The culmination of the Pilgrim's Way--Santiago de Campostela

pilgrims resting in cathedral plaza, our parador in the background

As you drive into Santiago de Campostela, a beautiful medieval city in Galicia, you see dozens of pilgrims nearing the completion of their journeys to the cathedral in Santiago.  In the main plaza right in front of the cathedral, pilgrims gather to rest and enjoy the triumph of completing what for many is a very long journey of hundreds of miles.

pilgrim's entrance to cathedral

Our guide told us that about 30% of pilgrims make the journey for religious reasons and 70% for the sake of the journey itself.  Before the movie, "The Way", very few pilgrims came to Santiago, but the momentum gathered after people around the world saw the film (which, according to Wikipedia, only earned about $4.5 million).  In 1993, the province of Galicia and city of Santiago started promoting the Pilgrim's Way as a major tourist activity, leading to more than 350,000 pilgrims now walking the pathways ending in Santiago each year.  Today,

window inside cathedral

this is the largest part of Santiago's economy.
The city itself has long been a major center of Christendom, ever since the remains of St. James, one of Christ's apostles, were reportedly found not far away.  They are now interred in the cathedral.  The Moorish invasion did not get this far north, so the city has remained a Christian bastion, uninterrupted for more than 1300 years.

baptismal font in cathedral cloister

Our hotel, the Hotel de Dos Reyes Catolicos (right on the central plaza next to the cathedral), was built in 1499 to house pilgrims, no doubt in considerably less luxury than guests enjoy today.  In the cathedral itself, the huge balcony surrounding the nave used to provide a place to sleep for tired and dirty pilgrims. There is a huge urn that 8 men swing from door to door across the nave to spread incense, perhaps, our guide told us, to help mask the smell of the balcony's exhausted occupants in days gone by.
Santiago has also been a prominent university center for hundreds of years.  Today, of the 100,000 residents, 25,000 are students.

doorway to one of the university buildings

buildings above Santiago de Campostela at sunset

This is a walking city, at least the old city center, with its winding, cobbled streets, beautiful medieval churches and pretty squares.  Most of the residents live outside the inner city because it is not only expensive to live there, but renovating a home according to UNESCO standards is prohibitive for most people.
Galicians justifiably take great pride in their cuisine and the many restaurants in Santiago bear that out.  We had one incredible dinner at Abastos 2.0, which Don and I had found last year as we wandered around the city, that serves a delicious tasting menu of fish and vegetable tapas along with Galicia's excellent wines.  Each day, the chef visits the large market next door to buy what he thinks is the best of the fish and vegetables and creates his varied dishes from the fresh food he buys there. We all loved it.

pilgrim and opera singer both singing arias

Then, there's the gelato, made, I'm sure, of purest cream, and so smooth and delicious that several of us slurped down 3 large cups of ice cream in one day.
Not surprisingly, street musicians (and beggars) populate the squares and walkways of the old city. They change places periodically to give equal opportunity to some, if not all.  Last year, the opera singer in the photo to the left entertained late night strollers under a large medieval arch covering one of the stone alleys, so we stopped to listen for over an hour.  This year, he was there again.  A young woman pilgrim sat listening to him sing, then jumped up to join him with her beautiful soprano voice.  What an extraordinary end to a wonderful evening!