Day 83: Santiago de Compostela, Spain

We have reached the Holy Land! Santiago de Compostela!

Santiago as in St James, one of the twelve apostles and cousin of Jesus Christ. The remains of St James were "identified" here around 813 A.D. at a very convenient time to help rally faith in the church at a time when Muslim forces and beliefs were gaining strength in the country. As a result Santiago de Compostela has become a holy city, the site of a major Christian pilgrimage for over 1,000 years now. The Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) is walked by ten of thousands each year, most starting in the Pyrenees Mountains along the Spanish/French border. The walk is about 800 kilometers and takes about a month to make it to Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims that make the voyage succesfully are honored at the next mass at noon, where their nationality and starting point are announced at the mass.

Santiago de Compostela is considered to be the third most holy land in the Catholic faith, behind only Jerusalem and Rome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_compostela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_James_the_Great
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James#The_modern-day_pilgrimage

Our pilgrimage started in Leon, and we rode by car (which disqualifies us as official pilgrims). Oh, I just realized that I have not properly introduced our rental car (aka. "Land Bullet") yet. We rented this baby for 42 days to take us throughout Spain and some of France. Land Bullet has already broken the sound barrier twice (going downhill, uphill is another story for this beast of a machine) in the past two weeks and we still have a month to go.


(Land Bullet just cries for open road!)

So, back to our pilgrimage. Our journey took nearly 4 hours, with a stop for gas and fresh roadside cherries (which we had a contest of spitting seeds out of the window of the car while approaching the speed of light), and finally parked our car smack in the middle of the square next to the main cathedral. Our hotel sits in the same square and is the first building you see in the following video. (You can see Ilana in the background taking pictures)




Our hotel (another awesome Parador) was built by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to house the sick and poor back near the year 1500. It has 4 beautiful courtyards to sit and/or walk through.




Next we grabbed a map (I've never had to navigate so much in my life than on this trip), a quick bite to eat, then walked the city a bit before going to see the inside of the cathedral.


(The Cathedral)


(View from the park nearby)




Then we went for a look inside the cathedral. The "spiritual climax" of the pilgrimage supposedly occurs behind the altar inside the church, where pilgrims approach the statue of Santiago (St James) and kiss his bejeweled cape. We took the walk through and up behind the high altar and saw the statue, and waited while others had their "moment" with the sacred statue. The work and design is amazing, jewels and gold everywhere, and a priest sitting there to pray with anyone who wishes to do so. We didn't get any great pictures inside the church, the interior isn't as impressive as other churches although the altar here is quite ornate.


(Altar)


(Cool shot I took in a side chapel)

After the interior we ran next door to the museum that gives you access to the churches cloisters which were pretty cool.




And now for the awesome part of the day! We booked the last time they had available for a tour of the cathedral (7pm). And this isn't a tour of the interior, but one that takes you along the rooftops of the cathedral and chapels. It was amazing. Here are some pictures and a video. I hope it gives you a good idea of what it was like. Amazing that they would let people run around on a cathedral rooftop from the 15th century!






After all that excitement we had dinner and called it a night. A long but great day!

Hasta luego

FJ

Rudy - NEVER stop playing Warhawk, NEVER!
Ricky - windows were rolled up, I never checked if the door was open though.
And lastly a big shout out to Nadja! Kompai!!!