River of Gold Viking River Cruise
Day 13: Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - Santiago de Compostela, Spain
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 60s
- Steps: 8,368 Linda; 10,064 Steve (including any pre-trip / leaving home steps)
- Miles traveled (approximately): 3,860
We had a nice buffet breakfast this morning tbat included the typical staples of cheeses, pastries, eggs, oatmeal, and more.
We had to gather at 9:00 in the lobby for our excursion Santiago de Compostela Walking Tour.
Today's guide was Romina and we were going to be on foot.
We headed almost in the same direction as the group had last night, but we took a route that was up a bit less
of an incline. At the bottom of the slope, we beared right rather than left up the hill. This path took us
past a pond next to the Auditorio de Galicia (Galicia Auditorium) with some interesting looking fowl in it.
A local must frequently stop by to feed them because the birds flocked to him before he even put food out.
Our route took us up a quiet residential street.
At the top of this gentle incline we intersected with the path from last night, and found ourselves near the
Convento de San Francisco do Val de Deus. Daylight afforded us an opportunity to better admire the architecture of
this structure as well as the on the building across the street.
Our walk continued down the same street as last night to the plaza with the hotel and city hall behind the cathedral.
Some anniversary ground markers were pointed out to us - another benefit of a daytime excursion.
We saw the hotel (not pictured here) and city hall.
The cathedral was a much better spectacle in the day time.
We saw the hotel (not pictured here) and city hall.
So why is this cathedral so special anyway?!!?
In this plaza was another scallop marker - the 7th and last we'll see this trip.
The scallops, as mentioned on other days, in other cities, in other countries, on various Viking River
Cruises, mark the pilgimage path to... THIS cathedral. THIS location. HERE. WHERE WE ARE STANDING.
As of this writing, it turns out that the culmination of our Viking River Cruises was with our own
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, aka Saint James Cathedral. (This thought wasn't realized until
I typed that sentence.)
Our journey wasn't as ambitious and rigorous as the journey actual pilgrims took to get here. While we
were learning of this, a number of pilgrims arrived and took selfies and other sort of group photos.
One reason why a number of pilgrims were showing up today was because there was a pilgrimage Mass at
noon (that we wouldn't be able to attend due to our excursions schedule).
The hotel is in the background of a couple of the pictures.
We didn't - initially - go inside the cathedral, but rather went inside the cathedral museum,
located to the right as looking at the rear of the cathedral.
We entered and hovered in the lobby-like area as Romina got our tickets. Our museum tour started to the side, in
a small room, that had a model and some artifacts.
We were told that photography inside the museum isn't allowed, so there were no pictures taken.
We left the museum and started on the exterior of the church, near the south wing.
After viewing the artifacts and architecture outside, we went inside.
Before we went into the cathedral, we visited two rooms with relics - reliquaries - in them though
we may or may not have been told that we were or weren't allowed to take photos inside.
In the room to the right we first saw some relics, mostly gold.
After the two reliquaries, we went inside the cathedral itself - and we were explicitly
told that we WERE permitted to take pictures.
The cathedral's thurible, aka incense burner, is the largest - at 1.96 meters tall (6.4 feet) - in-use one of
its kind. It is swung via a large rope that a half dozen parishioners activate through a pulley system.
After approaching the altar from the front in the nave, we made our way to the side and came across some apses
and a few artifacts.
There was access to the tombs underneath the altar, including that of St. James.
People were permitted to actually walk up the stairs to the space behind the statue of St. James called the camarin
(which means "small chapel"). And then give the statue a hug. This was something the pilgrims - and most in our party -
did too, though photos of the act were deemed inappropriate as this was considered a sacred act.
But there was no restriction on taking photos while not in the chamber, such as that of the nave, the
cherubs holding the platform, and the gold.
After the St James statue chamber, we continued around the back of the altar, and came across more artifacts,
including this particular artifact undernearth the chamber (it was very dark in the space and even after four
attempts, it still isn't a great shot).
And then along the final wall / side of the church.
After our tour inside, we stepped outside through a different doorway than we entered.
After the brief history lesson outside, some of us departed for the Flavors of Galicia excursion,
while the others went about their merry way either elsewhere in the city, or back to the hotel.
There were only four of us - the other two were Ann and Dave from FL - on the flavors excursion which
was right on time for lunch.
The tour began with some architectural review near the fountain, but also as we started our walk
around the side of the church and along the way to our destinations.
We eventually made our way to a market area, called Mercado de Abastos, with eight long buildings that were all
selling various fresh products including seafood, cheese, pastries, seafood, meat, baked goods, and seafood.
We walked the length of a couple of the buildings, and passed some additional vendors on the outside too.
Across the street from the market we stopped into a Michilin restaurant called Abastos 2.0.
The first course was cheese and crackers with wine.
Then we had tuna empenada.
Next was mussels on potato chips with a sauce (it was actually yummier than it sounds though some of the
chips started to get a little soggy).
The entreé was grilled octopus wtih paprika olive oil. This was probably one of the best dishes we had
on our entire trip. Possibly...
Even though we had a four course meal, with only five of us eating, it only took about a half hour to finish our meal.
Then we headed out to our next destination.
It seemed like we walked farther than we did, but our next destination was just a couple blocks from the fountain
outside the cathedral whence we started, having also passed down a considerably narrow alleyway.
We arrived at Airas Nunes for coffee and dessert.
Even though there were only five of us, we were given two plates of cake slices with eleven slices with different
cake flavors including black forrest, pistachio cream, tiramisu, and red velvet. They were all really good,
surprosingly light and not excessively sweet.
We spent over an hour at the café. Romina left us after about fifteen minutes or so because she had
another engagement. The four of us sat and talked about various topics for the remainder of the time that
included Viking (of course), this trip, travel in general, and volunteering (they volunteer at a soup kitchen
in Florida helping thousands, whereas we volunteer at a food closet helping ten).
We eventually departed the café because we started getting... the stare.
Linda and I did some souvenier shopping in the immediate area - this was essentially our last chance - before
heading back toward the hotel. Because we were so close to the cathedral, the route back was fairly simple.
On the way back to the hotel, we spied a library. Since we had some time and a wee bit of energy, we stopped in.
It was a rather wide library, but it wasn't very deep at all. It was also about five stories tall.
We hung out on the first floor for a little bit, then I went all the way to the top to get some pictures.
Each floor was dedicated to an age-class/category or for reference.
We hung out in the library for about an hour before finishing our walk to the hotel.
walking the last leg down the hill to the hotel.
At the bottom of the hill, where we saw the water fowl earlier in the morning, we saw this duck crossing sign.
The hotel was just a few hundred yards further on.
In the lobby near the elevators were these oversized sofas.
Before going up to the room, we confirmed with Ricardo that our flight was all set for the morning.
We had a big, and a bit later lunch, so we didn't have anything for dinner, though we did have some wine (not pictured).
We finalized our luggage and had it prepped so it could be out in the early morning - put every we needed in our carry-ons so
the checked bags could be locked and wheeled to the door.
We did get to sleep a little earlier this night as we had to get up so early in the morning. Like 3:00 early.
Even though out luggage had to be out by 3:40, we just took it with us because, well, we could - it was on wheels,
after all. Plus we wouldn't have to worry about any timing issue with the luggage arrival.
Before going to sleep, we organized our luggage so we just had to put a few things into the carry-ons, and go.