Portugal and Galicia Trip - Day 5

New Year's Day 2016 - Santiago de Compostela

The city of Santiago de Compostela is about an hour drive from Ourense.  It is the final destination of the Camino de Santiago or Saint James' Way, which is a famous pilgrimage for Catholics that begins from either France, Spain or Portugal.  It is believed that the apostle James preached throughout Spain and then was called back to Jerusalem where he was martyred.  After his death, his followers brought his body back to Galicia for burial.  According to legend, in 813 a shepherd followed the light of a bright star to a field where the remains of James were buried.  The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built on the location where the remains where found.  The name Compostela comes from the latin words, campus stellae which means field of stars.

When we entered Santiago de Compostela, I was surprised to see that it is a modern city with tall office buildings and department stores.  I guess I imagined it would look like an old medieval village. On New Year's Day, the city was definitely not that busy and a lot of things were closed, but we were able to walk right into the Cathedral.  I understand that during other times of the year you might have to line up to get in.  It was raining and there wasn't a pilgrim in sight.  We met up with Masumi and family and did a 50m pilgrimage to the Cathedral from the parking lot.  The Cathedral is very impressive inside, especially the gold plated alter with 3 representations of St. James.  We were also able to "hug the apostle," which is the ultimate goal of any pilgrim to Santiago.  We climbed the stairs to reach the camarín or small room behind the alter that houses a medieval statue of St. James and followed what everyone else was doing.

There is a lot more to see in Santiago de Compostela, but as most things were closed, it was raining and the kids were not too excited about seeing more historic buildings, we decided to head back to Ourense so that we could sit in the hot springs again.   We went back to the Termas Muíños da Veiga as it seemed like all the other hot springs were closed or not functioning.  It was quite a bit busier than the day before, but fortunately the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy another evening soaking by the river.  

Looks like the sun did come out for a few minutes when we took this photo

Grandma and Grandpa in front of the South façade which is the oldest

The clock tower

Azibecharía Façade

Chapel of Nosa Señora do Pilar

People leaving after mass, you can see the botafumeiro hanging from the ceiling which is used to burn incense and swings from one end of the chapel to the other.  In the Middle Ages it was used to cover up the stench of all the pilgrims that had just arrived after walking for weeks without bathing.  

The high alter, which is Baroque style and completely covered with real gold leaf. 

There was also a massive Nativity Scene depicting the entire life of Jesus in the Cathedral which must have been interesting for Grandma 

This is the Obradoiro Façade, unfortunately being renovated.  It is featured on all the 1, 2 and 5 euro cent coins.