The last in the previous evening (1:30 A.M.) were the first
up and out Saturday morning. We had decided the evening before that we would
take an overnight visit to Porto, Portugal on Sunday and Monday. I decided to
join Donna to get tickets. We had walked to the old town by 8:30 A.M. and ALSA
bus ticket office was the same place as the pilgrim’s destination. Pilgrims
lined up for their “official stamp”, and in the mean time we found a hostel
called “Suso’s”. We later found out that “Suso” was a nickname for “Jesus”. “Hey,
Suso,” I guess they would shout. Tickets for Porto were 45 Euro each, round
trip. We would leave at 10 A.M. Sunday and come back at 7 P.M. on Monday.
I saw that there was an archeological tour as a part of the
visit to the Cathedral Museum. I talked Truckee into joining me. We later found
out that tours were only given early in the morning, nevertheless we opted for
the museum. The most interesting part for me was the beginning. Apparently a
lot of digging had been done under the cathedral and a large intricate map
labeled major findings. We could hardly read anything. Yet we surmised that
before the Cathedral was built there was a church there and before the church,
probably a Druid burial ground as there were illustrations as if bodies had
been found together.
As I may have mentioned previously, the Cathedral was built
in successive waves. An impressive part at the beginning of the tour was a
reconstruction of a priest’s conclave. They sat, maybe 30 of them around three
parts of a rectangle in a highly formal and ornamented setting. The parts had
apparently collapsed many hundreds of years before and it was lovingly
reconstructed with molds from the old parts.
Among the more interesting items in the museum were a
collection of relics of the kings of Spain in a variety of reliques. God knows
what they saved. There were large
tapestries, several of which designed by Goy; an archive of books, some of
which seemed very old- some religious, of course, but also some about nature, geography
and science. More than the items themselves I enjoyed the internal architecture,
the cloister where three large bells were stored, successive floors and room
that may have used as a refectory, dormitories, meeting rooms and perhaps even
private residences for priests. At one
point we were able to come in several places on porticos and take in new views around
the Cathedral and square.
After the museum Truckee and I meandered around some of the
old streets and found new interesting nooks. I found a store that showed
traditional Galician costumes and I know that Donna was interested so I tried
by way of photos to describe its position. Donna got lost looking for it, so my
efforts were not so successful. Truckee and I wandered out of the old town and
found an alternative way home that featured some less appealing and more modern
architecture. Truckee did love the look of the abandoned hospital and tried to
enjoin me to explore the inside. I had no desire.
We have become accustomed to a
daily sometimes light, sometimes heavy rain shower. This happened as we were
walking back. Fortunately it never got to be more than a minor annoyance. Two
days before I had walked to the other side of town to find a grocery store.
This day Truckee showed me one right in the neighborhood. I had hoped to buy
some fish, as I had seen them fresh in the market, but alas, only frozen. I
bypassed the frozen food for some chicken, vegetables and of course a bottle of
wine.
If it seems that I going on and on
about every day details, I am. I am sitting on the bus from Porto, Portugal to
Santiago, with an abundance of time and more stories to tell. I will cut to the
chase by summarizing the day and moving on.
I cooked dinner- much appreciated
by the family- we conversed, took photos. Then Donna and I went out again to
look for live music. We found it in the cellar of a tavern called Agramoda. We
squeezed ourselves into the middle of the crowd and listened to several gaita
players, a tambora, a traditional snare, which I hope to take up soon and a
bass drum. A young man was showing a
young woman how to play the drum. Before long she was proving herself quite
descent on the instrument. Some players traded instruments, and played just as
fluently on each.
No comments:
Post a Comment