Santiago de Compostela

I took the bus from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago to Compostela, the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain (directly above Portugal).

The landscape of Galicia is nothing like the rest of Spain. It rains a lot, and it's very green with rolling hills and beautiful coastlines.

Galicia is almost a mix between Portugal and Spain. The landscape is more similar to northern Portugal and the people are similar also. Spanish people in this region speak both Spanish and another language called 'Gallego', or Galician. Gallego is like a mix between Portuguese and Spanish. It's very similar to Spanish and even shares a great deal of vocabulary, but it sounds more like Portuguese.
To go to Santiago I had to go through the largest city in Galicia, which is Vigo. Vigo is a large port city with a large river entering the ocean.


Here I am in Santiago de Compostela. This is the famous Cathedral of Santiago (remember that in Spanish Santiago is St. James the Apostle) where it's said that Santiago is buried. This shrine to St. James the Great has been luring millions of tourists a year for centuries (since medieval times, in fact). It is the final destination of the prestigious Christian pilgrimmage 'Way of St. James', or Camino de Santiago. People from all over the world walk, bike, or drive the trails of this pilgrimmage from its origins in Europe or different points in Spain and follow it until they arrive in Santiago.

Here is Santiago (St. James) slaying the Moors, who controled Spain from the 8th century to nearly the 13th, when the Spanish Catholic Kings expelled them from the country. During a battle between the Christians and Moors in the north of Spain, legends say that the image of St. James the Apostle could suddenly be seen in the midst of the battle on horseback fighting against the North Africans. Hence they've gone crazy for it ever since.

Santiago de Compostela has a wonderfully preserved old part of town. I really liked the whitewashed buildings and box windows.

Here is the altar of grand reverance to Santiago inside the cathedral. There's a lot of gold.




I'd really like to walk the Camino de Santiago this summer if I can. Many people do the pilgrimmage in stages, since it's really quite long. From the border of France and Spain, the pilgrimmage is 760 kilometers. To walk this amount, at an average of 30 kilometers a day, it would take you about 26 days to reach Santiago.

You would go through famous northern Spanish cities like Pamplona, Logrono!!!, Burgos, and Leon on your way. So, it's a month long vacation, and if I end up doing it (because I would want to do the entire way through Spain walking, which would take me a month) I will definitely write a lot more about it.

Burgos, Castilla y Leon (Spain)

Abby and I visited nearby Burgos in the neighbor autonomous community (province) of Castilla y Leon--also the largest province in Spain. Burgos is on the east side, however, and so it was only about a two hour train ride from Logroño. We left on Saturday morning, got a hotel, and came back on a late afternoon train on Sunday. It was plenty of time to see the city.

Burgos has around 200,000 people, which is a little more than Logroño. It also has a small river running through it, not unlike Logroño either. The top things to see in Burgos are the Cathedral of Burgos, the Santa Maria Arch, and the Monastery de las Huelgas. We had a tour of the Monastery, which is special because it is actually a royal monastery (there are kings, queens, and other royalty buried there), and it is pictured below.


This monastery is from the 12th century. The inside is very well kept and has got beautiful chapels and altars. It´s called Monastery de las Huelgas because it is located on the outskirts of the city, and because this site used to be where the farmers had their little plots of land, which are called Huelgas.


These cool trees are actually trimmed constantly to look like this. There are really nice pathways on either side of the river there lined with these trees. You walk underneath them and notice how some of their limbs have actually grown together--I don´t know if they were helped to do this or what.



The most famous site of Burgos is its cathedral. It´s a Gothic style cathedral because of the rivoted spires and tall portals. It´s located in the center of the city in a nice plaza surrounded by restaurants, touristy shops, and basically everything else. You can walk up a hill and look down on the cathedral and the rest of Burgos from above. It´s a very cool sight with the cathedral amidst all those red tiled roofs.



The picture above her is of the Santa Maria Arch, a gateway into the city center. Walk through the arch and you´ll be in the plaza with the Cathedral of Burgos. It´s a really pretty little city, and it´s usually a lot colder there than in Logroño. They frequently have snow every winter. Abby and I were lucky to score a few days with hot sunny weather!


Another Menú del Día... the common Spanish restaurant meal for lunch. The ´Menu of the Day´is basically a three course meal with wine and bread. It seriously kicks butt if you find the right place, and it usually costs anywhere between €10 to €15 (Euros), which is $15 to $20. Here I think I have some Lomo a la Riojana (Pork loin with red peppers and potatoes). Abby´s got the chicken and fries.


Burgos, like Logroño, is also on Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James)... the second most famous Christian pilgrimage toward the legendary resting place of St. James (Santiago) in a western Spanish city called Santiago de Compostela. Abby is sitting with a bronze pilgrim who liked Burgos and the cathedral so much he decided he´d rest there for some hundred years or so.
Saludos a todos! (Greetings to everyone!)