Europe 2021: Celanova

Europe 2021:

Celanova

This one will be brief. My father was raised in a very small town in far northern Spain called Celanova (pronounced 'thel-a-nova'). I was very excited about getting back here as it had been decades since my last visit. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the most disappointing stop on our entire trip and really epitomized the statement "you can't go home again". Celanova had grown, and not in a charming, touristy way. It seemed like some industrial complex had set up shop there and brought a population boom of working class folks and a surge of apartment buildings. To emphasize my point, this now rather robust 'town' still only had a single hotel (it was the worst place we stayed over the entire three weeks as well). 

There's really not much to see in Celanova anyway. There's an old monastery like most Spanish towns have, and that's about it. I couldn't find our old family home in town (that we no longer own) because everything looked different and I hadn't brought the address. We didn't even bother going to the family farm in La Facha up the mountain. It's just land at this point as the structures have long been neglected. I think I was hoping for a nostalgic trip of my father's history and the 'change' just depressed me. On the way there I had even talked with Nel about rebuilding the country home as a sort of European getaway location for our family. Sadly, there are better places in Europe to start over if we want to do that. 

  

We did manage to do one fun thing. The sketch in the picture above has been hanging in my parents home since the 70's. It's hanging in my guesthouse today. We tried to find the exact spot and angle that the artist used and took a picture to compliment. The old square, at least, hasn't changed much at all. 

It was a disappointing stop all around, so we only stayed one night and then moved on. I think my expectations for some trip back in time in remembering my father probably were too high to be met, but I'm glad I went back to Celanova at least one last time.