Missy -Day 9 (Santiago)

 

Today was a rest day. We stayed in Santiago. We slept in. We went to the big mall for breakfast.  

We had clean clothes and tired bodies. 

At around 11 mom and I took the bus back down to the cathedral. We went to see the shrine of Saint James and the pilgrims museum. 

It was raining and cold the whole day. We were grateful not to be hiking in it. 

Where the Burgos cathedral was majestic and the Segovia cathedral was brutal the Santiago cathedral was grand. It was grand in scale and scope  

We waited in a line in the rain to get in. As soon as we got in from the rain it hit us.

It’s a very in your face sort of place. It’s not full of turns and crevices and even though there are side chapels and confessionals (neatly labeled with languages and times) you are never out of site of the main attraction.

It smelled like church incense. This was the first cathedral we visited that did that. For me it made the whole thing feel much more alive. It was not like a museum the way the others were. 

I went to see the relics and was disappointed by not being able to hug the Saint. 

The tradition had been that pilgrims would walk up some stairs behind the statue of Saint James and give him a hug. From the front you would just see arms come around him or some people put their pilgrim hats on him to turn them into lucky holy hats but COVID put a stop to that and even though the COVID restrictions in Spain are over the restoration people decided to make the ban permanent. 

So o walked down the stairs and saw the relic (the “bones of the Saint” in a silver box) and flanking it two locked gates that were the entrance and exit of the stairs I would have taken to hug the Saint. 

I got to pray in a cathedral as of wished and I got to see Michelle and Chris again. 

After the cathedral mom and I went to the pilgrims museum on Michelles recommendation. 

It was a fantastic museum. It had history and music and artifacts and talked about pilgrimage as a human endeavor with some time spent on many cultures before drilling down on the Camino. 

My favorite section was musical. There was a bubble to stand under and buttons to push. On the entryway to the cathedral are musicians with various 12-14th century instruments. In the museum you could select each one and hear beautiful examples of each. 

They also had artifacts back to the Roman 1st century occupation of the area. My favorite of these was a very old game that we play at home and know as Mill. 

We had to wrap up or touring a little early so that mom could get back and pack. She had a cab coming at 6:30 to take her to the airport. 

We had an infinitely better time with the busses now that we knew what we were doing. 

We got back and had a little food and met her taxi. 

The reception desk at our place called a taxi for her and it worked very smoothly. 

She flew off to Madrid and spent the night there. 

I returned to Kiernan whose stomach was a little off. 

We hung out quietly and I started prepping for our very early departure. 

I texted the taxi driver that I had reserved and he told me his car was broken down and that if I really needed it he could send someone he knew. 

I said don’t worry about it planning to do as mom had done. 

I went down to the reception office and asked for a cab for 5 in the morning. 

They called and made the reservation asking me things like name and cell number and flight details. 

I went back to our bungalow and packed up my stuff and set my alarm for 4:45.