Day 13 Staying Put in Santiago de Compostela: Botafumiero, Beggars, Buskers and Businessmen

Beggars were common. Most seemed to be of Eastern European origin, but not all.

Busking with a violin. We frequently see bagpipes and guitars. Last night, there was an operatic chorus that was phenomenal.

Cathedral Santiago de Compostela--on a good day

This, on the other hand, is what WE saw. Lotsa revamping in process.

The alter area

After a lazy morning of mostly rest, we prepared to go to the mass of the Pilgrims at the cathedral. The building is huge and beautiful. Unfortunately, the statue of St. James which you could theoretically walk to on your knees, kiss and get a miracle--involved in the reconstruction area, of course. So basically, we walked 110 miles to the church of the patron saint of Spain and didn't even get to see the monument. Maybe just making it 100 miles was our miracle :)

We attended the mass of the pilgrims. A nun taught us to sing the songs in Spanish. She looked like a Catholic school music teacher, but she had an angelic voice. We got the " Jubilate Deo" and the "Kyrie Eilyson" down pat before the priests arrived with significant coaching of the congregation. We arrived about 1130 am for a noon mass and had trouble finding a seat. But it all went well and the priest announced the arrivals from points afar including Paul and I from O Cebreiro. The mass was very beautiful and the setting incredible. The cathedral dates from approximately 1100 AD as a Catholic structure. A Roman necropolis preexisted it by about 200 years.

We were hoping to see the botafumiero (large incense burner--but feel free to make up a more creative and fun or even kinky meaning for this word) in action like in the movie the Way, but we found out that they only do it on Friday or if there is a visiting dignitary (thanks for the diss Pope Francis) or if you are willing to pay 300 euros, botafumerios will swing like a pendulum do (or so Roger Miller says!)

This sideways blur would be Mr. Paul Parris, former Episcopalean acolyte, aka wafer counter. He didn't want to be recognized as a church attendee. I think you are pretty much busted, baboo!



The swinging botafumiero, which is only done on Friday. Unfortunately we did not see it swinging-- just hanging there dong nothing kinda like most people on Broadway and 5th in Knoxville. But since it hit a pilgrim in the head and did some damage in the early 1900s, so maybe we are better off?

The services were heavily attended and many people received holy communion.  Lotsa pomp and circumstance but we enjoyed it.

From there, we went to LUNCH at Casa Marcelo. This is small place that seats at most 20 people at community tables. There are just a few people, Chef Marcelo and his sus chefs cooking right in front of you. They are "fusion cooking." Here comes the food porn section, so make sure you aren't too hungry!

Cozy! Love thy neighbor. They are at your elbow!

Kitchen wizardry right in front of your eyeballs.

Shaved bonita is muy bonita y deliciosa.

Marcello called this leek and potatoes with lardones. But it actually potatoes shaped to look like a leek. It is leek-free! Wish all rooves and faucets were too!

Spanish dim sum

Deep fried scorpionfish

Chef Marcelo  stayed on the move and provided a stellar lunch. If in Santiago, stop by Casa Marcelo. Small, but mighty.

We enjoyed this meal very much. Thank you , Chef Marcelo!

From here we toured the cathedral museum which held many works  of art and some information about the origins. It has been around for over a thousand years. Mind blowing. They would not let us take indoor photos but there were tapestries form Goya and Rubens.  There was a lot of stonework in various stages of preservation or decay. There were many early art objects. There was a room where kings of old ununited Spain were buried and many ornate art pieces.

We were allowed to make outdoor photos though :)

There is no shortage of buskers. This one , Gandhi, has been here a while. Pose on , apu!

Now THAT is a ceiling!

An arched view

Fans of the museum

Cheesy businesses around the cathedral..stuffed animals here. Lots of pilgrim fake walking sticks, etc.  This is a tourist hotbed for Catholics. Kind of like a religious Disneyland in some spots, although the cathedral itself preserves an air of solemnity.

A baptismal font for really big babies!

Not saved by the bell--dwarfed by the bell!

We saw dead people--everywhere!

Palace of the kings from atop the cathedral

A cardinal's eye view of the streets below.

 

After this, we did a bit of shopping and then back to the room for repacking of bags. A couple of hours later , we were off to dinner at Gaia, a not so fancy but good Galician restaurant. I had been seeing a dish called Peppers of Padron and wanted to try it. Yum! 

 My summation of this day: Educational, recreational and taste sensational!

Peppers of Padron. Where have you been all my life??

And now Paul's Ponderings:  A slow day, but a deserved one.   We had a great lunch after (ahem) attending Catholic mass, followed by a bit of museum visiting and shopping.   Then a hearty dinner and that's about it after 100+ miles of hiking for the previous week!   Tomorrow it is off to San Sebastian....back to Basque country and a wholly different experience in Spain.  

Weather here was cool all day and it needed a jacket....compared to East TN, quite a change.   

Overall, esta bien!

The pondering man with flowers...

Day 12 A Rua to Santiago de Compostela--All Good Things Must Come to an End

Oh Beer Thirty at Journey's End

By Pablo Neruda

"And that's why I have to go back
to so many places in the future,
there to find myself
and constantly examine myself
with no witness but the moon
and then whistle with joy.
ambling over rocks and clods of earth,
with no task but to live,
with no family but the road."

After 8 days of hiking, I have to admit I look forward to finishing the Way, but also will miss so much of it: the daily challenge, the "buen camino" greeting of both fellow pilgrims and the locals, the scenery, the time with my husband. Today is his first official day of retirement. 

We left Rua in a cool morning with overcast skies that stayed that way and gave us good temperatures. We made a couple of stops along the way, but basically wound through eucalyptus forests again for the first 2/3rds of the 15 miles, and then along secondary roads and eventually through the city streets of San Lazaro to Santiago de Compostela. We thought we would never see the cathedral, even though the guidebook kept announcing we would see the spires from miles away. We actually started to wonder if the cathedral was a joke...but then about 10 yds away, we saw it!

Yes, it's a bad hair day for those of us who have it, but we made it!

A church along the Way

We saw many houses with beautiful flower and/or kitchen gardens, even greenhouses.

 One other oddity I notice along this path is that there are literally apples everywhere. And they are all lying on the ground rotting. Not sure why no one wants to eat the apples?

Can you take too many pictures of eucalyptus forests? If so, guilty! Never tired of them or the lovely aroma.

It was a wonderful day for wildflowers.

This is the fence outside the airport. Everyone discards things they don't need. Not a tradition I am fond of. However, I did think I saw a local taking off everything you could sell on eBay.

About 14 miles after starting, we sauntered into Santiago, checked into our lovely room at the Parador (running since 1547).

One bed/separate pillows. WOO HOO!

The potty. Very hoity!

 Then  we went to get our Compostela, the document that says we made it and are official pilgrims. This special distinction gets us....well, just a piece of paper written in Latin (maybe. I can't read Latin. ) But we did wait in line for it for an hour so it must be important. (I mean we only waited 15 minutes for a marriage license and 30 minutes for a mortgage of sphincter altering amounts!)

Standing in line for the Compostela

We then went back to our room and did something really, really dirty--OUR LAUNDRY. Oh yeah. The parador may be declared a superfund site. We had a lovely dinner to celebrate at Pedro Roca. I would tell you what we have but that would border on bragging. Needless to say it was delicious. 

The kitchen at Pedro Roca

Shrimp and avocado salad

Iberian pork with cauliflower and figs.

A man communes with his berries and chantilly...interpret as you desire :)

We then had our daily meditation on J.M.W Turner, a famous British artist who got an early start and made quite the name for himself. There is a wing dedicated to him at the Tate Museum in London. Paul commented that he contributed much to the art world by following his own path. I liked it that his most famous painting is about slavery and the injustice of it all.

So today was a real joy. I might be a bit tired, but it as worth the price. I never shy away from  a life on the road.

Paul's Ponderings:  What a great day out and about in Galicia......we finished the El Camino, got our compostelas, had a fabulous dinner, and ended up at a hotel that was first built in 1509 on the structure.   Now the R&R part of the trip begins!    The hike over from A Rua was pretty straightforward and we ended up in Santiago by mid-afternoon.   

And the food at Pedro Roca.....what a memorable meal.   We sat by the kitchen and were able to keep a passive eye on the food preparation and we spoke to him briefly after the meal.   The Galician red wine was outstanding and the food was prepared in a really local fashion.  At many restaurants we always sense butter in use, with the shadow of French cooking looming large....here it was prepared in a manner that let the true local taste of the food shine through with minimal ingredients added...the vegetables, fruits, and meats were just outstanding.   Highly recommended.   

Looks like good weather here for tomorrow to explore the sights....

Day 11 Arzua to Rua: Walking in the Rain With the One I Love

As we looked out the room of our hotel, Casa Teodora, in Arzua, we saw light misty rains.

After reading the weather forecast for today, which was rain starting at about 1pm, we decided to haul our carcasses out of the bed a bit early and get on the way early-- hopefully to avoid as much rain as possible. It was cool outside when we stepped out to go to a bakery where we had a voucher for breakfast.

These croissants were gigantic.

 Apparently, like walkers on the Appalachian trail, the average peregrino has a gargantuan appetite. These immense fork-dwarving croissants were just the starter for breakfast that would have left the Jolly Green Giant prostrated. So we cannot complain we weren't well fueled for the day ahead. We started out in light misty rains and progressed to bona fide light rain. It never got any worse. Paul wore his rain gear for a couple of hours, but I decided it felt pretty good and shed mine early. We walked through a lot of eucalyptus forests again today. Most of the last couple of days treading through dairy country was punctuated with the smell of animal poop, but today we had many welcome scents of minty eucalyptus and pine. We couldn't tell whether we should rub our chest with mentholatum deep heating rub or get ready to do the floors with Mr. Clean. It was a welcome change. 

Paul gets some kitty love on the Camino.

 We made only one stop in our effort to avoid thunderstorms, called TORMENTOS here (great word), and that was at a place called Casa Vera. The decorating theme is pretty simple. The whole ceiling has pilgrim T shirts hanging from it and they let people write all over the walls.

We hope they didn't pay the interior decorator too much here. 

But we didn't care because we got our pilgrim passport stamped and we got a Diet Coke. We have low expectations!  The pilgrim passport is an important document here. You have to have it stamped at least twice and preferably three times per day to prove you stopped in a georgraphic progression in order to get your "compostela" in Latin from the Catholic church declaring you a true pilgrim of the Way. Nearly every cafe, hotel and many churches will stamp it. All open churches stamp it,but many are closed which I find a bit weird on a Catholic pilgrimage. 

Casa Verde. A source of 'sello' (stamp for your pilgrim passport) and Diet Coke. Yes, we are that addicted.

This was our quickest walking day thus far and we made it to our destination in under 4 hours. It was a bit over 11 miles.  When we booked our reservations, I told the booking company that although we did not want to stay in a dorm room with 30 other people, we didn't have to have high end properties and that she could "mix it up." So our accommodations on the Camino were like a box of chocolates. We never knew what we were gonna get. Everything has been at least acceptable and has ranged from cubicles to Casa Leopoldo which was a gorgeous bed and breakfast to our original space in O Cebreiro which was pretty monastic. We've enjoyed them all. Today's booking was really nice.

This rural hotel is in a town with a population of 50.

This is "main street" of Rua, our destination for the evening.

 As you can probably tell from the photos of the town, we didn't have very high expectations for our lodging. But boy were we pleasantly surprised.

Trendy looking on the outside

We had a lovely living room with a wood stove

A nice bed room and bath and even...

Yes! A pool! Not that it was warm enough to get in it, but...we have seen no other pools during our venture here.

As you can imagine, this place is so small, the "resort" is about the only place to eat, but we noticed that about half a mile away coming into town, there was a sign for a hotel. So despite some achy feet, we walked back and found Hotel O Pino. Not only was there a great wine list, the food was outstanding. Who knew? Seriously, no one lives where this restaurant is, but it was along the main highway. Obviously, it is a good place because mostly locals were in there. 

Paul anticipating his meal of smoked vegetables, pasta with mussels and scallops, and Galician eggs. And dessert of course.

It's a good thing we are walking 12 miles or so a day, because the portion sizes here would make Paul's dearly departed friend, Cy Anders proud. No ridiculously small portions at over inflated prices in Galicia!

We went back to our hotel after our lunch and collapsed. We spent a lot of time resting during this day and had from noon onward to do it. We basically read, slept, and finally, had a light meal for dinner and that was about all. The relaxation was incredibly welcome and we were grateful for such a tranquil tiny town to do it in! Some harder rain eventually did come, but we only caught the drizzle. What a great day on the Camino. Keeping it real!

Paul's Ponderings:  We were definitely concerned about rain today.   But, we got only a bit wet and it was welcome relief to boot.   Who knew that a town of 50 would have a great restaurant like O Pino?  Too early for wine unfortunately, but we had a great meal and local beer with it.   However, this evening, we did have a 2005 reserve red wine that was fabulous.

Tomorrow we finish the hike, but today was very pleasant and time seemed to move quickly over the 12 miles...."only" 12 miles as we kept saying!  

Both of us are feeling it a bit in our feet at this point, so we are ready to finish up and have some R&R for the rest of the trip.