Back from Santiago

[Rosina Lila]

Hi Sue,
       It would appear that Santiago was unusually people-free last week
because of the rain.
       Except for a couple of hours each day, it rained constantly the six
days that I was there.  It wasn't cold, though, (between forty and fifty
degrees) and the rain shifted from a soft mist to fairly strong precipitation.  This
rendered the city and its cobbled streets onto glistening splendor in the
winter light.  It was just gorgeous.
       The New York Times had an article sometime ago stating that the three
most beautiful squares on earth are Saint Mark's in Venice, the central piazza
in Siena and Obradoiro in Santiago. While one would have to be blind not to
be dazzled by Saint Mark's Square, and terribly blase not to be impressed by
the Siena Square, Obradoiro, in my view, stands unique.
       I was told that a Mass would be held in the Salvador chapel, behind
the altar, at 7:30 a.m., and that the officiating priest and attendant would
probably open, if asked, the little chapel close by where the statue  of Sto.
Domingo de la Calzada stands.  Because of this I went to that early Mass. It was
still night-black at 7:30, and daylight was only beginning to appear at about
8:30 when I came out of the Cathedral onto Obradoiro. The square was
shimmering softly in the dawnish light in silence; I was transfixed by its beauty and
that of the buildings framing it, and  thinking about the New York Times
article it was clear that Obradoiro does not bear any comparisons and stands unique.
 While St. Mark's and Siena's piazzas are ringed by stores and restaurants
Obradoiro is not...... it is just its majestic self.
       The Cathedral's museum has enlarged the full size reproduction of
Maestro Mateo's original stone choir and it has added a miniature of it with full
explanatory illustrations.  The museum's arcaded balustrade facing Obradoiro
was not open to museum visitors because the museum is maintained at certain
climatic conditions and opening doors to the balustrade would cause the outside
humidity to damage the tapestries.  However, more room at the Bishop's palace
are now open to visitors.
       I should have mentioned in the previous message that when the
Botafumeiro was brought out for the 10:30 Mass last Sunday there was no organ music
being played; because those of us attending  Mass  were relatively few, the
church was very quiet and the only sound was the whizzing of the Botafumeiro as it
flew and flew,... somewhat longer than usual. It was electrifying.
       A Santiago woman told me, after Mass, that the Botafumeiro weighs 60
kgs. (120 pounds), and that its cord has strands of steel woven into it. She
also regaled those of us who were listening with the stories of the two times
that the Botafumeiro has broken off the cord while in full flight.
       To answer some of your questions, while the Reyes Catolicos Parador is
very beautiful and terribly convenient, unless one gets a room on the second
floor in the back cloisters it does tend to be noisy. Also, it is very large,
almost always full and fairly impersonal. A few steps away (literally). In
Travesia Dos Portas (the arches alongside the Cathedral where usually somebody is
playing pipes) there is a small hotel that I cannot recommend highly enough.,
The hotel is called "As Artes" , (The Arts), it has only 12 or 14 rooms that
are named after one artist or another, and it is run by a husband and wife who
had a similar exquisite hotel in the Latin Quarter in Paris but got homesick
for their native Galicia, and when the small building became available they
seized it.  It is a treasured find and it is placed right next to the Cathedral.
Despite its unbelievable location it is blessedly quiet and, better yet, it
costs only about one-third of what a room at the Parador would cost.
       Well, warm regards for now.
Rosina
p.s., reportedly, the 5,000 (five thousand) pipe players than convened in
Santiago to play together in 1999, will, gain, salute the 2004 Jacobean Holy
Year.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.oakapple.net/pipermail/gocamino/attachments/20031205/ab6debd5/attachment.htm