Last Day in Santiago de Compestela

We decided to have an easy day today and took the bus into town - just didn't want to mess with trying to find a parking space and then worrying about it being too far from city center. We got dropped off a block from a coffee shop and that was a good start to the day.

Have to say that everything we read about Galicia led us to believe that the weather was quite similar to that of England, cold and wet. We were prepared to be dealing with rain jackets and umbrellas but it has been beautiful! The weather overall has been much warmer than we expected and we only had two days of rain once we left England. Here in Galicia, it has been sunny and warm. Maybe it was that Texas weather we brought along!

As we walked to the cathedral, we couldn't help but notice all the folks completing their pilgrimage the camino). The entire walk is 500 miles with the final stop being the cathedral here in Santiago. The walk begins in the French foothills of the Pyrenees and continues for 500 miles ending at this Cathedral.

The trail is marked by either yellow arrows or scallop shells. Figuratively, the various routes fromEurope to Santialgo come together like the lines of a scallop. We saw a lot of pilgrims with scallop shekels tied onto their backpacks.

Mass is held at the cathedral every day at noon (in addition to other scheduled masses) and we read that the pilgrims try to make it to the cathedral for mass. We got to the cathedral around 11:20 and it was packed with folks in all matter of dress and weariness. There were walking sticks and backpacks laying around all over and not an empty seat in the entire church. I have never seen so many folks attending a mass before.

We wandered around all the chapels and made it to the tomb of St. James. One of the things that makes this church special is that it is one of only three churches in the world that houses the remains of apostles.

There is a huge silver plated incense burner (120 pounds) that is suspended from the ceiling during special masses, occurring about 13 times a year. During Holy Years, it swings nearly daily at the end of each pilgrims' mass at 12:00. We didn't think 2014 was a Holy Year but are at a loss to understand why we were able to witness the swinging of the incense burner. It was spectacular!

 

This is just on side of the 4-sided nave

 

The tomb and remains of St. James

 

Part of the camino in town. We can honestly say that we walked a small portion of it

This family just completed the camino. The dad pulled this wagon with their small child in it

 

There was another family with them with a young child also

 

 

Posted with Blogsy