20261103 Tuesday, November 3, 2026; Santiago de Compostela

 

20261103 Tuesday, November 3, 2026; Santiago de Compostela

The Viking-included excursion for this extension was a 2-hour walking tour which took us back to the center of the old town and through the Cathedral.  

The weather has turned cooler, dropping into the upper 40s at night and rising to the mid-60s during the day.  We have been very fortunate regarding the weather as Mariola says it usually starts raining in November and doesn’t stop until April.  The 10-day forecast shows rain starting Friday and continuing through the remainder of the 10-day forecast.  

It turns out the problem with our room’s air conditioning is that the air conditioning for the entire hotel is shut down in October, so we had to rely on opening the window and door to get our room cool enough to sleep.  The privacy bolt with a rolled-up towel kept the door open enough for cool air from the hallway to blow the hot air in our room out the window.  Fortunately, this time of year, there’s usually no problem with mosquitoes, and we were not bothered by any last night.  

The hotel’s breakfast was just OK.  Their version of bacon is cut thin and shaped like American bacon, but has the texture of magazine stock— very chewy and hard to eat.  They did have some cubes of almond cake, which is a regional specialty.  The hotel has them on sale for €23 for a 6” diameter cake.  It is good, tasting like marzipan but with the texture of a moist coffee cake.  The hotel relies on Nespresso disks to make coffee, although there is also a drip coffee maker carafe nearby.  Unfortunately, there was no automated espresso drink maker like the ship or other hotels had at their breakfast buffets. 

 

In addition to being cooler, there seems to be more wind today, so an extra layer would have been nice.  Our walk to the Cathedral took a different route so that we could get a better view of the Cathedral from a park nearby.  This park is at the top of the same hill that the Cathedral sits on, so we did have to climb a bit initially to get up to the park. There was an enormous eucalyptus tree on the edge of the park with the best view of the cathedral and city center.  There is a dense oak forest in the park as well.  

Since the park was at the top of the hill, we ended up approaching the Cathedral from a different direction along a fairly flat elevation.  There are quite a few art sculptures along the path in the park.

There was a colorful statue of two petite women at the edge of the park.  This painted bronze statue memorializes a pair of sisters (Maruxa (María de la Asunción) and Coralia (María Coralia) Fandiño Ricart - Two Marias) who walked through the Alameda park every day at 2 p.m. in colorful hand-stitched fashions.  

Their brothers were forced into exile for opposing the fascist Franco regime.  The sisters faced persecution and abuse because of their brothers’ liberal activities, but they became local icons of the city from the 50s to 70s.  They passed away in the 1980s.  

We are at the very tail end of the pilgrimage season, and while there are a lot of people in trekking gear, and some porters lugging huge piles of backpacks around the city, the square in front of the cathedral was sparcely populated.  In the summer, at the height of pilgrimage season, it can nearly be standing room only in the square.

The Cathedral has evolved over the ages, having gone from a utilitarian Romanesque style to having later Baroque and Gothic elements added over the years.  What had stood as the cathedral in medieval times was off to the right of today’s main cathedral, shrouded in scaffolds and tarps.  It is undergoing restoration in preparation for a big celebration in 2027.  The added Baroque style elements usually emphasize symmetry and perfection, but the pediment at the top of one corner pillar seems to be malrotated several degrees. 

Left corner Baroque oopsie.

A statue of St James (Santiago) stands at the center of the Baroque facade, flanked by two of his disciples. 

The main entrance to the cathedral is actually through a side gate that is currently also undergoing restoration, so we entered from another entrance covered in tarps and scaffolding between the old and newer parts of the cathedral.  The oldest tower, which is the one shrouded in tarps and scaffolding, is a clock tower.  The two towers of the main newer cathedral are bell towers. 

There are other towers that seem a bit out of place in the complex that have a unique square stepped shape which may have been influenced by Aztec and Mayan architecture from the Americas.

Aztec or Mayan vs Baroque

Our tour inside the cathedral started at the back of the Cloister where the public bathrooms are located (of course).  There is what appears to be a set of spare bells sitting in the vast courtyard.  

The next two stops in our tour did not allow photography.  These were the library and museum.  The library contained ancient bound volumes, most of which were handwritten, and many in giant font sizes that would allow an entire choir to read them from a distance.  We learned that the pyramid-shaped structures we have seen in other cathedrals are just fancy book stands for these giant volumes.  

There were also a pair of silver incense burners (Botafumeiro) nearly 2 meters high.  One of these is hung from the center of the cathedral and swung in a 65m arc, reaching speeds of 68 kph and heights of 21m.  When filled with charcoal and incense, they weigh 80kg.  Legend has it that on July 25, 1499, Santiago’s Day Mass, the rope broke mid-swing while Catherine of Aragon was present, sending it crashing out the window.  Well, myth busters dug a bit deeper into the legend and found that it just smashed into the south door, and not out through the rose window.  Still, videos of the swinging Botafumeiro are insane.  

Why did they send this 80kg smoldering orb flying through a crowded cathedral at 68kph?  Word has it that if you fill a cathedral of that size with thousands of pilgrims who have just trekked over 100km without a bath, there was a great need for a great deal of incense to cloak the smell of body odor.

There are all manner of gold and silver ecclesiastical accoutrements used in ceremonies in the cathedral museum, another area that forbids photography.  A centerpiece of this collection is the jewel-encrusted silver cape that the statue of St. James used to wear at the center of the Cathedral. This statue sits above the tomb containing his remains, and it is customary that pilgrims are allowed to walk behind this statue to give St. James a hug from behind.  However, when the church began noticing bits of the silver and jewels disappearing from the cloak, it was put into safe storage while an imitation was left out to face the public.  

Courtesy Museu Santiago de Compostela website

There is also a chapel filled with holy reliquaries attached to the museum.  These reliquaries boost the spiritual power of the Cathedral like the ultimate collection of power-ups.  

The Cathedral itself is huge and a mixture of styles blending Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque periods in various portions of the structure. 

 

The central altar featuring a statue of St. James wearing the gem-encrusted silver cape in closed within a box at a distance looks a bit like the Zoltar fortune-telling machine from the movie Big, but if you watch closely, you can see people moving around behind the statue.  At first, we thought these might be artists working on restorations for the big upcoming 2027 celebration, but in fact, anyone can give St. James a hug.  

We were taken first on a tour under the central altar into the crypt where a massive silver reliquary contains the remains of Santiago.  

Then we emerged from the opposite side of the crypt and climbed a steep staircase to end up directly behind the statue, which is life-sized.  No photos are allowed in this area, but there is a pedestal behind the statue that allows pilgrims to step up and put their arms around the statue’s shoulders.  

An enterprising pair could arrange for one to stand at the ready at the end of the cathedral with a telephoto lens while the other peered over the statue’s shoulder for a selfie with the Saint.  But that wasn’t to be us today.

While we were visiting, there was a professional film crew shooting footage for some sort of program.  This caused a bit of congestion in places, but the crew did move quickly and efficiently, getting what they needed with minimal takes.  This wasn’t some Tom Cruise shooting with motorcycles blasting through the cathedral, but it might have had him swinging from a flaming Botafumeiro.  

Our local guide “Micky” did point out the convent behind the cathedral where nuns remain cloistered from contact with the outside world, but who are at least partially funded by baking almond cake and cookies.  

These are sold from a tiny window at the back door of the convent where you have to ring a bell and a nun slides open a tiny wooden window.  You place your order and she disappears for a moment, then reappears with your order in a plastic bag and a credit card reader in hand.  

It was a little like ordering takeout from Harold’s Chicken Shack in Chicago where your order gets taken through a bullet proof glass partition and your order appears on the bullet proof turntable.  Gotta protect those nuns’ virtue.  But it was kind of ironic to see this tiny nun in this medieval nunnery holding a tap to pay credit card terminal. 

 
We wandered down to the office where pilgrims are given their certificates of completion, but there was some serious security and no one without the requisite stamps of proof was allowed to even peer inside the office.  But it looked like any other administrative facility like a post office from what we could tell.  

Not pilgrims.

Bagpipers welcome pilgrims to Cathedral Square

We headed back to the hotel and got in a nap.  Tomorrow, we will have to have our luggage out by 5 a.m., and head to the airport in Vigo by 5:30 a.m.  


20261102 Monday, November 2, 2026; Porto to Braga and Santiago de Compostela

20261102 Monday, November 2, 2026; Porto to Braga and Santiago de Compostela

We had packed up most of our suitcase contents in the afternoon, so it was pretty easy to get the toothbrush bag and chargers zipped in and out into the hallway before 8 a.m.  There were passengers who had early morning flights that had to get off the ship in the small hours of the early morning.  We were able to have a normal breakfast while the ship’s crew was busily turning over staterooms and even deep disinfecting a section of the dining room.  

We were part of a group of 10 passengers doing the post-cruise extension to Santiago de Compostela.  Somehow, someone figured out in the 9th century that the Apostle James was buried in a tomb.  Ever since this discovery, Santiago de Compostela has been a pilgrimage site for Christians, ranking alongside Rome and Jerusalem as the three great holy cities of Christianity.  The sea shell markers we saw in Lisboa and Porto all point to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the Apostle St. James (Tiago in Spanish and Portuguese) lies in a tomb.  The pilgrimage is called the Camino de Santiago.  

We were pleasantly surprised that instead of getting jammed into a Sprinter van, we had a whole Viking 40-passenger coach to ourselves.  This made for a very comfortable drive.  

Our first stop was a visit to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, which is literally Good Jesus on the Mountain.  

This Sanctuary sits atop a hill overlooking Braga with a series of monumental steps similar to the Sanctuary in Lamego we visited on Halloween.  Our bus drove us to the very top, but did not give us the option of getting picked up at the bottom.  We toured the Cathedral and Sanctuary at the top, enjoyed the view of Braga from this vantage point, and then continued on to the city of Braga.  

The cathedral and sanctuary were notable for having much more meticulously groomed gardens and grounds.  There was an odd man-made grotto in one of the gardens, complete with fake stalactites and a stream.  

Within the Romanesque cathedral, the main altar had a giant life-sized diorama of Jesus’s crucifixion day, complete with some Roman soldiers having a picnic in the foreground.  In a side chapel, there was a display that was a library of saints, but which at first glance looked like something out of Disney’s “It’s a Small World”. 

 

The Sanctuary apparently has a hydraulically operated funicular that more often than not is broken.  We did not get to see that or appreciate the steps, but there was an art exhibit commemorating the art of postcards depicting the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte that had pictures of these features.  

There was a bathroom, but even for us Viking excursion visitors, there was a 0.50€ toll.  Fortunately, there is a toilet on the bus.  

It was a long winding drive back down off the mountain to the center of Braga.  Braga was the capital of the Roman province Gallaecia.  Today, it is host to the oldest Portuguese archdiocese, and for us, our last chance to buy Portuguese souvenirs.  It is, of course, on the Camino de Santiago route.

We were dropped off near the center of town and walked through the ceremonial gate to the core of the medieval city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  We walked up the narrow streets to the Cathedral, which we got to tour.  There were bathrooms that were by voluntary donation only.  Since we have been traveling without euros, this was a bonus feature. 

 

The Braga Cathedral was consecrated in 1089 under the devotion to Santa Maria de Braga.  Its core is Romanesque, with Baroque flourishes added in the 18th century.  This included painted ceiling frescoes which had been subsequently removed or destroyed as ecclesiastical decorating tastes evolved over the centuries.  But some have been restored and now remain under UNESCO World Heritage site protections.  

There is an incredibly ornate organ in the choir covered in gold leaf.  Among the decorative elements of the organ is a precursor to Chuck E. Cheese’s animatronic characters in the form of an angel that waves its hand under the control of the organist to engage the audience.

There is an ornate clock high above the entrance that would make it convenient for the priest to know exactly what time it was during mass.

The tomb of Infant D. Afonso (1390-1400) is adjacent to the entry at the back of the church.  He was heir to the throne of Portugal. 

In a side yard lies surplus bits and pieces of the cathedral that have accumulated over the ages, including a pagan image of a sun god dating to pre-Christian Roman times.  
There was another depiction of Mary helping adolescent Jesus with some homework in this cathedral.

After touring the cathedral, we had 2 hours of free time to have lunch and do some shopping.  We had a picnic in a beautiful garden behind the cathedral on the city square, and Janet got her final Portuguese souvenirs from a shop recommended by our Viking guide. 

These included a new Portuguese tablecloth to supplement/replace one Janet had bought in Portugal 50 years ago while traveling during college, and a cork hat.  Ben got a Braga bottle opener so we could pop open some Coca-Cola bottles with our lunch. 

When we crossed the border from Portugal to Spain, our clocks jumped forward an hour because Spain is on German time. It seems strange that Spain didn’t revert to the same time zone as Portugal and most of western Europe after joining the EU.

The bus made a rest stop in Vigo at 3:30 p.m., a large city on a bay open to the Atlantic.  There are lots of aquaculture rafts growing mussels in Vigo.  These were familiar to us because Taylor Shellfish grows blue mussels in Penn Cove, which is literally our backyard.  

The truck stop actually was very clean, bright, and had a decent cafeteria-styled restaurant and free clean bathrooms.  Our outbound flights from Spain will be out of Vigo to Madrid, and then from Madrid to the US.  

We arrived at the Palacio del Carmen hotel in Santiago de Compostela around 5 p.m.  The hotel does not really look like a hotel from the outside.  That’s because part of it was a tannery during medieval times and part of it was a convent for the Oblate order for over 100 years. The layout is a bit strange and has the rooms running down a single long corridor with rooms on one side accessed by skybridges reminiscent of a medieval gaol or prison.  

But once we found our room, it was inviting enough.  It was equipped with two twin beds pushed together but made separately.  This seems to be a common European hotel phenomenon. The bathroom was equipped with a European bidet, which is something we don’t often see.  The room was stuffy, so the air conditioning is a bit weak.  The window opens, but we were afraid of letting bugs in, so we left the window closed and hoped the air conditioning would catch up as the evening cooled down.  

We explored the hotel and found a small gym and pool, as well as a peek-a-boo view of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral towers in the distance.  The Cathedral is supposedly just a 7-minute walk from the hotel.  

We put that to a test as our guide Mariola took us on an orientation walk which took us right to the Cathedral.  She did point out a few restaurants along the way, including two with Michelin stars, but both would not open until 8:30 p.m.  The custom in Spain is to have the main meal midday, followed by siesta, and then a light meal in the late night.  

Building owned by the Church.

Low doorways

The sun was setting as we arrived at the front of the Cathedral.  This is situated on the main town square, opposite of city hall.  There was a tent city erected in front of the city hall.  These weren’t religious pilgrims, although some pilgrims do sleep in tents.  

These were political protestors, protesting policies, housing shortages, and high living expenses, as has been going on throughout Europe over the past month or two.  A lot of this unrest was triggered by rising costs associated with Trump’s war in Iran.  

We did not enter the Cathedral as this is the plan for tomorrow’s formal tour.  Mariella did take us to a couple of restaurants that she could recommend that were open early for dinner so we could eat and get to bed at a decent hour.  

We ended up eating at Taberna Montes where we ordered grilled octopus, mussels, and fried potatoes.  The grilled octopus and potatoes were both quite good, while the mussels were a bit dried out and not served with any liquid.  We are used to having mussels served with a generous portion of wine and herb broth and crusty garlic bread.  We ended up washing down the mussels with the local Estrella Galicia beer.  While we dined, two other couples of our tour group eventually wandered in to have dinner as well.  

We browsed through some gift shops on the way back to the hotel, but took a wrong turn and ended up going a mile down the wrong street before we used Google Maps to navigate back to our hotel.  Thank goodness for e-SIM data plans and Google Maps.  

Tomorrow we do our official Santiago de Compostela tour, which will be entirely on foot, in the spirit of doing our own mini Camino de Santiago.