Casa Grande Da Capellania Padron

... have been gathering for centuries to visit the tomb of St James. The Cathedral itself was magnificent, and the surrounding buildings where also very impressive. Shopping in the narrow flag stoned streets was a delight. We stayed at were given refreshments in a former hospital dating from around 1513 which is a listed building and is now a first class hotel. It was all very grand.

... the lobby. Dinner last night was quite exceptional. Paul had the duck confit and I had the pork chop....both were delicious.

So we left Ribadeo yesterday and took the coastal road. It was like I imagine Highway 1 down the California coast used to be in the 50s. We stopped at Cathedral Beach and I'm attaching the photos. Santiago is a big-ish city with lots of traffic and its accompanying exhaust. It's a university city so ...

... the city which contains all the old buildings and churches is pedestrianised and huddles round the grand cathedral. The Cathedral is vast and very ornate. The guide books say that is best seen in the rain so that all the lichens and mosses are highlighted. The weather duly obliged!

The car has decided to have a sick day and has gone to the Ford dealer to recuperate! We collect it tonight and move on to Portugal in the morning.

... dessert crepe, and then naturally, some more coffee.... As we were eating and drinking, there was a street jazz musician sitting in the square playing music. Otherwise, the plaza was completely quiet, there was a gentle breeze, a few puffy clouds in the sky, and a giant, beautiful church presiding over this square. At this moment, we realized... this was about as European Perfect as it gets.

We finally left the restaurant after about 3 hours and went window ...

... and mass was at noon, so when we got to Santiago, we walked straight through the historic district to the cathedral. The cathedral, honestly, looked like most other big Catholic cathedrals I've seen throughout Europe, maybe even a little smaller and less grand. The main difference was this one was absolutely, completely FULL of people!! There were obviously a lot of tourists, but mostly, the place was packed with pilgrims wearing their hiking backpacks and clothes and with ...

Dit was echt zo waan-zin-nig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eypg1pBY 3nk, het WOW moment begint bij 0:40...

This was really a-ma-zing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eypg1pBY 3nk, the WOW moment starts at 0:40...

Santiago de Compostela, the last European show of this tour (so far?). This show has many elements and it really was hard to just write my concert review... every time I kept thinking about the organisation. But... enough has been written about that, For who can read Spanish, I refer to the article in El País: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/revista/ agosto/sardinas/ver/Jefe/elpeputec/2009 0804elpepirdv_4/Tes (which also provides (Spanish) links for ...

Day 32 - Tuesday, July 21 Arca de Pino (Pedrouzo) - Santiago 20.6 km (12.8 miles)

Up early, ate a quick breakfast and started to walk at 4:50 am - luckily we had a headlamp! Do you know how dark it is in the middle of a thick forest at that time of morning? All Cathy and I could think of was, "lions, tigers and bears, oh my!". We hadn´t gone far, when we noticed two people standing off to the side. (I will guess at ages) A ...

... about going into medicine, but she's not sure. She's Christian too, so we've had some really cool talks about a lot of things, having the same background. Did that make sense? Probably not. Ok. The days have been as such... Wake up at 6 or 6:30 or 7 and eat breakfast at our house and then wait for the school bus to pick us up. It's air conditioned in the bus so everyone loves the bus. :0) We all go to the school ALPI and ...

I'm in a wonderfully beautiful city, Santiago de Compostella. It's a medieval carless town and the terminus of a (very popular) Catholic pilgrimage across the north of Spain-- Camino de Santiago.

The best part about this town is that it's still devoted to the people who live here. In many of these well-preserved towns, the locals don't go into the old-town because it's devoted to tourists.

So, I arrived and it turns out there's a festival, guess I'll be staying a little longer ...