by car that is! Elaine's friend Nelson has a guide and transportation business here in Porto and was the perfect person to take us to Santiago de Compostela.
A little history of the Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James. According to 8th century records, James preached in Iberia near the ocean in the north and was beheaded by Herod in 44 AD. After his death, his remains were placed in a stone boat and steer by the hand of God to the banks of river Iria Flavia in Galicia near Padrón. A horse on the river bank was startled as the boat approached and along with his rider ended up in the river. Instead of drowning, the two immerged covered in scallop shells. To this day, the scallop shell remains the symbol of St. James and all along the the various routes to Santiago de Compostela there are markers with the scallop shell guiding pilgrims along their way. Somewhere around 810 AD, religious leaders unearthed a sarcophagus reported to contain the remains of St. James. After this discovery, King Alfonso II built a church on the site which later became the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The first recorded pilgrimage took place in the 10th century and today over 400,000 pilgrims walk the Camino de Santiago each year.
There are several different routes for the Camino de Santiago with each starting in either France, Portugal or Spain. They vary in distance and difficulty. You have everything from devotional pilgrims who go so far as to dress in the robes of St. James' time carrying their possession in a sack on their back and rely on the kindness of strangers along the route for housing and food to what my friend in Madrid calls tourgrims. These are folks that go through a tour company and basically go for a long stroll each day as the tour company transports their luggage to the next hotel where they will stay in comfort for the evening. Regardless of how they do it, completing 231 km (143 miles) is not small feat (this is the distance from Porto to Santiago de Compostela). To receive a Compostela, a pilgrim must have taken the Camino for religious or spiritual reasons, completed at least 100 km (62 miles) by food or horseback or 200 km (124 miles) by bicycle and be able to prove the distance you covered. To do the later, those that go on the pilgrimage get a Camino passport at the beginning of their selected route and along the way there are places to have it stamped.
The cathedral was impressive on the outside but the inside was a little to ornate on the inside for our taste. The "angels" on the altar and throughout were a bit unusual and there was what appeared to be a pirate on a horse above the altar.
Above the altar is a botafumeiro (huge incense burner) on a pulley system. While the use of incense is part of the Catholic mass, it also served to help with freshening the air as the original pilgrims were a bit smelly after their journey.
The old city center of Santiago de Compostela is very charming...here's a few pics from around town.
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