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.