Satellite
  • Day 18

    We came, we saw...

    July 6, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We came to take more Pepto, we saw people hugging a statue, we conquered the low tide of the Cantabrian Sea. We hugged the statue too.

    Today started out “no bueno” as we like to say in these parts. Melinda has been battling stomach fun and Maria a little too. We blame Portugal😂

    We got on the road earlier than usual, if not as early as planned and headed to Santiago de Compostela. Santiago is a major pilgrimage site because it is claimed that St. James’ bones are interred in the cathedral. Maria gives it a 40% chance of that being true. Melinda thinks this is way too generous.

    Maria has always dreamed of completing the Camino until today. People ruin everything. Santiago has become the Disney of pilgrims. It’s a mass of people and why? Is it really a pilgrimage or is it a show? Why Saint James over all the others? Maria was underwhelmed by the show of it all. Also, she only walked 0.6 miles from the parking lot to the cathedral, so not quite ready for the whole 500 miles😂

    But Maria did hug a Saint. She thought she was in line to see Saint James’ bones. Melinda remembered going down to see the bones. She sent Maria down and there was a gold coffin holding the relics of St. James. Maria didn’t realize that’s what they were. So we stood in line another 20 minutes and then went up some stairs and hugged a statue (from behind, of course!) while a guy looked on so no photos were taken. We are sure we did the hugging all wrong, but hug we did...and then Maria asked, “Where are the bones?” “I think you saw them downstairs.” I’ll tell you what...in 1995, Maria and friends spent the equivalent of $0.25 to light up the mummified right hand of St. Stephan in Hungary...THAT is how relics should be done😂

    We left Santiago glad we were off to more calm environs. Now we are along the north coast staying at a place called Finca O Bizarro. Sadly, bizarro means “courageous” and not “bizarre”...because I wanted the translation to be “Bizarre farm”😂

    Just along the coast above us, the Camino or “way” to Santiago follows from France to Santiago de Compostela. We are here to visit the Beach of the Cathedrals. Amazing rock formations and arches that are only visible at low tide. We viewed some this evening at medium tide. We will return for low tide tomorrow.
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