Santiago de Compostela

It's easy to get lost in Santiago de Compostela! This morning on the walking tour our local guide kept referring to "the five parallel streets that all meet at the cathedral." She needs to review the definition of "parallel." There are more than five, they are all narrow but some are narrower, and none are straight.

This town emerged 900 years ago because a local bishop claimed to have miraculously discovered here the grave of Saint James (San Iago in Spanish) -- despite the fact that James the Apostle likely died in the Holy Land a thousand years before. A legend was created to explain this and a church built to attract visitors.

Benedictine monastery of St. Martin Pinario

The story spread at a time when neither Jerusalem nor Rome were easy to visit, and when Spain needed both the revenue and the national fervor to drive out the Moors. The church became a cathedral and was added on to dozens of times as the story got bigger and the pilgrims grew in numbers.

The Chapel of Souls cheerfully welcomes worshipers with a depiction of sinners burning in hell.

Saint Jim is still the driving economic force here. Our walking tour was mostly churches and monasteries or "hospitals" for the housing and care of pilgrims. Everything else is shops, bars, and restaurants for tourists and other pilgrims. 

After our walking tour we enjoyed a fantastic lunch at one of those places. It was almost all seafood. The boiled octopus was to die for! And the local white "Alberino" wine is served in cute little ceramic cups that need to be refilled after almost every sip.

The cathedral is still really the only thing worth seeing here, so after lunch we got in line to finally go inside. The altar is very baroque.

After the line to get inside, there is the line to visit the crypt where one can see the silver box that supposedly contains the bones of Santiago. That line continues back upstairs and behind the altar where you can hug his statue. Twice a day there is a mass to welcome the pilgrims who have walked the Camino, but that would have been too crowded.

Speaking of crowds, on this Sunday afternoon there was a pro-Palestine rally in the cathedral square that drew hundreds, marching through the streets and carrying many Palestinian flags. Spaniards are very passionate about this issue everywhere we have been, but the cause resonates particularly with the independence movements both here in the Galicia and in the Basque Country.

As if in counterpoint to the Palestinian rally, the religious societies choose certain days for processions. The one this day featured the bishop, a marching band, and 10 men in black robes carrying the Virgin on their shoulders. It was a very solemn affair. At first we thought it might be someone's funeral.

Later we visited the cathedral museum. Most explanations were only in Spanish and Galician, but there were some interesting examples of religious art, including some stunning tapestries, as well as the opportunity to step out on the balcony and see the cathedral plaza from a different angle.

Our group met for thick hot chocolate and churros at a very quaint little bar that probably hasn't changed its decor in more than 50 years. Nobody makes hot chocolate like the Spanish!

Finally, we walked through Alameda Park for one last look at the cathedral in the evening light. After all, Santiago and his cathedral are the only reasons anything or anyone are here.

Villages

This was another road trip day. In fact, it was the longest to date. We left Leon and drove all the way to Santiago de Compostela, the end point of the Camino. We went from flat, arid land to hilly land where it rains a lot.

Along the way we stopped at two, out-of-the-way villages. Both had long, unpronounceable names. At the first village we had a presentation by Oliver who is a beekeeper. Oliver not only makes honey (and knows a great deal about bees), but he also gives presentations to elementary school kids about bees. He had all of his school props out for us.

Down the block we visited Casa Pepe, a very old inn that has been nicely remodeled. After a look around the old kitchen and smokehouse, we were invited to lunch in a new dining room. 

The meal was quite good, starting with soup, with a main course of very unique meatballs, and a yogurt dessert. Of course, there was wine, but this time it was sangria.

Back on the bus we had a bit of siesta time, then stopped at another village along the Camino route. This one featured a castle, though we could not get inside.

Likewise, a very old church on Romanesque style that in Medieval times had papal appointment for an "indulgence door." In case a pilgrim grew ill on the way to Santiago de Compostela, and could not complete the trip, passing through this door granted the same blessings as the destination.

We also visited one of the oldest hostels on the Compostela route. It wasn't a place we'd choose to stay, if we had a choice.

We continued driving through rain and watching a DVD of The Way. Fortunately, about the time we arrived the rain ended and the skies cleared. Our tour leader took us on a brief orientation walk, and then on to a restaurant for a very average (or slightly below average) evening meal. At least there was wine.

León

This morning we had a walking tour of the old city of Leon with a local guide. She was deadly dull, but she did point out a few interesting things.

A house designed by a young Antoni Gaudi -- prior to his projects in Barcelona -- looks like a castle and has a statue of Gaudi on a bench outside.

Also, because the lion is the symbol of Leon there is a lion leaping out of a manhole in front of city hall.

There is some sort of festival in town this weekend. We never did get exactly what it's about, but there are all sorts of kiosks set up with vendors (mostly jewelry and food items) with the proprietors dressed up in medieval costumes.

There are also musicians roaming around with bagpipes and drums who are dressed in what I'm sure they imagine to be medieval garb. Who knew that bagpipes were such a big deal in Spain? But there were lots of them around.

At the conclusion of the tour we got on the bus for an hour plus ride to a farming village that may have had a hundred residents. The streets were too narrow for the bus, so we were driven by cars for the last up hill half mile or so to the farm.

Our host, Carmen, raises goats, sheep, and horses. But she also supplements the farm income in several ways. One is agritourism -- hosting people like us. In the same space where she welcomed us, she also runs a bar for locals. And in the summer, she has campers on the property.

Further, she uses her farm animals as therapy animals for children with disabilities. We didn't learn what actual training or certifications she has for this, but she seemed knowledgeable. She demonstrated some physical exercises with a horse, and told about nonverbal children bonding with the cats and dogs on the farm.

Some California and Oregon members of the group fed horses or petted baby goats, but we have been on farms before and this didn't seem a novel experience for midwesterners.

Carmen led a cheesemaking project, and we got to enjoy fresh cheese on our salad at lunch. The meal was quite good with everything but the wine homemade on the farm.

After returning to Leon we set out to visit the cathedral. The cathedral here is in Gothic style, designed with inspiration primarily from French pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

It is small, as European cathedrals go, but has more square meters of original stained glass than any cathedral in Europe except that in Chartres, France.

There were also some interesting features, such as an exterior door that has been protected enough by a later addition to preserve the original paint colors of the statuary. We also stepped inside the Basilica de San Isidoro, an older Romanesque style church nearby, but it was just another church.

Cathedral altar

We then made our way through the festival crowd to the Museum of Leon. This is a government-owned museum focused on the history of the region. It was free to senior citizens, and not too bad considering what we paid to get in.

Our feet were tired from museum walking, so we found an outdoor table at a bar on the main street and had a drink while watching people as the Friday night festival crowd grew. It was quite entertaining.

Finally, we walked a bit on the main shopping streets of the "new town" (everything outside the "old town" counts, even if some buildings date back to the 1800s). We didn't really shop, but entered one "dollar store" type place that appeared very tiny on the outside, but went on and on inside with rows and rows of incredibly cheap stuff we didn't need or want. That did it for us for the day.

Ubidea

Our regular bus and driver are back, although the bus still makes some odd noises from time to time. It was a long travel day from Pamplona to Leon, but the trip was broken by a couple of interesting stops.

The first was in the village of Ubidea, which might have 200 people on a Saturday night, but fewer at other times. We were met at the bus by Mikaela, who spoke perfect English with an accent we haven't heard here -- because she is an Australian who studied in the UK before coming to Spain.

Mikaela is part of a team of osteoarchaeologists working in a small laboratory in a converted house on the main street of this tiny place. They are involved in locating mass graves from the Spanish Civil War, recovering skeletal remains, identifying them, and returning them to surviving family members and descendants. Their research also involves the location of burial sites related to older conflicts and periods dating back to the Napoleaonic Wars and even all the way back to the defeat of Charlemagne's army at Roncesvalles (see yesterday's entry).

Obviously very excited about her work, Mikaela explained how bones can reveal much about how a person lived, as well as about how they died. And she explained how objects found with a body, such as coins or musket balls, can reveal on which side a soldier fought.

After this encounter, we walked across the street to a rather unlikely tavern where we were served quite a nice lunch. As always, washed down with plenty of wine.

As we left Basque Country and drove into northern Spain the landscape changed remarkably. This part of the country is obviously more arid, and the mountains gave way to plains reminiscent of Kansas.

At the village of Castrojeriz we rejoined the Camino de Santiago just long enough to walk through town. In a little over a mile we passed three large churches, as well as countless hostels, inns, hotels, bars, and restaurants all geared to the pilgrims who pass through on foot.

This region has been called "The Empty Spain" because so many people have left the rural villages to find work in the cities. Even here in Castrojeriz there were many boarded up houses and businesses. It's clear that the Camino is the only economic lifeline keeping this village viable.

We arrived in Leon in late afternoon, had an orientation walk, and then went to dinner. It was an excellent meal!

Pamplona

Departure from our hotel this morning was delayed by a broken bus, but the company managed a replacement bus and driver in record time. The destination was Roncesvalles (or in French, Roncevaux), a mountain pass in the Pyrenees that has been used by travelers and armies to move between the region that is now France and the region that is now Spain.

A stone marker here memorializes the defeat of part of Charlemagne's army by Basques in 778 C.E. In Basque Country, history has a long memory.

This pass is also the part of the "French Route" of the Camino de Santiago and is a location where many pilgrims begin their walk. We began our walk here, as well. But we only did a bit less than three miles -- only 440 miles short of the Compostela!

The path is well-marked and easy to follow, though one has to be careful to avoid lots of animal dropping from both wild fauna and domestic livestock. At least in this area, it is also very scenic.

Those who begin the walk in France are often near the end of the day when they reach here, and are looking for accommodations. A former monastery here remains an active hostel for pilgrims.

There is also a beautiful church attached to the monastery, designated as a "colegiata." This is a special category of churches in the Roman Catholic administration which places it as more important than a parish church, but not at the level of a basilica or cathedral.

Also on site is a much older chapel which is one of the most ancient along the entire Compostela.

Our walk ended at an inn on the main road through the village of Roncesvalles where we were served a large lunch at the ridiculously early time (by Spanish standards) of 12 noon.

We were also met in the village by a local "friend" who spoke to us about life here, managed to sponge free wine at our lunch table, tried to sell us his self-published albums of nature photos, and insisted on singing and playing guitar for us after the meal (CDs also for sale). Neither his music nor his photography were very good.

After the big meal, the bus ride back to Pamplona was good for a siesta, but we still had some time back at the hotel to prepare for the rest of the day.

We walked first to Pamplona's ornate City Hall where those who wish to take part in the annual encierro, or "running of the bulls," need to check in. The only screening is that participants must be at least 18 years of age, not intoxicated, and not pregnant. They must also not carry any bag, camera, or other items that might impede their movement. Traditionally the runners wear white with a red scarf, but this is not a strict requirement.

With a local man who has run the encierro many dozens of times over more than 30 years, we visited the corral behind the city hall where the bulls are penned the night before the run. He explained the origin and the mechanics of the event, and did a good job of helping us picture it as we walked the half-mile route through the city.

The run ends at the bull ring -- one of the largest in Spain, but used only one week each year -- where a bust of Ernest Hemingway watches over the chute where the bulls enter.

Yes, one probably has to be a bit crazy to run with the bulls. But I know people who jump out of airplanes.

San Sebastian

Checking out of the hotel in Bilbao after breakfast, the bus took us through fog under grey skies to San Sebastián. Since the 19th century, when the Queen of Spain decided to build a summer palace by the sea here, this has been a playground for the rich and famous. It continues to be so today.

With a wide beach and well-preserved 19th century buildings along the shore, San Sebastián (or Donostia in Basque) is a center for resorts and shopping just 12 miles from the French border. It was almost completely destroyed by Napoleon in 1813, so except for a couple of old churches, almost everything here has been rebuilt since then.

Starting from the Miramar Jauregia (Palace of Looking at the Sea) we walked the beautiful promenade along the seashore.

Then our tour leader took is through the narrow streets of the old town where there are lots of "cute little shops," but even more pintxos bars. Our tour leader treated us to a small taste of "the best cheesecake in all of Spain" that comes from one bake shop here. It was OK, but nothing like New York Style.

In some free time we visited the oldest church in the city, San Vicente, which has a rich history and a beautiful interior.

Our group enjoyed a wonderful Basque lunch at a small restaurant before walking on along the river to find our bus once again to complete the journey to Pamplona. The thickly forested mountains are very beautiful on most of the route, but give way to more barren terrain as we reached Pamplona.

In the evening we walked around the old town of Pamplona a bit and stepped into a couple of churches. There was a rather large pro-Palestinian rally taking place in one of the plazas. We see Palestinian flags nearly as often as Basque flags.