Santiago de Compstella

Santiago de Compstella is the major destination of the Camino route. The cathedral here is awesome from an architectural and artistic standpoint alone, but more importantly it houses the relics of Saint James.

We spent the afternoon after our arrival wandering around the historic district, grabbed a pretty decent lunch at a pavement cafe, then made our way back to the Cathedral to go poke around inside.

We went up the walkway behind the altar to go pat St James on the back...I have no clue why you do this but I assume this casing held or used to hold some part of him. Or maybe all the gold and semi-precious stones bring you good luck, because we all know that's how you best serve god...gold and jewels. We also went under the altar in the crypt area where i'm sure part of St James resides. All around the main altar are these small side altars and side chapels which I assume are dedicated to other saints or church figures. As many snarky remarks I might make about the opulence of the church you cant deny the artistry that went into the construction and decoration of the Cathedrals.

After a much craved looong hot bath and a rest we went out for dinner and found a charming cafe. Charming because it was nestled in between three buildings and the walkway, and on the other side of the walkway two musicians were set up facing the tables under the arches of another building. There was a violinist and a guitarist playing together which makes for a beautiful harmony imo. I even bought a cd from them, yay for new music on the ipod.

The second day was my birthday and it started out pretty stressful as we had to move to another hotel across the town and ended up walking half the way because we couldn't find a taxi and couldn't really talk to anyone. Upon opening the windows of our hotel room we found below us hanging out on the roof a mama kitty and two cute as hell babies. Being the sap I am for cute fuzzy things I made sure we brought some scraps back (aka half my meal and a lot of James's too) for the kitties. They scarfed down the food and the runt even managed a big chunk of the sausage before her much larger sibling could steal it. Sadly after lunch mama moved her babies, oh well shes just being a good mama.

Aside from watching cats we hung out at the pool a bit, went to store nearby and bought me a dress (weee) and had a nice b-day dinner. My two main requests for the evening were a steaming hot bubble bath and uninterrupted sleep and James delivered on both...thanks babe.

Today were killing time waiting for our flight to Rome this evening. Next post will be from The Eternal City, how cool.

And again, still working on photos

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 30, 2008 from Santiago de Compostela, Spain
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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