We planned a few days rest in Santiago and time for Manny to visit a family member & old friends of his parents. After the high of the previous day and an amazingly restful night in a nice Pension, we were up early to visit the Catedral to complete our Pilgrimage rituals of hugging St James and to attend the Pilgrims Mass at midday. We heard from pilgrim friends, they had only just got a seat at Mass the previous day when they arrived at 11am, and not sitting together. Entering the Catedral is nearly as overwhelming as arriving in the Square the previous day. Every surface has very elaborate decoration, so we decided not to visit St James but took good seats on the Pews and examined the Catedral and watched people while we waited. I imagined that the Pilgrim Mass may have been a bit touristy or not taken seriously but I couldn't have been more wrong. It was conducted by 5 priests, a Nun with an angelic voice and the sermon, taken as an opportunity to speak to pilgrims of the world. The priest spoke at length about refugees. We were pleased to notice the priest from the Church in O Pedrouzo join in too. It was a pleasure to observe a living Church and see the rapture of the devout. It was a wonderful experience. After Mass we had a big lunch and celebrated our 25th Wedding anniversary. We moved from the Pension to an apartment & spent another 3 days exploring Santiago. Less said about the apartment the better, a long and negative review was posted promptly after we left. Moving away from the negative, we visited the Pilgrim Museum and the Catedral Museum, wandered around the wonderful streets of the old city and completed our pilgrimage by visiting the Crypt of St James and hugged his effigy. Also ate some good food and enjoyed the atmosphere. Finding words to explain the experience of walking the Camino are difficult to find but I would never hesitate to recommend anyone to do it.
5 Comments
Rose
13/10/2016 08:13:41 am
Congratulations again Victoria to you and Manny. If you're thinking of having a "slide show" when you get back, I'd love to come. You're an inspiration to me.
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Victoria
13/10/2016 08:16:53 am
Thanks Rose will remember you if we do.
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les kent
13/10/2016 10:48:26 am
Congrats on your Anniversary, I suppose you couldn't have picked a better holiday to tie it all in together.
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Craig
14/10/2016 02:45:08 pm
Great to do it together after all these years, I still have pictures of your wedding day . Cheers
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Victoria
15/10/2016 03:28:13 am
Back when we were thin! LOL
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AuthorMy interests are photography and family history research. And I like to cycle and travel. We are walking the Archives
May 2019
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