Santiago de Compostela

When you figure that it takes about two of our dollars to equal one British pound, it soon becomes painfully apparent that things are mighty expensive in the United Kingdom. A traveler from the United States will get sticker shock the minute he arrives and has to change money. You would spend a pound in the U.K. as you would a dollar back home, but over there the greatly diminished value of our poor dollar makes every purchase twice as expensive.

We look back with nostalgia to our last visit to the U.K. in 1984. Then, the dollar was almost on a par with the pound. But even then, London was an expensive place to visit. Over the past couple of decades, costs have risen higher, and coupled with our money having taken a nose dive against the Euro and the Pound, we seem on this trip to be visiting the ATMs with greater frequency and lesser outcome.

Visitors to London who arrive at Heathrow Airport should know about the Hotel Hoppa Bus service, which takes arriving passengers and their luggage to hotels in the vicinity for the relatively small fare of four pounds per person. A whole lot cheaper than a taxi.

It was just a short ride to the hotel. We were going to spend one night there, before proceeding down to Southampton to join our cruise ship the "Sea Princess". This is an older vessel, having been built in Italy in 1998, and it would not be as steady in rough seas as one might have hoped. So no sooner were we out of The Solent and headed southwest in the English Channel than we were subjected to a stomach-heaving ride over the waves and swells.

It would take a full day's sailing to get all the way across the Bay of Biscay to our first port of call, La Coruña, set in the rugged coastline northwestern Spain. (The Spanish call the Bay of Biscay, el mar cantábrico, or Cantabrian Sea.)

La Coruña in Galicia is not what one would call a prime tourist destination. However, it does have the advantage of being the seaport closest to one of the major Christian pilgrimage sites in Europe, namely, Santiago de Compostela, now designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is the second most-visited pilgrimage site in the Catholic world, after Rome, and its famous Cathedral (Romanesque, with Baroque encrustations and enhancements added since the Middle Ages) is reputed to contain the remains of St James the Apostle. (St. James = Santiago in Spanish.) Compostela is derived from the Latin for 'field of the star', for legend has it that a star led to the discovery of the resting place of the saint's remains, upon which site the cathedral was built. The legend has a similarity to that of the Star of Bethlehem.

Here is a link to The Way of St. James (El Camino de Santiago):

Way of St. James

On several visits to the Iberian Peninsula, my wife and I had wanted to see Santiago de Compostela, and never did. We only wished we could have stayed a bit longer. There's much to see and to experience.

Interesting aside: the rugged coast west of La Coruña is called the Coast of Death, due to the number of shipwrecks along it.

The enormous square in front of the cathedral is called the Praza Obradoiro, and along one side of it is the famous Hostal dos Reis Católicos, built as a hospital by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and now a luxurious hotel, or parador. Facing the cathedral is the government palace, for Santiago is the capital of the province of Galicia. The historic old town center of Santiago yields much of architectural interest, and an easy walk will take you around the many monumental buildings and through side streets, where outside cafés and pastry shops young women offer samples of Galician cakes and sweetmeats, of which the best known is the tarta de Santiago, a delicious item particularly for those who, like me, possess an incurable sweet tooth.

Santiago's slogan: Donde la lluvia es arte (Where the rain is art).