Take one Canadian girl in les Alpes.
Add the ups & downs of living in France.
Cover with melted cheese...
Et voilà !

Friday, September 02, 2011

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful place.
It was my first time in Spain and I spent the entire weekend
being impressed by things like this:





Santiago has beautiful churches,
elegant arched arcades to walk along
& lots of lovely little streets.

It also has an amazingly impressive cathedral.


I loved the double staircase
view from the cathedral steps back towards the main square
But this is not just any old cathedral.
It's the final destination for those who walk along
the Way of Saint James,
a famous pilgrimage trail that you can read more about here.

We saw plenty of modern-day pilgrims in town.

Some had hiked the trail:

 
Some had used their bikes to travel:
 
Regardless of how they travelled, 
these modern-day pilgrims were thrilled 
to have arrived at their destination
& to be able to take a rest.

 

 
What else do you need to know about Santiago?
is the symbol of Saint James, who the pilgrimage path is named after.
The shell was amongst the cobblestones in front of the cathedral:

As well as all over town:
You could also find scallop shells on hats & walking sticks
which were on sale all over town.


FQ thought maybe he needed a shell-themed stick;
but I convinced him that he should wait
to have done the pilgrimage trail
before buying one.

I'd love to walk the trail one day.
It seems like an amazing adventure
with a beautiful destination.

And I'm sure I'd meet lots of interesting people along the way,
like these guys:

Saint James (on the right), his buddy & a couple tourists in front of the cathedral

3 comments:

  1. It never fails to impress me, all the beautiful and exotic places you've been to! This place looks pretty spectacular, but for now... just wish I were in Annecy with you. Hugs,
    E xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have been wanting to visit Santiago De Compostela for months now, ever since we studied the pilgramage in my art history class! The thought that all these people dutifully followed the sign of the seashell to land themselves in SDC is amazing.

    Your photos are gorgeous! This place is certainly on my to-visit list! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That cathedral is insane! I have this weird thing with churches even though I'm not religious. I could spend hours in a single one solely to admire the architecture.

    ReplyDelete

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