Ultreia et suseia - Onwards and upwards

A Latin phrase known as the Pilgrim's greeting seems to be right for today's blog post. The tradition is for one pilgrim to say 'Ultreia' and another to respond 'Suseia'. Roughly translated it means: Onwards and Upwards and is first recorded in the Codex Calixtinus , a 12th-century book considered the first travel guide to the Camino de Santiago.

Monday was a day spent going up and down through the streets of Santiago de Compostela, taking in some of its history and the faith of those who have made and do make this journey.

It includes praying in the Cathedral of St. James, with its highly decorated Main Altar.

And making our own small pilgrimage to the casket which has made this City famous throughout the world. The tomb of St. James - Santiago of Spain

Morning

You'll note that this section is often titled 'Early Morning' well it was less so today as having had a quieter, restful, day yesterday, my body has clearly switched into relaxing mode. So, instead of the regular 3.30am wake up I've been used to I lounge until  4.30am, so I didn't start yesterday's post until 5am. I got it complete at 6.15am ready for my ablutions. 

Drew wakes at 6.30am and does a speedy ablute, so we aren't late for the start of breakfast at 7am. I'm not sure what we are afraid of, that all the food will be consumed? But we do like to be at breakfast as it starts and there is one person before us when we arrive. 

Breakfast

Our breakfast pattern continues from previous days, with Drew beginning with a plate of cooked food

and I have a greek yogurt with various seeds and nuts and today the addition of oats, a dash of extra fibre my diet seems to have been missing in recent days.

For my second course I have a selection of meats and cheeses combining elements of the general selection and the Galician selection into one plate.

I then complete the meal with sausages, bacon and steamed vegetables. 

while Drew has apple tart, chocolate donut and chocolate rock cake.

After Breakfast

We go back from breakfast and I begin to upload more of the Flickr photos from yesterday. These are mainly the ones Drew took while I was at Mass yesterday, so I need to check the location for a lot of them. 2/3rds of them are done when we head out to the city at 9am. 

It turns out there were about eight photos that I mistitled as being the Cathedral whereas they were the building at right angles to it in Obradoiro Square - The College of St. Jerome, this was corrected later in the day when in responding to a query from my friend Robin, I could check the content in more detail. [Co-pilot's note: I feel, dear readers, that the distance between these two buildings was approximately 3.5 meters. As this is a holiday, I feel that most people would have let it go. However, most people have never encountered someone quite as retentive as our valiant blogger.]

Into the City Centre

We leave the room at 9.00am, today we plan to begin our closer look at the Old City.

Drew was very doubtful of me yesterday when I told him that my route took me through a bus station. So, to prove that I hadn't wandered off track we followed the Google maps directions and we are again brought through the bus station.

On reading the signs in more details today, something I didn't have time for yesterday, it is clear this isn't a bus station as such. Rather it is bus parking facilities for the tourist buses which arrive in the City with many pilgrims, the layout is like a standard bus station, but the buses need to pay to stop here. 

Our walk takes us first to the Cathedral, 

where we are clearly to early or to late depending on your perspective but with Mass at 9.30am and the museums not opening until 10.30am, we reviewed our list of locations and headed to one that was open all day - Alameda Park. 

Alameda Park

This park is a joggers and dogwalkers heaven plus it is great just to walk through too. 

Indeed it is on a number of the Caminhos de Santiago:

• Caminho de Finisterra
• Caminho de Inverno
• Caminho do Norte
• Caminho Francês
• Caminho Inglês
• Caminho Português
• Caminho Primitivo
• Camiño Portugués da costa
• Rota Marítimo-fluvial
• Vía de la Plata

Amusingly as we approached the park a group of pilgrims were leaving the park across the road from us. The pilgrims were wearing arrows (representing that they are on the journey) and with six of them facing him Drew was compelled to turn his head right, even though he knew the sign wasn't meant for him. 

At the parks centre is the old chapel of Saint Susanna, one of the Patrons of the City. 

In the twelfth century, Archbishop Gelmírez ordered the construction of a church to house the relics of Santa Susana, a chapel that was remodeled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and which today is surrounded by more than three hundred year old oak trees the carballeira of Santa Susana.

In the 13th Century the town council of Santiago used to meet in this chapel. Though it is somewhat overshadowed these days by the 'big wheel' in front of it.

The rest of the park has very attractive gardens and is laid out in a formal manner with various miradors (outlooks) breaking up the steep side of the park, it is a tranquil setting and well off the beaten track of tourists in the city.

From the other side of the park there are spectacular views of the Cathedral which we made good use of. This area is called Miradoiro da Catedral. 

I even made a friend, sharing the bench set up for the famous artist Isaac Diaz Pardo 

We walked down into the city again and wondered around an area which is much lower than the area around the Cathedral. This let us see the rear of the main palace in Obradoiro Square which from this vantage point is seven stories high, but only the top three stories are visible from the square opposite the Cathedral - Santiago is a very hilly city.

The Garden of the Speaking Stones

We walk down from the viewpoint and are now in the lower part of the city. This brings us to the garden of speaking stones which pays homage to writers from all over the world, using as medium stones etched with poems penned by the writers. These include examples in Galician, Castilliano, English, Arabic and Chinese and even one in Breton. 

The Cathedral of St. James

It is a short walk up from the garden of speaking stones to the Cathedral through the entrance that has the huge queues on Sunday.

We arrive at 10.25am and this time the queue was no more than seven people so we went straight inside. 

At this point we separated, I to sit in the aisles before the high altar to pray, while Drew became busy taking plenty of shots of the Cathedral as this animation shows.

They will be up on Flickr very soon [Editor's note 1pm on the 10th of June - they are all up now!], beware, there are quite a few of them. My best guess is late tonight or early tomorrow. The one at the top of the post is from my vantage point and this one is one Drew took of me. 

Drew came back for me and I made my way to the Shrine of Santiago above the high altar. There was quite a queue but it moved speedily. I managed to take a photo of the casket which is deemed to hold the bones of the apostle (See the second photo in this post) but there were no photos allowed beyond this point, with the focus being interior disposition and prayer. It was surprisingly moving and prompted me to join the queue for confession. A German priest was hearing them in German, English, French and Italian. It is unlikely I'll ever see him again, but I would go back to him, he was very gentle on his advice and light on the penance. 

Saint Benedict's Church and Convent Museum aka Monastery and Church of San Paio de Antealtares

We departed the cathedral at 11.59pm and walked to the nearby Saint Benedict's Church. This has a very un-predisposing facade but internally is very ornate. 

Drew took many pictures and took his usual pleasure in taking ones of the Stations of the Cross in a strange order, so I have the pleasure of reordering them in Flickr later. The animation reflects the ones without the stations:

As we progressed around the church we saw an ornate door in the corner. 

This led into the Museum. The museum itself is part of the cloister of the Monastery, with the Sisters now living in other parts of the building. We were greeted by a lovely sister who having taken our €3 each asked where we were from and showed us the way in. 

The museum is rich in history, both in the information it provides about the development of Benedictine Life in Galicia and in the rich paintings, statues and vestments that depict various parts of its patrimony. Sadly my ineptitude with the animation means some of the heads of painting have been cut off - so you will need to go to Flickr to see them properly.

St. Augustine's Church also known as The Church of the Sacred Heart

The next steps on our route for the day was to head to Santiago Abastos Market which we had heard so much about in Chris Roberts' series Llond Bol y Sbain in which Chris travels for food treats to three places in Spain. The episode showing his Galician trip was the only place I'd not visited, so he may hold some responsibility for why I thought of coming here when I planned this holiday. 

However, in following the route from St. Benedict's Church to the market we came first to St. Augustine's College and then to St. Augustine's Church. We decided to have a look around and were impressed by the inside of this Jesuit run church. In addition to its other functions, Saint Augustine's house the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Santiago de Compostela. Of course, June is the traditional month of the Sacred Heart and the altar of the church was richly decorated for their special June devotions. 

 

Santiago Abastos Market

Following our time in St. Augustine's we finally got to Santiago Abastos Market. It being Monday this wasn't as busy as it would be between Tuesday and Saturday. There were some stalls completely closed. 

We walked through all eight of the market's halls and enjoyed the rich and varied selection of products - I, for example, didn't know that Boar Chorizo was a thing! It is and it is on sale here!

I was given a chance to try Drew's camara, to see if I could make the technology work - it is hard! But I managed to get some shots of him coming down the stairs of the market towards the Arch of Mazarelos.

Mazarelos Arch

From the market it is a very short walk to the Arco de Mazarelos, which is the only remaining part of of Santiago de Compostela’s medieval wall. Many people may walk through or pass it without noticing, yet it is a clear link back to the history of this amazing place.  

The Faculty of Philosophy 

The University of Santiago de Compostela has campus buildings all over the old City, this one just inside the old city wall, has a statue commemorating Faith, Love, Justice and Wisdom outside. 

King Alfonso II of Asturias

On leaving the philosophy faculty we came to a statue of a king. It turns out to be King Alfonso II of Asturias (759 - 852), it was during Alfonso's reign, that the resting place of St. James was revealed. 

Tradition relates that in 814, the body of Saint James was discovered in what became Compostela and that Alfonso was the first pilgrim to the shrine then known as Libredón. Alfonso did a great deal in linking his kingdom with Christendom as it was then emerging under the reign of Charlemagne and the Popes. At the time Asturias made a tiny part of Spain where 80% of the Peninsular was under Islamic rule. 

Bruma

Just opposite the statue is a small coffee shop called Bruma. At 1.50pm, almost five hours since we left the hotel, it was a relief to sit down and enjoy a delicious coffee. 

Back to the Hotel 

After the coffee we walked back to the hotel and arrived at 2.30pm. 

At breakfast today I'd looked at some blogs and guides and put a list of 'must see in Santiago de Compostela' items. I think we can measure the success of our walk by noting that we got to all bar 1 on the list and added two unexpected ones. The missing one being the Monastery of San Martín Pinario, this is one of the largest monasteries in Spain and is said to have an interior full of religious art. We took a photo of its baroque facade yesterday and walked past it again today, but by that time in the afternoon it was closed for siesta. Still, I always think that having something left to do might be an encouragement to come back some day.

I had a siesta at 3.00pm and was back up at 3.40pm feeling refreshed. 

I made a cup of tea for the two of us and finish editing the photos from yesterday. The last set are the most difficult as I wasn't there when Drew took them, so have had to make copious use of Google Maps to ensure they are named correctly. I complete this by 4.40pm and begin on the photos we have taken today, there are rather a lot of them!!

Dinner 

We had planned to spot some nice dinner slot while walking around the City today, but hadn't seen anything that made to much of an impression on us. Lots of nice Galician restaurants, but all of them with a somewhat similar selections. 

In between photo editing I checked out restaurants in our part of the City and a small place less than half a mile away really appealed. 

We noted it opened at 8pm and as we are traveling tomorrow we didn't want to be out to late. So left the hotel at 7.45pm to head up to the restaurant for dinner. 

The latter 2/3rds of the route was new to us. It took us up some steps on an uphill path (google has the steps in the map!)

then the road got very steep indeed.

we passed the Carmelite Church 

and the Poor Clare Convent/Hospital. 

and arrived at the restaurant called Pico de Gallo, which is a small mexican run by a young couple. It has seven tables catering for 24 when full.

Of course we were first in as 8pm is early for Spanish people to eat. But it soon filled up. 

To drink we had Agua con gas for me and Coke Cero for Drew. 

For starters we shared Nachos de Tinga which are corn tortilla chips, chicken tinga, guacamole, cheese salsa, pico de gallo, and pickled jalapeños. It looked delightful 

and was even more delicious. Full of zing and, of course, we mopped up the residual with a spoon when we had finished with the tortilla chips.

We then had a Sopa Azteca, a long term favourite of ours and one we've not had in recent years as the places that used to make it best have decreased their chilli levels which spoils the effect. It is a garlic and tomato soup with corn tortillas, avocado, Cebreiro cheese, sour cream, and roasted chiles. They are not reticent about the chillies here and that is one of the highlights of the dish. This isn't a spiky heat for heats sake, but a long mellow heat which gives you a glow inside. It was wonderful. 

For mains I had chosen Enchiladas Rojas, these Chipotle infused corn tortillas were filled with chicken tinga and served with an achiote red sauce which gives the dish this rich red colour. It also had sour cream, pickled red onion with habanero pepper, and Galician cheese. Yum, yum, yum. 

Drew opted for Burrito de Pollo this burrito was chicken tinga, lettuce, tomato, onion, guacamole, and chipotle mayonnaise. Lightly flavoured but delicious all the same. 

Drew didn't take a fancy to any of the desserts but we thought we might have a coffee. Sadly the only coffee available here is Café Mexicano -  that is with Tequila and Kahula, so not for us. 

Confiteria San Roque

Leaving the restaurant we walked four paces and saw a Confiteria which obviously specialises in people dropping in for a coffee. We ordered two espressos and Drew was obliged to be sociable and choose a Mocha Cake to go with his coffee. It was sweet with delicious hints of coffee and chocolate, he says it went down a treat. 

We left the Confiteria at 9.10pm and wandered gently down the hill (a different hill, we had make the walk a loop) getting back to the hotel at 9.40pm. 

We prepared our bags for the journey tomorrow and got to bed shortly after 11.00pm. Having had a day full of fascination and delight.