Compostelas duly recieved we went off to find our accomodation, we had booked the previous evening at an office of the Santiago Hoteliers Association, that they had set up in the village of Arca, one day's walk away. We had booked a room at the Pension Alfonso which turned out to be like the best of English B & B's. The owner is very friendly, like me with Spanish, he has been learning English for a few years but finds it quite hard. He showed us our room which has a wonderful view of the cathedtral as seen in the stop press. He then gave us a map of the City and marked on it restaurent in a variety of price bracket away from the tourist areas, and various other places of note.
After showers and laundry, we set off to get a bite to eat as it was coming up to 3 pm. Taking our hosts advice we ended up in an area of Tapas bars and had a hamburger and beer each.
Fortified, we went back to the Cathedral to pay our respects to Saint James. To the right of the high altar is a passageway that was a bit like being in a cage, this lead to a staircase of very worn stone stairs to the back of St James statue, which is probably slightly larger than life size and made of some sort of metal, when it's your turn you wrap your arms around his neck and give him a hug or if you want a kiss. You then decended another set of warn stone stairs to the left. Unfortunatly photo's are banned, I will have to see what I can find on the net.
Our route then took us down another set of stairs into the crypt benieth the high altar, where behind bars is a silver reliquary, which is believed to contain the bones of St James and two of his followers. The reason why after Jerusalem and Rome, Santiago was the most important place of pilgrimage for Christians in the medieval world.
It struck me quite powerfully that if the Reliquary does indeed contain James' bones, then I was standing at the grave of someone who had walked with, eaten with, talked to, listened to, and spent time with Jesus himself, not counting witnessing Jesus perform miracles and of course witnessing the ressurection and spending time with Jesus after his ressurection! Wow.
We than came back into the main Cathedral and saw the famous Botafumerio the vast incence censer used in the past to cover up the smell of unwashed pilgrims, now it is more of a spectacal, used on high days and holidays, or more sadly if groups with enough money pay for it to be used. (I have seen on details of organised pilgrim tours the words "Botafumerio booked" and it saddens me that it's use has been commercialised, I personally think it should be used at all the pilgrims Masses.
Our fellow pilgrims who arrived yesterday or in time for the Mass today had witnessed it in action, we will have to wait for our pilgrims Mass tommorow to see if we will have it as well.
Our second visit to the cathedral over we then took a look around the shops, bought and wrote some postcards pver s beer and then back to our pension for a rest and change of clothes before out again for food.
Like other towns on the way, although Santiago was built on the back of pilgrims it is now not so pilgrim friendly, especially when it comes to food. For the last two weeks all but two nights (when we were away from regular pilgrim stopping points) we had been able to get a very filling pilgrims meal for between 8€ & 10€ including a bottles (once a litre) of wine. Not so in Santiago, very few restaurants offered a pilgrims menu and when they did the choice was very limited. We settled on one where we were given 1 small glass of wine, and our food came out at breakneck speed. (not rearly necessary with us being the only customers in at the time, the Spanish tend to eat at about 10 pm). I had steamed mussels, (about 10 but with no sauce) and meatballs, while Lesley had mixed salad (letice, tomato & onion), and Salmon. It all tasted very nice but the portions were not exactly big and the service was not relaxed.
After the meal we wandered about to walk off our food as we planned to get to the main square for about 10, at about 9:30 the heavens opened with a sudden cloud burst, our first rain in two weeks.
Our meanderings then got us to the main square because our landlord had told us that a group from the University called Tuna were giving a performance, Tuna is a particular style of traditional singing dating from the 14th centuary, the men who sing it are all dressed in achademic dress from that time. We sat listening for about half an hour or so and then went in search of a night cap, outside the bar we had chosen a very different type of music was being played, earthy Gallacian music played on drums and bagpipes. Nightcaps consumed we headed to our hotel for bed after an eventful day.
After showers and laundry, we set off to get a bite to eat as it was coming up to 3 pm. Taking our hosts advice we ended up in an area of Tapas bars and had a hamburger and beer each.
Our route then took us down another set of stairs into the crypt benieth the high altar, where behind bars is a silver reliquary, which is believed to contain the bones of St James and two of his followers. The reason why after Jerusalem and Rome, Santiago was the most important place of pilgrimage for Christians in the medieval world.
It struck me quite powerfully that if the Reliquary does indeed contain James' bones, then I was standing at the grave of someone who had walked with, eaten with, talked to, listened to, and spent time with Jesus himself, not counting witnessing Jesus perform miracles and of course witnessing the ressurection and spending time with Jesus after his ressurection! Wow.
We than came back into the main Cathedral and saw the famous Botafumerio the vast incence censer used in the past to cover up the smell of unwashed pilgrims, now it is more of a spectacal, used on high days and holidays, or more sadly if groups with enough money pay for it to be used. (I have seen on details of organised pilgrim tours the words "Botafumerio booked" and it saddens me that it's use has been commercialised, I personally think it should be used at all the pilgrims Masses.
Our second visit to the cathedral over we then took a look around the shops, bought and wrote some postcards pver s beer and then back to our pension for a rest and change of clothes before out again for food.
Like other towns on the way, although Santiago was built on the back of pilgrims it is now not so pilgrim friendly, especially when it comes to food. For the last two weeks all but two nights (when we were away from regular pilgrim stopping points) we had been able to get a very filling pilgrims meal for between 8€ & 10€ including a bottles (once a litre) of wine. Not so in Santiago, very few restaurants offered a pilgrims menu and when they did the choice was very limited. We settled on one where we were given 1 small glass of wine, and our food came out at breakneck speed. (not rearly necessary with us being the only customers in at the time, the Spanish tend to eat at about 10 pm). I had steamed mussels, (about 10 but with no sauce) and meatballs, while Lesley had mixed salad (letice, tomato & onion), and Salmon. It all tasted very nice but the portions were not exactly big and the service was not relaxed.
After the meal we wandered about to walk off our food as we planned to get to the main square for about 10, at about 9:30 the heavens opened with a sudden cloud burst, our first rain in two weeks.
Our meanderings then got us to the main square because our landlord had told us that a group from the University called Tuna were giving a performance, Tuna is a particular style of traditional singing dating from the 14th centuary, the men who sing it are all dressed in achademic dress from that time. We sat listening for about half an hour or so and then went in search of a night cap, outside the bar we had chosen a very different type of music was being played, earthy Gallacian music played on drums and bagpipes. Nightcaps consumed we headed to our hotel for bed after an eventful day.
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