Santiago de Compostela, Spain
We disembarked in the port of La Coruña, which has a long and varied history. Celts, Phoenicians, and Romans have all occupied it, and it is another of the legendary cities that claims Hercules as its founder. Our guides insisted that this is not Spain but Galicia, and that they are Celts because they play bagpipes and believe in witches.
We coached up to the famous Torre de Hercules lighthouse, Europe’s oldest working one, built by the Romans and rebuilt in the 18th century. From there, we watched our ship sail out of the harbor to make its way around Fisterra while we traveled inland to Santiago de Compostela.
According to legend, the body of Christ’s apostle James was discovered in this remote northwest corner of Spain in 813, and a magnificent cathedral was built to house his remains. Since the Middle Ages, Santiago de Compostela has become Christendom’s third most important place of pilgrimage, after Jerusalem and Rome. Millions of pilgrims have flocked here from all over Europe, crossing the Pyrenees at Roncesvalles or via Somport Pass.
We attended the noon mass and were able to witness the swinging of the botafumero, a huge incense burner that had the very practical purpose of making the church interior smell better when crowded with odoriferous Middle Age pilgrims. Hopefully, we were all bathing more often these days.
Afterwards, we had a delightful lunch at the Hostal de los Reyes Catolicos including many glasses of local wine, finishing with a cup of a flaming witches brew called queimada. All the while Vinnie Butler (our own personal warlock and archeaologist) dramatically read the Queimada Spell.
Satiated, we boarded the buses for a pleasant drive (and little siesta) through rolling granitic hills to the seaside town of Muros, an old fortified port and a major area for the harvesting of oysters and mussels. A short Zodiac ride delivered us back to our waiting ship.
