Monday 5th May 2025
Santiago de Compostela is one of those bucket-list type of places. Famous as the destination of the Camino de Santiago (“The Way of St. James” in English) and the cathedral where the bones of St. James are reputed to be buried.
We parked-up at a designated motorhome park, which should have been chargeable, but there was nobody to pay, or means of paying. That will be another free night then!
It did mean that we had a fairly good walk into the city centre, but nothing compared to those completing the camino. The whole city is built on religion, in particular Roman Catholicism.
There are many elaborate buildings in the city including the cathedral:
To visit the cathedral is free, but when we arrived, there was a long queue, which we joined. Afterwards we realised that the queue was caused by the fact that there had been a service taking place, so later people filtered in reasonably quickly.
The church buildings are enormous and externally very ornate. Inside, everything is much the same.
What is intended to impress are the golden decorations and “angelic” figures. They are extremely ornate; the medieval equivalent of “bling”. It is hard to conceive of a way to add more ornamentation. Perhaps to the medieval eye this was awe inspiring, but it seems way over the top to my more modern eye.
You are able to queue to pass under the choir and view where St James bones are kept. After this you are able to climb up behind the altar, walking behind the central statue, but photography is not allowed there.
In the service which had just ended they had used incense which left a distinctive aroma and a smoky atmosphere.
We also wandered around the old part of the city, which has many covered walkways and shops. Unfortunately most of these seem to be either, souvenir shops, jewellery retailers or eating establishments. They do create a unique atmosphere though.
That is it for today. See u Later, TTFN.
"See-u-Later" 