burga de Arriba), although smaller, is the oldest.

_{Burga de Abaixo / Thermal Pool / View from the thermal pool / Burga de Arriba}

Our next stop on the tour was the Plaza Mayor of Ourense, where we sat down for a coffee in one of the local cafes. The square is nice and it has some cafes with outdoor tables.

_{Plaza Mayor, Ourense}

The streets became busier as the afternoon progressed. We walked through some of them and passed in front of the baroque church of Santa Eufemia, whose facade called my attention more than that of the cathedral.

_{Street in Ourense / Santa Eufemia Church / Street in Ourense with Santa Eufemia church in the background}

After sunset, bars began to fill up. We joined the atmosphere and had tapas and drinks in several places. If one deserves a special mention, it is Bar Fuentefria, known for its mini pork sandwiches. But what we liked the most there was a tapa called Tosta de Anchoa. It was a thin toast with a creamy tomato sauce, and on top, the tastiest anchovy I have ever tasted.

_{Street in Ourense / Bar Fuentefria}

The city was so lively and had a good vibe. We toured various places, trying some tapas before going to the hotel to rest a while before heading to the train station to take the train to Madrid.

This was our unplanned trip to Ourense. A city despite not being among the top-visited places in Galicia left a very good impression on us,

If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading.

_{Disclaimer: I'm not related to any place mentioned in this article. It's just some notes based on my experience.}

_{All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.
All images are my own and were taken in a visit to Ourense in December 2019}
© CoquiCoin

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January 31, 2022