Pico Sacro Santiago de Compostela

The other two tours in Madeira and Lanzzarrotte we planned well in advance, but the trip to Santiago de Compostela was a last minute decision based on the recommendation of the two couples who we had the pleasure of dining with on the cruise. I'm glad we decided to go. It was quite a long drive, but well worth the effort. We walked around the oldest part of the town where the ...

... 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 ...

We travelled through thick fog over and through the mountains on typically heroic Spanish roads. They cut through mountains and build viaducts over the valleys. We drove through and around weary looking Pilgrims to our campsite which was on the Camino de Santiago. It was closed. After some interesting encounters with some locals, one old man practically ran away when asked for directions, we found this camp site.

The centre ...

... our own bathroom and a room to ourselves. Also had awonderful meal served by a grandpa who reminded Shawn and I of Oscar. He went out of his way to solve our language barrier and also pured soup over sara´s arm and went to get a wet cloth to wipe it up - he was so cute. Mary here--I seem to be the only one the bed bugs are drawn to ,no one else has been bitten,except for the fact ...

... does the paying, and we couldn't have been more clear that we were expecting friends). We enter this club and find that he has reserved a VIP table in the corner with a velvet rope and all. A waiter comes and asks for our orders, and once we realize that this guy is paying for all our drinks, we order and sit there talking and drinking. I get one of the other girls to ask him his name, which turns out to be Doglas (DOE-glass). We sit there talking amongst ourselves ...

... traditional "veiera", or scallop shell, the symbol of St. James, attached to their bags. Given their clothing and backpacks, and their smell, it was pretty clear that they had literally just arrived in the city and walked straight into the cathedral. The "rules" of the pilgrimage say that to be a true pilgrim, you have to walk at least 100km or bike or horse-ride at least 200km, but there were people of all ages, shapes and sizes. The most interesting thing to me was how few ...

... where the bones were found. I realised this wasn't as much about James as human politics, so turned again to the only personal record of his that I believe exists, and that is his letter in the New Testament. He wrote the letter in the days when Christians were expecting the return of Jesus at any moment, and I have had some time to read it again. What follows are my brief meanderings (I can call them nothing else!) through James' letter in the New ...

... when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella united Spain under the Roman Catholic Church and expulsed the last of the Moors and the Jews who didn´t convert, the capital was moved to León. According to who was in power, and where the capital of Spain was, pilgrims felt an obligation to pass through that capital on their way to Sanitago. Today we visited a Gallego Museum of history which showed a huge map of pilgrim starting ...

... time the weather was good But sometimes ... Anyway the landscape full of oaks was marvellous: And also the different villages: The food was incredible and plentiful (well we need to be moderated while eating if not you will be sick (wont ...

... it very hard to keep walking (we've done 26.5 kms at this stage). Have lunch at the very friendly cafe, and find enough energy to walk another 3 kms into Arzua, passing the Ribadiso Albergue on the way, where we see Samantha basking in the sun by the river, along with a big group of young Spaniards. Book into the Arzua hostel, a traditional stacked stone building, attached to a church right in the centre of town. The hostel has been refurbished, and is quite ...