The green walk

Santiago is not all granite and cathedral. A few minutes out of the old town there is a chain of parks, linked to one another, that almost no visitor on a tight schedule ever sets foot in. It is the right plan for a morning with children, for a hot day when you have had enough of the heat, or simply for when you want grass underfoot instead of cobbles. The four parks sit close together: if you would rather see how they line up first, they are all on the map of Santiago.

1. Parque da Alameda. The starting point, and the most central park in the city — five minutes from the Obradoiro. Its playground was rebuilt as an inclusive one: a spiral slide, a carousel, a zip line and a rubber surface that takes wheelchairs, designed for children between 3 and 12.
2. Parque de Galeras, beside the river Sarela. Follow the river west to this park of some 40,000 m², smaller and far less visited than the Alameda, with a playground of its own and a wheelchair-accessible path along the water. This is the quietest stretch of the whole walk.
3. Parque de Bonaval. The old orchard and cemetery of the convent of San Domingos de Bonaval, redesigned by the architects Álvaro Siza and Isabel Aguirre, with a sculpture by Eduardo Chillida. It is terraced into the hillside, so the slope is real — a pram here takes some pushing — but from the top you get the rooftops of the old town from an angle almost nobody photographs.
4. Parque de Belvís. The end of the walk, 25 metres from the Mercado de Abastos, the city food market: three hectares with a stream running through it, a small viewpoint, meadows and drinking fountains, plus a playground and access designed for people with disabilities. A good place to finish and then walk into the market late in the morning, when the pulperías have their pots on.