October 23, 2022. At Leon, Spain.

Dear Christine. First of all, I’m sorry for all the grief that you went through today with Delta Airlines over our flight from Buenos Aires to Kansas City. I would not have been any help because I don’t have your patience. I can’t imagine three hours on the phone and having the representative threaten to hang up when you expressed your frustration.

There once was a time when the joined words of customer and service had meaning. These days calls to big companies begin with an announcement that the call may be recorded to improve customer service. I bet if you told the representative that you were recording the call he/she would hang up on you.

I am in Leon having arrived this afternoon by train. The first half of the trip was through torrential rain, but when I reached my destination the skies had opened and there is now a promise of warmer temps and sunshine over the next few days. My fingers are crossed. Before I begin presenting this portion of the trip to you I want to do some housekeeping over the end of my stay in Santiago.

I toured the cathedral museum and had to pay a second charge for a timed ticket to see Master Mateo’s Portico of Glory. When we walked into Santiago in 2013 we could enter up the main steps of the cathedral and through the portico. However, in 2018 there was limited access because of the restoration work. The 10 year preservation process has been completed and those main doors are now permanently closed. The portico is now off-limits except to ticket holders. Perhaps a little annoying but understandable given the extraordinary expense that was incurred in the restoration and the desire to protect this remarkable treasure from future deterioration.

I got one picture of the portico before security politely notified me that pictures were not allowed.

My ticket allowed me 30 minutes to view the work and listen to an extensive audio presentation. I could have easily stood there an hour. I can’t hope to give you the details in this letter, but there is an article on Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portico_of_Glory

This link will give access to closeup details of the Portico of Glory:

https://www.spain.info/en/images/portico-glory-santiago-compostela/

The portico took over 20 years to /complete and includes over 200 biblically themed sculptures. It is not just art but is an actual structural component of the cathedral. It is dated as completed in 1188.

Mateo and his workshop received a lifetime commission from the king to be the chief designer and architect of the cathedral. He is considered the greatest of that era.

In the course of cathedral restoration fragments of the stone choir created by Mateo were assembled and painstakingly reconstructed. The choir had been built in the 12th century and removed/destroyed in the 17th century.

In the course of excavating foundations other fragments that predate Mateo were uncovered that depict the murder of the innocent children by the order of king Herod.

Here is more from my visit through the Cathedral museum:

I also visited the Monastery and Museum of San Martin Pinario. The monastery is located just east of the cathedral. You may recall that in our first visit we stayed in a very simple pilgrim room on the top floor. Those rooms had once been chambers for the monks. Rather than try to provide a narrative I will post the pictures with captions where appropriate:

The monks were particularly adept at creating incredibly intricate and fine wood and lead blocks for printing. In some cases the detail was laser fine. It’s incredible the human hands could accomplish this.

I also visited the 19th century Market Place located a half block from my hotel. It is very active and alive with the sights, sounds, and smells (fish!) of commerce.

I think that about covers it for now. I went to Mass this evening at the Leon cathedral. That’s Mass number four in as many days. I wish I could have understood this priest’s sermon, because it certainly was “lively“. I will head to the tourist information office tomorrow to see how best to occupy my visit here over the next two days.

Love, Me.

PS. I have something that we need to discuss at some length in real time. Text me a time that you will be available later today.

October 22, 2022. At Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Dear Christine. This is my last night in Santiago. I was two nights at a wonderful pension very near the Cathedral. I asked to extend my stay there but they were booked up. Instead they offering me two nights a little further away at Hotel Virxe da Cerca, which is still in the old city. Tomorrow I catch the train to Leon.

It’s a wonderful hotel and for only €86 a night I am provided a suite with a small living room. Outside my door is a garden and an aviary full of little singing birds. My room also has a feature that I decided to try. Mr. Google provided me with instructions.

The hotel would be perfect if it weren’t that their internet was so slow. As it is I’m limiting the number of pictures I am uploading because I don’t want to explode their system! I feel like I have been here before and perhaps this is where Tom and Nanci stayed in 2018.

Yesterday I visited the church and small museum at Monasterio de San Paio de Antealtares.

You may recall that this fortress like building is located just across a square from the southside of the Cathedral. It also gives the impression of a prison, since most of the windows are secured with heavy iron bars.

This monastery was originally established in the ninth century to protect the recently discovered remains of Santiago. In 1498 it became a cloistered Benedictine convent, which it remains to this date. Among the treasures housed in its museum are a first century altar stone attributed to Saint James, and a crucifix that dates to the ninth century.

A charming old nun granted me admission to the museum. The cost was €1.50. She “twisted my arm“ into spending another €5 for a little book (in English) about the history of St. James (Santiago).

When one enters the church the first impression is given by its beauty.

The second impression is given from the features which keep the holy nuns separate from the evils of the outside world. Again, it looks like a prison but the intention was not so much to keep good people in as to keep bad people out.

At the entrance there is a small door on the left. Currently it is to allow people to purchase excellent baked goods from the nuns. In centuries past this was the “foundling wheel” where mothers unable to care for their newborn child could anonymously give the infant over to the care of the Sisters.

I found this interesting bit of information: “…more often than not, there were no forms of identification, and it was the nuns, volunteers, and priests’ job to assign one. Common baptismal last-names for foundlings were D’Angelo (of the angels), Del Rio (referencing that the baby was saved from being thrown in the river), Fortuna (lucky), Trovato (foundling), Trovatello (little foundling), Esposito (exposed), Tulipano (tulip), Urbino (blind), Enorme (very big), Milingiana (the size of an eggplant), or the name of the saint whose Feast Day it was.”

Here are some photographs from the museum. Virtually all of these pieces are from between the 12th to 15th century.

I would have thought that convents such as this would be in serious decline in modern times. However, I found this concerning the convent:

“Today it is still a very lively monastery in which its almost 40 mothers actively participate in the liturgy of its church with Gregorian chant, the maintenance of a student residence with 60 places, a hostel that is run according to the Benedictine values of hospitality and a nursery school.”

Tom and Nanci put me in touch with two dear friends of theirs who just completed their Camino. Kam and Ron, both 70, invited me to join them and two other pilgrims for dinner. While I sat down with the group as a “stranger“, I left dinner feeling like I had known these good people all my life. Our dinner of tapas and wine lasted nearly 3 hours. At the end, Kam and Ron refused to take any money and bought dinner for the table!

I also visited the Cathedral Museum yesterday but I will reserve that for my next letter. In the meantime, I am anxiously awaiting the results from you of Paisley’s run in the elementary school division of the Missouri State Cross Country competition. It’s incredible how quickly she has grown into that sport, but of course the girl is all legs!

Love, Me.

PS. I am counting down the days that we will find ourselves in the same time zone!

PPS: WOW! 66th overall and her school took 1st in State. Awesome!!!

October 20, 2022. At Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Dear Christine. I have arrived! This my third entry into the cathedral square lacked the emotion of our first, the shared experience of our second, but provided its own high drama that will linger long in my memory.

In the early morning hours the skies exploded with a thunderstorm that would have done proud to a tornado warning in Kansas City. There were roof shaking winds, torrential rain, lightning, thunder, and even hail. When I got up to prepare for the day conditions had moderated, but I did not look forward to the 16 km hike ahead with my minimal rain protection. I briefly considered calling a taxi but ditched that idea in favor of just getting wet and enduring.

About an hour down the road the skies really let go. I was walking with a young Irish gentleman and as we were pounded by the rain he declared, “In Ireland this is what we call a bastard rain!” There are no pictures because had I pulled out my cell phone it would’ve been dead for sure. I had the forethought to send my camera ahead with my backpack rather than risk it.

I did hazard one picture. This stone cross is believed to be the oldest such monument in Spain. It dates to the 1300’s.

Another hour or so down the road I saw Tina‘s bright orange/pink jacket. She and a couple of others were sheltering under an awning. I stopped, we talked, and as the clouds began to break up we proceeded on through the suburbs of Santiago.

By the time we reach the old city we were greeted with blue skies and sunshine.

Thankfully, my clothes had begun to dry.

We were joined in the cathedral square by Marianne from the Netherlands. I was sorry that Lynn could not have completed the gathering but she is still a days walk behind, nursing sore feet and a cold.

Marianne returns to the Netherlands today. Today is also Tina’s last day. She had planned at least another week for a continuation of her Camino to the coast. However, the weather report is so dismal but she has decided it would be a better call to fly home.

Air travel in Europe is almost as easy as catching a bus. Two days notice and she secured a flight from Santiago to Germany for less than €100.

Tina’s take on this is: “Don’t be a prisoner to your plans.” That is some wise advice that I will be chewing on long and hard today. I had two nights reserved here in Santiago and I have secured an additional two nights to allow me time to take in the city as a tourist, rather than a pilgrim. Beyond that it is a question mark.

I took the afternoon to get my laundry done and wander a bit. I attended 7:30 PM Mass which was packed with worshippers, presented by 12 priests, and again featured the swinging of the Botafumeiro.

I didn’t have my “real camera“, so limited pictures of the experience. Every mass that I have attended here has included that huge censer. I wonder if my luck will hold when I go to the noon mass today. This time I will have my “real camera“.

My evening concluded with a nice black rice paella and a beer.

You will be in my thoughts today, as you always are. Please hold me dear in yours.

Love, Peter.

October 17-18, 2022. At Padron and nearing Santiago, Spain.

Dear Christine. Yesterday was the surprise conclusion of one Camino highlight that we were not aware of in 2018. The city of Padron is reputed to be the place where the earthly remains of Saint James landed ashore in a stone boat. The vessel was secured by tying to an ancient stone bollard. The coffin was then wheeled overland to its final resting place where it would be discovered hundreds of years later. This was the start of the Santiago legend and pilgrimage traditions.

What we didn’t know in 2018 was that by walking the pilgrimage and visiting the church where the original stone bollard remains, enshrined beneath the altar of the church built around it, we were entitled to the Pedronia Certificate.

I would’ve missed this again had I’m not been told by the lady at reception in my Padron hotel.

On the road this morning I visited the church of Iria Flavia where Saint James preached in the very earliest days of the church. Archaeologists verify the remains of a church that dates to the early 500s and was later sacked in 997. The “new church“ dates to the 12th century! Next to the church were a number of excavated stone coffins.

Yesterday I again walked in the company of Tina.

We spent enough time speaking German that I began to experience the “language headache“ so often described by our former exchange students. She is very encouraging and even surprised by the extent of my vocabulary. She says I have to work on pronunciation.

All in all it was an excellent day that included some unusual sites.

I attended mass which was also unusual, both for my attendance and for the manner with which it was presented. A woman read the gospel and the priest took two communions while none was given to the congregation (only about eight people in the huge and ancient convent church).

It is my speculation that this is because of Covid.

Rather than walk the 25 km into Santiago today I chose to walk 10 km to a midpoint, spend the night, and then proceed tomorrow with the remaining 15 km so as to arrive early at the Cathedral Square.

Hotel options were limited and I chose Pension Pividal, a bit steep at €60 for the night. A better name for it would be “Hotel 60”, same quality as Motel 6 in the States, just more expensive.

My room was clean (a good thing), and sterile but not in a good way.

At least there was a bathtub with the promise of a hot soak, or so I thought. There was no stopper in the tub. I went down the two flights of stairs to reception, but no one was there. I then walked to the adjoining bar/café which also serves as the reception. Using my translation app I asked for a stopper. I received a polite “no“, it seems that the hotel doesn’t have enough hot water to fill the tub! They suggested I just use the shower.

Unhappy and frustrated I set off on a long hike to cool my jets. About a mile and a half from the hotel the skies darkened and I got caught in a torrential downpour. That certainly “cooled my jets”! I was soaked through and through. By the way, although the hotel advertised a laundry service, it was not available.

I ended up wearing my wet clothes to allow body heat to facilitate drying. I had a couple of beers and a reasonably decent pizza at the bar and then returned to my room.

It was like a refrigerator. Time to turn the heat on… You guessed it, no heat. Back to the bar/café and with the aid of my translating app I explained this new situation. A somewhat exasperated lady met me back up the stairs where she was going to show me how to turn the heat on. it didn’t work for her either.

The hotel is virtually empty (what do they do for hot water when it’s full!) and she began to open almost every room on my floor looking for one that had heat. After half dozen tries she succeeded. I am now in a room with three twin beds. Still no stopper in the bathtub.

When I got caught in the downpour, but after I was already soaked, I did find some shelter at a gas station. The station had a limited selection of food items. I was able to buy a few things for an early morning breakfast.

It’s my intention to hit the road at dawn and make it to the Cathedral by noon. My order of business will be to register at the pilgrim office, get my certificate, and check into my room. The weather does not look promising… more rain. I have reserved two nights at (hopefully) a decent hotel. I look to begin my hike to the Atlantic coast on Friday. I am allowing myself 12 days to cover that additional 210km. It’s doable, but I’m going to “listen to my body“ as you have ordered.

Hopefully, I will find some peace tomorrow in Santiago. At the minimum I’m looking forward to a beer courtesy of Ken and Bambi who arrived in Santiago yesterday.

Don’t worry about me. I am confident that this day will pass… just like a kidney stone!

Love you Dear! Me

PS. Some more pictures:

PPS. Overnight there has been a terrible storm, complete with incredible wind, thunder, lightning, and hail. The rain is predicted to continue.