Virxe Da Cerca 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 ...

... 8220;perros y gatos&#8221;, a full flight, seats<br>that crunched up against one&#8217;s knees, waves of claustrophobia coming and going<br>AND a nice bumpy flight on the climb up. <br>By the time we got to Barcelona, all was clear and the weather was about<br>10 degrees warmer!<br><br>The highlight yesterday, though, had to be 1) mass at the cathedral and 2) a tour of the<br>cathedral palace and a walk on the roof of the cathedral ...

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.<br><br>The centre ...

... Brazilian mafia-affiliated club, where he notices our hesitance and tries to convince us to just come in and have a drink at his table. At that exact moment, the other girls call, and I sprint up to the plaza and drag them down to the club, where Maureen and the guy are still standing. The presence of 6 other girls makes us feel much more safe, and now the guy has no choice but to take all of us in (In Spain, it is expected that the person who does the ...

... 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 ...

... 20 rows deep, outside the pit). Around me of course a lot of Spanish people, so a lot of Spanish but I also heard some English. With us being from the Netherlands, it was an international gathering. The most respect I have for the guy who was standing one row behind me on my right: on crutches, but he stood there. The entire night! Thumbs up!!<br><br>Nils Lofgren opened with Rianxeira (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rianxeira in case you speak Spanish), a ...

... a pilgrim would know and understand. We went for coffee and talked for the next three hours...what a fascinating experience to learn about from the perspective of someone who has done it. She actually wrote her senior thesis on El Camino, interviewing pilgrims and priests in Santiago as part of her research. It was only after her paper was completed and she had moved to Madrid to teach for two ...

... the pelgrimroute from Porto) I stayed at a campsite.. It was really cold.. I coudn´t reach the people I knew from here (I met them in Porto some months ago), so stayed there and tried to find them. And surprisingly enough I met them on a ¨Magusto¨ party!!!! (Magusto is a typical celebration here and also in Portugal: people come together and eat chestnuts!!!). Since then I had a lot of company of the people who are organising activities in ¨Casa ...

... and told a few stories. Unfortunately my joyous trip came to a screeching halt when I saw that someone had sliced a two foot gash in my convertible top on my car...horray Chicago!! I wanna go back to Europe. So after I filed the police report, I started my drive back home after being up for about 24 hours and no sleep. 7 hours, a few naps, and some delicious Taco Bell later (finally!), I was home. Well that's all for me. I wanna give a big thanks ...

... now mostly empty, and a bar open for coffee and chocolate sort of croissants, or the local equivalent (pan chocolat). We look at the local rebuilt mediaeval church, photo the service station built into the back of the monastery, walk out the far side. Jerry catches his stick in the side vision mirror of a car, rips it off, leaves it dangling on a string. Tries to look nonchalant The track is along the river, and the girls watch "trucha" in the river, MP and JL ...