Santiago de Compostela

Hi all!

As of writing this, we’re just leaving Santiago de Compostela for Madrid via train.

By far, Santiago was our slowest city so far, and was probably the least touristy place we’ll be visiting, once you got about two blocks away from the Cathedral. It was very nice, but a HUGE change of pace from Lisbon and Porto, both of which had a lot of young people (and a lot of young travelers) and the restaurants, cafés, and energy that tend to follow them.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. First off, quick crash course on Santiago:

Santiago is Spanish and Galician for “Saint James,” and “Compostela” is the old Galician for essentially “resting place.” So, Santiago de Compostela is basically “St. James’ burial place.” So named because it is, in fact, where St. James is buried. It’s considered the third holiest city on earth, after Rome and Jerusalem, and every year thousands of pilgrims hike the Camino de Santiago (“Way/Walk of St. James”) from other Spanish cities to see his tomb. People walk from as far as France, but a popular starting point for foreigners is from Ourense, which is about 100 miles outside of Santiago.

St. James spent a large portion of his life preaching to the Gauls in the Iberian peninsula, so after he was martyred by Herod in Jerusalem, his followers brought his remains back to what is now Galicia. The history behind the bones is long and complicated, with them being lost and found a few times before they were finally properly entombed where they are today.

Now, Santiago de Compostela is the third largest cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter’s in the Vatican and the Duomo in Florence. It really is massive in a way that is hard to capture in photos. Walking past while looking up at its towers, you don’t even really notice the parallax that you’d expect, because they’re just so far away.

Inside, the cathedral is gorgeous. Laid out in a typical cross shape, the area behind the altar is full of engraved and gilded carvings and statues. Those statues of cherubs, by the way, are about 3-4 times as big as I am, at least. The cathedral is also famous for its enormous censer, which during large services they fill with about 40 lbs. of charcoal and incense. St. James tomb itself is actually fairly understated, which I liked. To get to it, you just walk down a set of stone steps just behind the altar, and there’s a little unadorned room with a kneeler in it, facing a set of iron bars. On the other side, through a little hall is where St. James bones are kept in a silver reliquary, which is the only real show of wealth in the room, aside from the flowers in front of it. It was very solemn, which I liked. I lit a candle and made a donation for my Nana at St. James’ tomb.

The rest of the city is fairly small and sleepy (once you get away from the restaurants and jewelry stores catering to pilgrims and tourists near the cathedral). It’s also funny to say, but Santiago is FULL of older people. There aren’t many people in their 20s or 30s there. Most of the pilgrims, for whatever reason, are in their 40s and 50s. There were even a few old codgers that were my grandparents’ age.

Well…okay, I should say that Santiago is NORMALLY small and sleepy and full of codgers and whatnot. Apparently we got there right at the end of some big mountain bike race that culminated in a rap concert on our first night. All those folks were gone by the next day, so it made for a rather amusing difference.

Not that we were really out and about enough to notice, though. Sean and I took a little vacation from our vacation and pretty much spent the day in our room working on our computer tans. We still weren’t caught up from the jet lag, and since Santiago doesn’t have much aside from the cathedral, we just kinda bummed about for a day and a night.

Anyway, our first night, we got in around 6, dropped our stuff, and went straight to the cathedral, since we weren’t sure if it would be open to the public on a Sunday. Turns out it was, but better safe than sorry. Anyway, we got back, I posted a few new posts, we went to dinner at a Galician restaurant, and went to bed.

The next day, we went to the train station to book our tickets to Madrid, then got lunch at a TINY little Spanish bar that was waited, bused, and cooked for by one guy. The food was forgettable, but the dude serving us was hilarious. Didn’t speak a word of English, and didn’t have the patience to speak Spanish slowly, so he kept ordering for us (and for everyone else in the restaurant too).

After that, we came back and crashed ‘til dinner, and even then, we just went to the café in our bed and breakfast. In our defense, that was pretty much our only option, since ‘the third holiest city on earth’ kinda shuts down on Sunday. Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, we got up this morning and caught the train. A nice quiet stopover before the whirlwind that Madrid and Barcelona are sure to be =)