Adventures beyond time

Adventures beyond time

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Santiago Rainy Days Continue

Our second full day in Santiago turned out to be our second full day of rain in Santiago.

We spent a couple of rainy hours in the Cathedral Museum, which was the only of 22 museums open on Mondays. There are several rooms with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling tapestries depicting everyday, medieval life. There were people dancing in the town square, dogs barking, women chasing bad-behaving men out the village gates with brooms, people playing...and cheating...at cards, and a man peeing in the square. If we had to suffer a rainy day in the city, this was not a bad way to spend it.

In the late afternoon, we went back to the cathedral to see it with the interior lights on. The cathedral is awesomely baroque. The evening lights made the gold glitter so powerfully that the edges of the statues seem to blur into each other, as if you were squinting.

There is a glittering, golden statue of St James...Santiago...above the altar. A walkway leads up behind him. Pilgrims walk up and "hug" the back of St James in thanks for the Camino experience. Hundreds file by. We gave the saint a restrained, American pat on the back.

We have generally had good food in Spain, and had one super dinner in Santiago. The first course was a rich-brothed, shellfish soup. The second was snails and clams...both great. We would have had the plate of assorted local cheeses with with currant jelly for dessert, but the other diners had eaten it all up before we got our chance.

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