May 14,2011

We began our day by walking over to the cathedral of St. James-Santiago.  This is the place where millions of pilgrims from all over the world travel to see the resting place of St. James the Apostle.  When we arrived in the cathedral, the mass for the pilgrims was just underway and we stayed for the service and were able to receive communion.  It was a beautiful and moving opportunity to see great faith in action:  old people, young families and lots of groups from all over.  The service was in Spanish, Portuguese and German, so we got most of it.  At least, we knew "where they were" in the service.  Afterwards, we did the guided audio tour and took lots of pictures.  We walked all over the area near the cathedral and we so blessed to have one of the nicest days ever in the rainiest city in Spain.

In the afternoon, we looked for a laundromat which turned out to be a total odyssey, but we found one, by divine intervention, an industrial laundry outside the tourist area.  The ladies agreed to do our laundry although we could clearly see they were mostly doing hotel laundry.  It was going to take about 3 hours to get the laundry done, so we decided on a whim to drive north to La Coruna.  That is where the lighthouse, a World Heritage site is located.  Originally constructed in the first century, the Hercules light house tower, has gone through several modifications.  La Coruna is in the far northwest corner of Spain.

In the evening, we had a nice dinner in a restaurant close to the hotel and sat next to a Jewish couple from New York, who also have a house in Wellington (Palm Beach County),  Marvin and Sherry have been to Spain many times, but this was their first time in Santiago.  We are off to Vigo and Porto in Portugal today.