Santiago de Compostela (Saint James, in Galicia, Spain)

On the other side of the bridge we found two unpleasant surprises... The church of Padrón where the relics of Saint James were located was closed and in the square in front of the church there were two disgusting pieces of gay propaganda street furniture promoting the acceptance of transgenderism.

Above the church door it says in Latin: HIC FUIT CORPUS BEATI JACOB (Here is the body of Saint James).




If there is anyone here in the forum who is a resident of Galicia, please come by discreetly one night and spray paint that rubbish or stick up posters of Our Lady of Pilar with very strong glue.

 

Thank you so much, Basto. Your journey and photos are probably the only way this senior citizen will get to experience Santiago de Compostela.

 

As we did another 6 km after Padrón, the stage ended near the Church of Our Lady of Slavery (unfortunately it was closed), where the bus was waiting to take us back to Portugal.


Throughout the return journey we watched football match between Portugal and Turkey on our cell phones.

 

Hi Basto good to follow your pilgrimage. I did a few stages of the camino with family last year from Sarria to Santiago. In a few weekswe are going from Valenca to Santiago. We have some big walking days but we are also doing the celtic stages in Ireland which is 25km so if kids get tired they can get transport. We go from Valenca to Redondella then to Pontevedra where we stay in a beach house. We then walk to Caldas de Reis and stay for 2 nights, then on to Padron and finally Santiago. We have 5 walking days and a total stay of 9 says. Can't wait.

 

Ready for the last stage of the Portuguese way of Saint James. Tomorrow we will leave by bus from Lousada, in Portugal, at 6 am, towards Esclavitud, in Spain, because last time we already covered 6 km of the final stage after Padron. We are expecting showers along the way...




I expect to arrive at the Obradoiro square in the middle of the afternoon to enter and pray in the Cathedral of Santiago.

 

Yesterday morning we were lucky when we arrived at the start of the stage, the church of Church of Our Lady of Slavery was open.

 

A few showers but nothing that couldn't be tolerated, the temperatures were pleasant.

 

Many of those buildings that have gained some recent popularity on this forum. There are so many of them along all the Portuguese Camino to Santiago. They must all be empty at this time of year....

 

Almost there...


This time I met two nice people from Glasgow, a lady and her adult son with whom we had a couple of beers on a break along the way. They had a truly remarkable Scottish accent, even after their efforts to make themselves understandable to me and my colleagues.

 

Already in the city of Santiago:

 

Gorgeous photos.

 

Inside the cathedral:


A candle and a small prayer for all of you who accompanied me along this jouney. God bless and thank you, it was a pleasure walking with you.



Here's my personalised official pilgrim certificate from Santiago Cathedral:



THE END

 

Beautiful and thank you. I find it Godincidental that you posted the final destination, while there is a conversation about heaven opening up. The altar and art around seems like an attempt to display what the Glory of God is like when the veil comes off.

 

Basto
Thank you for your prayer and for sharing your remarkable pilgrimage. I would love to visit there but it doesn't seem to be on the cards for me. Still it was lovely to accompany you in spirit.

 

Ditto. Thanks a million to Basto.

 

I liked it so much that I want to take other alternative routes now.

 

Tomorrow morning, God willing, I will begin another pilgrimage on foot to Santiago de Compostela. This time, it starts at the Cathedral of Braga towards the Peneda-Gerês National Park, following an old monumental path called Geira Romana, an ancient path that connected the Roman city of Bracara Augusta (where Braga is today, Portugal) and Asturica Augusta (where today it is Astorga, Spain). This one is going to be tough.

The objective this time is not to reach Santiago de Compostela but only to the connection point with the last route taken.

 

May God be with you every step of the way.