That evening, we checked in at a nice, modern hotel, just ten minutes away from the Santiago de Compostela Shrine, but with a completely different atmosphere. It sits across a park and a small lake. The view from my room was beautiful and relaxing, but quite generic and devoid of any of the character that defines the city of Santiago. The walls were immaculately white with a chocolate brown and apple green motif on the room’s minimalistic furniture and décor. This unexpected

After covering the four corners of the Santiago de Compostela Shrine, my travel amigas and I decided it was time to have dinner. Galicia is known for its fine seafood dishes, most notably, the local octopus delicacy, Pulpo a la Feira . We walked a few blocks away from the cathedral, where there was a myriad of restaurants, bars, and cafes catering to the tourist crowd. We assigned one of our travel amigas to pick a place. I was excited to try the pulpo , so I asked her to ch

Although the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is impressive by itself, it is also surrounded by magnificent squares filled with distinguished monuments within the city's Old Town. The church, its grounds, and the outlying Santa Maria de Conxo Monastery, constitutes an extraordinary ensemble of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassicist buildings. This Old Town is not only a harmonious and very well-preserved historical city, but also a place deeply imbued

The most remarkable sight I witnessed while inside the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was the arrival of a group of pilgrims who had come to join us while we were in line to hug the statue of Saint James. They looked exhausted, sweaty, dusty, and dirty, but their faces exuded that special kind of ecstatic glow, their smiles were genuinely resplendent, and there were tears of joy in their eyes. They were simply beaming. I couldn’t describe the ethereal radiance that seeme

We knew we were getting closer to Santiago de Compostela as we saw more and more of the scallop symbols – on cardboard posters glued to sidewalks, or wooden signs nailed on tree trunks - and as we encountered more and more pilgrims by the roadsides. In a little over two hours, we arrived at the square facing the Cathedral of Saint James. It was bustling with activity. There was a huge group of bikers having a picnic party beside the pile of mountain bikes and equipment in one

Our first destination in Spain is Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia in the country's northwest region. This city is known as the culmination of the Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James). The Camino de Santiago is the collective name for the numerous Christian pilgrimage routes leading to The Cathedral of Saint James, the shrine dedicated to the apostle, Saint James the Great. This is the place where the remains of the saint are said to be buried. Since the Mid