Today we head off to our last destination in Spain, Santiago de Compostela, the end of the road for the pilgrims who have travelled the Camino de Santiago, to reach the site where the remains of St James are located. It seems there are many trails for the pilgrimage, but the one we have partly followed, The French Way, appears to be the most popular with modern day pilgrims.
We see many pilgrims walking the trail to Santiago de Compostela
Our first stop is only a bit over an hour out of Leon, a small town called Astorga. As usual the stop centres around the architecture of the cathedral in the centre of town, but more importantly, some more work from Gaudi.
The Cathedral was built over three centuries and the architecture reflects 3 styles over the life of the construction.
The Cathedral
We do not visit the Cathedral, but rather the Bishops Palace, another early work of Antonio Gaudi. On the outside it looks quite tame for his architectural style.
Bishops Palace
Inside the building is a different story.
Ceramic tiles are used as features to line the arches
The Basement
There are also the usual depictions of St James, as both the Moor Slayer and then as a pilgrim.
St James the Moor Slayer
St James the Pilgrim
The town was also full of pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compestela.
Signs indicating the direction of the Camino de Santiago are everywhere
Having seen enough of the Bishops Palace we went across the road for a cup of coffee to a cafe recommended by our tour guide. It is famous for it's thick hot chocolate which is served with a heavy sponge cake for dunking into it. We resisted the temptation and just had coffee, but one of our American friends couldn't resist it.
The staff were all dressed in Roman dress
Our morning visit out of the way, it was now time to concentrate on lunch. We are booked into a restaurant in a tiny town called Pedrafita Do Cebrero, in the Province of Galicia. By way of introduction, our tour guide explained that in Galicia, which Catholicism is strong, there are still a few Pagan customs that prevail as the people are deeply superstitious. One of these is to drink a special brew that drives off the evil spirits. It is brewed in a "cauldron", and appears to be mainly the firewater we tasted on the bus the other day, with coffee beans and herbs etc added and then ignited to burn off the bulk of the alcohol. We will be offered the opportunity to try this at lunch.
Todd, our guide, gives the brew an encouraging stir
Lunch is a hearty home cooked meal made from local fresh produce, I had the local slow cooked beef stew, whilst Carole had whole trout. Both were delicious.
The evil spirit drink was a bit daunting, but tasted much better poured in your coffee. Like many of our lunch stops, it was a family restaurant and the whole family pitched in to serve the food.
Serving the soup
After a hearty lunch, its back in the bus and off to Santiago de Compestela. Along the way, we follow the coast crossing a few large river estuaries. We are told that Galicia is famous for it's seafood, and in particular shellfish. We are looking forward to testing this out for dinner tonight.
Arriving in Santiago de Compestela is a big surprise. The town is stunning and full of people. Our Parador, the Hostel des los Reyes Catolicos, is located on the main square and is enormous. Once accommodation for pilgrims, it is now a 5 star hotel, and by far the nicest of the paradors we have stayed in.
Hostel des los Reyes Catolicos
The rooms were huge, and bathrooms newly renovated
You need a map to get around the whole building which is based on accommodation built around 4 separate courtyards. It has it's own Chapel in which a wedding was being held whilst we were there and they were able to isolate that completely from the other guests, in their own courtyard.
This afternoon we have 2 local guides to take us for a walking tour of the town, as usual, we are split into 2 groups of 20 to make it manageable.
After giving us a brief history of our hotel, we moved outside into the square for some further orientation. On the right hand side of the square , (looking out from the Hotel) is the seat of Government (both Provincial and Local sharing the one building)
Government House on the right Side, Town Hall on the Left
At the Entrance to Government is St James the Moor Slayer
To the left of the square is the Cathedral, a very imposing building, undergoing some renovation, but particular significance because it is the home of the remains of St. James.
The Cathedral as seen from the Square
The Current side entrance being used during the renovation
Whilst the original church was obviously quite austere, the growing wealth of the church in the middle ages led to a significant baroque upgrade of the altar.
The major attraction in this cathedral is the swinging Censer (above) filled with incense to purify just about anything as far as we could gather. The real issue was that this church received many pilgrims, and due to shortages of accommodation, many slept in the church. Most of them had not showered for days or weeks, so the Censer provided a solution to fill the church with incense to dull down the stench.
Tomorrow there will be a mass at 10 am, and we have the opportunity to see it in action. We are told it is something not to be missed and having seen the size of it, the supporting structure and the huge arc it will swing through, it will be worth seeing.
The Structure supporting the Censer
It takes a team of 8 men on ropes to get it swinging.
Moving on from the Cathedral there is a festive theme around the town as pilgrims continue to arrive, and there are a lot of women on the streets in traditional costume as part of some festival.
Our guide Maria talks to one of the ladies pointing out the features of the traditional dress
We saw many more old buildings, mostly related to the church or the university. All of the buildings owned by the church had the scallop shell symbol over their doorways.
After the tour we had some free time to explore the town on our own. It is a lively place with lots of shops, restaurants, a large park that looked more like a fairground as it is school holidays over here and windows full of displays of live lobsters, crabs, oysters, langustines and fish, so the seafood reputation of Galicia seems well earned.
Our dinner back at the hotel, is tipped to be special tonight, so we head back, have a shower and are ready to go at 8.30pm. The Hotel has a number of restaurants, but we are eating in the fine dining restaurant tonight. As has been the case for most meals, it is included in our tour and we can order whatever we like off the menu. Wine etc is also included.
The atmosphere is great
Entrees are served
The food and atmosphere were terrific, it was easily one of our better meals on this tour
