Santiago de Compostella: What happens after the Pilgrimage?

Reaching Santiago de Compostella is both exhilarating and sad. The trick is to bring home some of the calm and sense of interconnection found along the way.

We have had three nights in Santiago and since we couldn’t be enjoying buffet breakfasts and menus del dia all the time, we had the opportunity to see some of the sights. The roof top tour of the cathedral is not to be missed. It is a wonderful way to view the old city and also appreciate the older Romanesque features of the Cathedral. While on the top the Butofumiero was in action at the Pilgrim’s mass below us. We watched it swing up and almost hit our window. It is said to come within a meter of the side walls.

In the museum we saw one of the surviving originals of the Codex Callixtinus, the 12th century illuminated guide to Santiago. The last time we were in Santiago it had been stolen, but was recovered and is now back on view. For our Camino this year Gord and I relied exclusively on the information in this guide. Tips such as this warning about the Navarrese were particularly helpful. “In some places, like Vizcaya and Alava, when they get warmed up, the men and women show off their private parts to each other. The Navarrese also have sex with their farm animals. And it’s said that they put a lock on the backsides of their mules and horses so that nobody except themselves can have at them.”