One more day in Santiago

 I had a bad night with a migraine.  Not sure what caused it.  I don't think it was something I ate because a migraine from ingesting corn usually rears its ugly head within half an hour of eating.      Perhaps too much stress from trying to figure out where to stay in Madrid?    That was a total pain.   The phone in my room wouldn't work right and the front desk was no help at all.    Then first thing this morning they said I had to change rooms,  They said something about a mistake and I shouldn't have been in that room.   I went to the other room and it's the size of a shoe box!!   Ha! no way I was going in there.  

So, I had to go find another place.    Then I had to wait for the room to be cleaned, so I went to the Cathedral to find Saint James.   You know the one in the movie that is right inside the door? Well after a bunch of running around trying to find someone that spoke English, I found a security guard, dragged her to the tree of life and ask where St James is.    I pointed at the bottom of the tree to this guy in the below picture and she laughs and points up to the top of the tree.   There he is, standing on top the tree of life. 20 feet in the air.

Who this is,  I have no idea.

So this is him.    If he knew how many times we walked around the cathedral looking for him I am sure he would be laughing.    

So in the movie the Canadian girl lays her cigarettes at the feet of St. James. What was she a 30 foot tall amazon?    I was going to put my cigs at his feet but they wouldn't let me climb the tree so this is the best I could do.

And then I really showed my intelligence.    I asked the security girl where the statue was of St. James  that you are suppose to bump heads with to gain some of his wisdom.     It turns out that on the other side of the tree of life is the architect of the Cathedral,  and he is the one you are suppose to bump heads with.    But, he was gated off so I gained no wisdom from him.   Which is too bad because at this point I was thinking that I needed lots.    I did reach over and slap him in the head for making me look like a fool.  The security girl just laughed at me of course, so I did give someone a good laugh at my expense. I guess I should have done a wee bit of reading before I went there instead of believing characters in a movie.

Then I played the tourist and went to a museum

I loved the carving on these doors that's why I went in.

And this is the name of the place

Yah it's a church

They had a bunch of different alters from different churches here some dating back to the 900's

All that I could think about were all the poor people out there, and they were gold plating everything

The organ and the ceiling

They had a printing press from the 1400's with a bunch of engraved plates

The press

And a bunch of old paintings.   Something to do with a scene from the bible

And a bible from the 1430's

And a lot of wood carvings from way back in the 12th century

The detail was great

And like always there are shells.    The lines in the shell represent all the different paths that are taken by pilgrims that come together in the same place.    I am not sure whether the shell is from when The Way was a pagan pilgrimage to the End of the World or if it was started by the Catholics when they redirected it to The Cathedral of St. James.    

I did two blogs yesterday, so be sure to check the older posts.