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Published: July 19th 2013
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North to Spain
Just like the Pacific Northwest: overcast, dramatic coastline, and a bit cold. Took during the 30 minute lunch stop on bus. Hands down, the best day so far. It started out with a nice twist of fate. I noticed the night before that a bus left earlier than my 1:00 departure, so I went to the station, asked, and they nicely put me on the 9:30 bus to Santiago. Absolutely awesome. And then the drive. This part of northern Portugal and Spain is amazingly beautiful. It's not, as people think, arid and dry; rather, this area is just like the Pacific Northwest in the States. Constantly overcast and rainy, with hills covered in dense trees and greenery. And also very dramatic coastline views. I honestly thought I was driving around Puget Sound by Seattle. Made for a breath-taking drive up.
And then Santiago Compostela. This city is truly magical, oozing with a religious vibe that I've honestly never experienced to such an extent, not even in Rome. In fact, right up there with Rome and Jerusalem as major Christian pilgrimage sites in the world, is Santiago Compostela. Pilgrims have been coming here for over a thousand years, most walking over 500 miles from southern France and then all the way across northern Spain. This trail is called the Camino Santiago, and,
View from my Room
The backside of a monastery. while I'm not walking it (I'll do that some other time), I'm largely following it by bus over the next week. But for the reason why this town is so important.
Santiago means St. James in Spanish, and the wonderful church here supposedly houses the remains of St. James the Apostle, one of Christ's favorites, right up there with John, his brother, and Peter (Christ called them the "sons of thunder"). And because I love the story I just tell it, mainly because it proves Christ was a pretty witty guy who appreciated a good pun. James and John were fishermen and one day Christ approached and said to them, basically, now you shall be fishers of men. James and John left, fishing for souls instead of fish, and James ended up in Spain. But he then went back to Jerusalem, unfortunately was beheaded, and before his body could be thrown to the lions, two loyal disciples shipped him off to Spain, secretly burying him right here in Galicia. Then his tomb was forgotten for something like 800 years, until a pilgrim, who followed the milky way one night (that's what compostela means, "field of stars") discovered James' tomb,
and everyone freaked out and since then pilgrims have been flocking from everywhere to see it.
Whether or not this is true or not really doesn't matter. The devout have always come, usually risking their lives in a massive show of faith. I personally think that's really cool and something to be admired. Walking 500 miles for a church and old bones! Being here also is meaningful to me because back at DU one of my favorite professors walked the entire Camino with his wife, and since he talked about it back then, I've been determined to make it here. He always told his students to send him a postcard if they ever made it to Santiago. I bought one today and am going to mail it out to him tomorrow.
What a day. This also marks another apostle's supposed resting place I've seen. St. John I saw last year in Selcuk, Turkey, Peter is obviously the stone upon which the church is built in Rome (Christ was so witty... Peter comes from petrus, meaning rock, the stone of the church), and now James. I hope the pictures do it all justice.
Tomorrow I spend the whole
Santiago Cathedral
The facade is Baroque, which I don't like. Too much detail ruins more beautiful simplicity. The long Camino trail from France ends in this square. Pilgrims flock in all day, joyous to have made it. day here, soaking up the experience of being in such a holy place. Looking forward to it, and also to a day of rest as well.
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