The more modern street leading toward the Old Town and the cathedral.
The pomegranate statue.
In between these vans is a column with a bust of Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quijote. Maybe we should have waited for a better photo opportunity!
A monastery near the cathedral.
The monastery again.
Our first view of the cathedral.
A pretty little garden in front of the monastery.
The scallop shell is an important symbol of Santiago de Compostela, and can be seen everywhere.
Angels above the alter inside the cathedral.
The main alter in the cathedral.
In a small chapel of the cathedral.
A plaque honoring Bishop Teodomiro, who discovered the tomb of St. James and began construction of the original church. He died in 885 A.D.
The tomb of Bishop Teodomiro.
The top of the main alter.
A mass being celebrated in another small chapel in the cathedral.
An interesting statue in yet another small chapel in the cathedral.
Another small chapel. There were a lot of them.
You guessed it....
Angels over the main alter.
The dome over the main alter. What's that way up at the top...?
I zoomed in to see the eye at the top of the dome, although we're getting to the limits of resolution of our poor little camera.
Another small chapel in the cathedral.
The final resting place of St. James.
One of the few stained glass windows in the cathedral.
Sorry for the poor picture quality. This is a door with wood carvings showing events in the life of St. James: meeting Jesus, becoming a disciple, preaching on his own, being executed by the Romans, his body being spirited away by monks, and later being discovered by Teodomiro, who was led by a star.
At the bottom of a column in the main entryway of the cathedral. Pilgrims are supposed to tap their forehead on the statue to try to take in some of the saint's wisdom. Sadly, it's being restored, so we couldn't get that close to it.
The big pipe organ in the cathedral.
An image of St. James as a crusader, although he looks more like a pirate to me. The crusades happened long after the time of St. James. Nevertheless, he was used as a rallying point for the crusaders, who often claimed to have seen him leading charges against the Moors.
A fountain in front of the cathedral.
An exterior view of the cathedral.
The clock tower of the cathedral.
A typical Santiago street.
A small church in Santiago, with some interesting statuary....
The pregnant Mary shows up in many statues through the town.
A statue of one of the King Alfonse's (there were at least 12 of them).
At the fish and vegetable market. Picture all of these little critters alive and wiggling....
The fish weren't alive, but they looked as if they were not too long ago.
More wriggling arthropods...
Mariachi singers, even further fromhome than they'd be in the United States.
A government building across the main square from the cathedral.
Statue on top of the government building.
Another view of the cathedral.
Statues at the base of the quadruple stairway to the main entrance of the cathedral.
Interesting statues in Alameda Park.
This picture makes me think of the Robert Frost poem, "Two roads diverged in a wood...". Which road would you take?
A lion on top of one of the columns in the previous picture.
A statue in Alameda Park.
Tonya and I enjoyed this view as we enjoyed a very European picnic lunch in the park.
View fromthe top of the hill in Alameda Park.
Another statue in the park.
A view of the cathedral from the park in the harsh afternoon sun. We got better pictures later that evening....
View of the city from Alameda Park.
Santiago is famous for its silver working.
Another scallop shell in an outside corner of the cathedral....they showed up everywhere.
The main alter at St. Peayo's church, where we heard the nuns singing the Vespers mass.
The dome at St. Peayo's church.
In St. Peayo's church.
Artwork on the outside of the cathedral.
The official end of the pilgrim trail.
A local musician playing the gaitas, a Spanish instrument closely related to the bagpipes.
It's always good to see other USC alumni...although in this case, it was the University of Santiago de Compostela. And they got the colors wrong.
A rather entertaining Don Quijote parody.
A courtyard in the university.
A statue of the founder of the university.
Compare the first paragraph (in Gallego) to the second one (in Spanish). So why are they arguing so much about keeping the local dialects? They just don't look that different to me...
We saw a lot of these blue lobsters on display at the restaurants. Yes, they're alive and kicking.
Octopus for dinner....yum!
The challenge is to eat this guy before he eats you.
Nicer evening pictures of the cathedral from Alameda Park.
Sunset over Santiago.
At the beginning of our short (10km) hike along the pilgrim camino.
Lovely weather for a walk!
On the trail to Santiago.
Views of the statue at the top of Monte do Gozo. (The guidebook had shown a different statue, which we never found.)
Views of the statue at the top of Monte do Gozo.
Views of the statue at the top of Monte do Gozo. Note all the stones; pilgrims leave stones that they've picked up along the trail.
A statue of one of the knights who guarded the pilgrim trails.
A typical pilgrim, complete with straw hat, raggedy clothes, and walking stick.
Another interesting statue in Alameda Park.
A little sculpture of the Flight to Egypt, on a church near the cathedral.
