The hotel we are staying in is a parador, which is owned and run by the government in order to preserve old important buildings as part of their culture. They are also quite expensive I believe. The Parador of the Catholic Kings of Santiago of Compostela (English translation) is extremely nice and creates one side of the main square, with the church right next to it on the other side. The majority of the streets are small and pedestrian only which is really nice.
Lunch was good but lasted for about three hours, both because of their culture of having really long meals, and because there were so many of us to serve. Lunch on this trip was almost always over 2 hours long, but is how they socialize and spend time here.
We had a walking tour after lunch that was pretty short walking wise. We went around the church and talked about the different plazas there, and then when we went inside, a service was about to start. The church of Santiago is absolutely gorgeous with tons of decoration and gold all the way up to the high ceiling in the front.
They have a tradition there that if pilgrims get together and pay enough, they have a giant incense burner hanging from the ceiling that they add incense to, light, and then it is swung through the air higher and higher on a rope filling the entire church with the aromas.
We stayed for the first part of the service and even though I couldn’t understand most of it, it was still quite interesting. They did do the ritual with the incense, I think it is for cleansing and it was a lot of fun to watch.
While we were there, there were huge lines for people waiting to get into the special chapel part of the church. That is because this year is the year of Santiago, which is when the day of Santiago falls on a Sunday. The next time this happens will be in about 21 years.
Inthe plaza at the start of our tour, a clown came up behind me and spooked my making everyone laugh. After that he told everyone that I was his girlfriend and told them to all take pictures of me with him. Many pictures later he told me that I have pretty eyes and then tried to take me away with him. I said no.
After the tour I went for a run with Nikki, Kelly and Tom. Running in other cities is a fun way to see more of the city, as long as there is a tall landmark that makes it easy to get back to where I started.
Late afternoons and dinners are on our own to explore the cities we are staying in, and tonight I went out for tapas with some friends, and then later we had churros and chocolate splitting a couple orders among eight of us.
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