Thursday, August 27, 2009

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

From Aviles we headed along the northern coast on the A-8/E-70 and down to Santiago de Compostela (also known as Saint James of Compostela). From what we've seen, Spain has an excellent road and bridge system for cars, bikes and hikers alike!

We could have easily passed 100 bikers and hikers total on our way to Santiago de Compostela which is a pilgrimage destination for people all over Europe (mainly Spain and France I would imagine). I met a student at my school who said that he made the pilgrimage in three weeks by foot staying at hostels along the way and eating with other pilgrims. Belowis a picture of what the modern day pilgrim looks like...Canterbury Tales anyone?

Welcome all ye pilgrims!


The Cathedral (above) marks the destination of pilgrimages dating from the 9th century! Gnomie, our notable travel gnome, was thrilled to have a gander at the spectacle!

We were quite pleased to arrive in Santiago around 2pm and spent most of the day exploring! We managed to find ourselves in a park (connect to a school perhaps?) among beaucoups of leisurely park dwellers.

Then, we met up with our couchsurfing host for the night - Dr. Jon Shock, who works in the field of string theory and is brilliant! We had such an awesome time staying with him and after a quick stop at the grocery store we were cooking with steam (in the picture below, Phillip is resting his arm on Jon's stackable steamer). The meal was excellent and so were the conversations that followed! Woo-hoo!

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