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Published: June 19th 2013
Proud of our new friends
Our new friends, Erica and Charlene that we met in Santiago. They had just completed hiking 500 miles and they were still smiling – a great tribute to them as well as to their Camino experience.I’m sitting on the boat with a howling gale of over 30 knots going on outside. The boat is rocking from side to side and the wind generators are having a field day. The best part is I’m in a protected harbor tied up to a dock at the yacht club marina. Since there’s absolutely nothing else I can do and I have exhausted all projects (that I want to do at least!), personal hygiene issues and a variety of normally successful stalling tactics I guess it’s time to write the blog about our trip to Santiago.
When we first arrived in Cangas we met a young man who sails in this area, spoke fluent English, was currently living in Zürich but whose mother was Spanish and father was American. How’s that for international? Janice, ever the inquisitor asked the young man what places he would suggest we see while in this part of Spain. He immediately asked if we’d been to Santiago de Compostela. Janice had heard of the place and before I knew it we were on the 7:30AM one hour bus ride to Ponteverde (3.25 euro 1 way), and then across the street to the train station
A Few Routes to Santiago
This shows some of the various routes that the Pilgrims can take which all lead to Santiago de Compostela. for the 1 ½ hour ride to Santiago (7.05 euro 1 way). As always we enjoy the luxury of train travel with its very roomy seats and large windows for seeing the country-side. Janice had booked us a room at a hotel just a few blocks from the train station for €40 a night. Once we dumped our backpacks, grabbed our cameras and granola bars we headed for the old town and the Cathedral. Santiago de Compostela’s Romanesque Cathedral is the fourth building erected on the site of the apostle James’s mausoleum. The first chapel was built after the discovery of his relics in the ninth century, followed by a pre-Romanesque church that was destroyed in the year 997 by the invasion of the Moors. A new basilica was built soon after the Moors were defeated. In the year 1075 it was decided to erect a new Cathedral capable of housing the thousands of pilgrims that visited the site annually. This is the present day Romanesque cathedral; however what you visit today is the result of over 1,000 years of modifications and additions. You see, in the time before democracy and campaign funding the 1%‘ers ensured their entrance into heaven
Beautiful Countryside
A few of the views on our trip to Santiago of the countryside – it ran the gamut from rivers, vineyards, hills and mountains. by giving vast sums of money to the church ensuring that their remains would be interred in the great cathedrals of Europe and thus have an express ticket to heaven. Because Santiago is one of the most important religious sites in Spain it received an exorbitant amount of these donations. In addition the thousands of pilgrims who annually made their way over some very difficult terrain in the northern part of Spain and southern France donated to the Cathedral’s continuing expansion.
A little bit of history might be helpful at this point. According to legend, the apostle St. James was buried at this location. How his decapitated body reached this point is somewhat confusing but around the late 900’s a local Bishop established this fact and built the first church which contained the remains of St. James. For those of you who are not up on church doctrine, St. James is the one who is often depicted on a white horse charging into battle carrying a sword. St. James is the patron saint of Spain and is also referred to as the Moor slayer, for his miraculous appearance at a decisive battle several hundred years after his grisly death
A large naval presence
While on the bus to Pontevedra we saw a large naval base where this ship dry dock was located. at the hands of King Herod of Jerusalem.
Some of you may be aware of a relatively recent movie called “The Way” starring Martin Sheehan and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. As a result of that movie a large number of Americans who were previously unaware of the pilgrimage trail have all of a sudden started trekking the 500 miles from France to Santiago, completing what is called the Camino. While in town we met two American women who had just completed the Camino and were both absolutely radiant about the experience. Erica is a thirty-something who saw the movie and said she was inspired to do the hike much to her parents chagrin. She admits that she had not been a hiker, but was determined to complete this journey. We had a delightful time listening to her describe her travels including her jettisoning items she packed and found unnecessary. My personal favorite was the little black dress that she decided she didn’t need! Her traveling companion Charlene that she met while on the trail had a very different story. Charlene, soon to have a significant birthday decided she wanted to do something challenging and a little bit
A Paper Mill
There are numerous forest of eucalyptus that supply the raw material for this paper mill. “outside the box” as she said. We had a wonderful couple of hours sitting in a plaza drinking wine, sitting in the sun and enjoying their company. It was a great way to understand more why some do the pilgrimage and find out what they have gained from the experience.
Historically pilgrims wore a brown cape with hood, and a large brown felt hat with the front brim turned up. Also as a mark that they were pilgrims they carried large clamshells (also called scallop or cockle shell). These clamshells were very important because they let everyone know the individual was a pilgrim on their way to Santiago and thus they were covered by a much stricter set of laws. For a very long time stealing from a pilgrim carried a penalty of death - the church was not fooling around. Today pilgrims are still easily identified even though the uniforms have changed. The walking stick is still a key piece of pilgrim equipment, but now instead of the brown cape they are seen in hiking gear such as the pants that can be easily converted into shorts by unzipping the legs (everything is carried in their packs so
A Typical Home
A look at a typical rural home with its garden area and grain storage shed. weight is critical). The city has hostels everywhere for the pilgrims once they get to Santiago and along the routes they find accomodations in various types of lodging. Every day the Cathedral has a mass at noon for the incoming pilgrims so you can see new arrivals in the plaza outside the Cathedral. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should take a look to get more of a view of what the hike is about and see some beautiful countryside as well.
We decided that our best approach was to stop in at the information booth and pick up a small MP3 player with recorded information on the various sites around town. For three dollars you had the player for 24 hours and it took you through a walking tour of the old city. This city although started for the purpose of building the cathedral and supporting the pilgrims is now very large and important in the north of Spain. The old city which is on the top of the hill has been carefully maintained but has succumbed to a small amount of catering to tourists. Although, then again they’ve been doing this for over thousands of years.
We Enjoy Train Travel
We transfered from the bus in Pontevedra to a train which we took the rest of the way to Santiago. It was a convenient way to get there from Cangas. The city tour was extremely good and took us to parts of the city we never would have found without it. There are several extremely large monasteries and convents with churches of their own as well as the University which recently celebrated its 500th birthday. There was one small church we visited, Church of A’nimas which has a carved relief over the entrance of a large group of people in what appears to be flames leaping up under them. The faces are quite easily identified and apparently were chosen by the sculptor because they were members of the community who commissioned the work, but then refused to pay the sculptor when the job was done, talk about getting even.
On our second day we turned in our city walking tour headsets and picked up a set for a walking tour of the Cathedral. Next to the Cathedral the Archbishop had built quite a spectacular residence for himself which is now the home of the museum. The tour explained that due to the constant renovation and additions to the Cathedral the curators are constantly discovering parts of the Cathedral which were removed during a renovation and then used someplace else
One of Many Vendors
This is only one of the 110 vendors at the market – here you can buy local cheeses, sausage, licors and other delicacies. as building material. A very elaborate cloister had been built during the 1500s by Maestro Mateo a world renowned designer. In the 1700s the Cathedral had grown significantly and the cloister needed to be enlarged. It was decided that the old cloister should be removed and an entirely new one be constructed. Like any good builder he used much of the old cloister throughout the Cathedral to support new construction. Today every time the curators find these materials they remove them and are in the process of slowly reconstructing the original cloister in the museum.
The area out in front of the Cathedral is a large square bordered on one side by the Cathedral itself. Opposite the cathedral is a palace which was converted to government offices many hundreds of years ago. On the left and the right hand side of the square are the hospital and the original university building. The hospital has since been converted into a hostel which still gives free lodging to the first pilgrims to arrive in the city each day and the University building now houses some of the administrative offices of the University. These four buildings that make up this square represent
Same Market Location
The market has been held every day except Sundays in this location since 1873. These buildings were erected in the 1930’s. The market sells everything from live rabbits and poultry to bread, vegetables, cheeses, flowers and fruits. the Galician capital’s main centers of activity – religion, university education, accommodation for pilgrims and visitors and finally the City Administration. As a result this square summarizes the use of this city over thousands of years and its architecture reveals the various styles over more than 700 years of construction. The Obradoiro Plaza as it is called is impressive to visit in its own right. This square itself is easily 100 yards in each direction and this is the destination of all of the pilgrims who hike to Santiago with the 0 mark in the plaza itself. As we sat and watched you can see pilgrims coming in, dropping their packs and laying down to rest. Several times as we walked through the square we were asked to take pictures of the hikers. It seems as though every nationality you could think of was there. Even the highly organized, extremely efficient Japanese tour group was there even though they obviously had not hiked the trail. The Dutch members of the “Red Hat Society” that were visiting added to the color in the square. It was always alive with new people arriving into the city.
We had arrived in Santiago
An Impressive Pipe Organ
In the Cathedral of St. James the organ contains 1,100 pipes and dates from the 1700’s. If you look closely you can see the pipes projecting out from both sides of the pews over the people’s heads. about noon on one day and we hiked back to the train station and caught the 5:30PM train back to the boat on the next day. Definitely a must-see for anyone traveling in this part of the world. We were very glad that we took the time to stay overnight in order to see both the old town as well as the Cathedral as there was lots of information to absorb. The country-side beauty was an added bonus of the trip as there are numerous mountain villages that you travel through between Cangas and Santiago. We saw quite a bit of agriculture ranging from grape orchards to fields of corn and potatoes. This was a great way to spend a couple of days while waiting for weather to move on.
We are sorry it has taken so long to get this blog published, but it has taken time to go through the larger than normal amount of photos to decide what would give you the best view of this impressive destination. Fortunately since this trip we have stayed in contact with Erica and Charlene and both have assured us that they have transitioned back into life back home, but
A View Toward the Altar
A mass is given each noon for the new pilgrims that arrive each day. This is looking forward toward the main altar. that in fact this completion of the Camino has had a very positive impact on their lives. We are so glad to have had a chance to meet them and share in their joy.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I too recently saw "The Way"...
and being a goal oriented person was inspired to walk the pilgrims' trail. The attendant who pushed my wheel chair (I was still recovering from a broken ankle) on to my recent from from London to DFW had just finished the 800 km walk in 30 days. We had a chance to talk about his experience, which further inspired me. However, with my weaken ankle I didn't know whether I was physically up to it. Your picture of the various "Ways" turned a light bulb on in my brain. The English Way is very short, but the Original Way isn't that much longer and is the original one after all. I think I could do that! Thanks for posting that picture...do you know in which town it starts?