Canary Islands, Morocco and Northern Europe cruise on Seabourn Ovation – Day 16 – Ferrol, Spain – Pics Part 1!

Fri May 10, 2024

Hi All! We docked in Ferrol, Spain today which is in the upper western corner of Spain in what they call the Galicia region. They say the weather is normally very rainy, sorta like Seattle, but today we had beautiful blue skies and not a drop of rain. Maybe that’s because we went to a church and hugged the statue of St James! (More about that later).

Today we did an all day trip to the place that draws millions of Christian pilgrims from around the world. We went to visit Santiago de Compostela which is the church where the apostle Saint James is buried. They say during a holy year, over 5 million pilgrims make the trek here. The main route (depicted in the movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen) goes from the Pyrenees Mountains in France along the northern coast of Spain to the church. To get an official stamped certificate that you did the walk, you have to walk at least 62 miles. Whew, sounds tiring! 

Legend has it that 1,200 years ago a monk followed a field of stars (probably the Milky Way) to this little town and discovered what appeared to be the long lost tomb of St James. On July 25, 813, they started building a church here and named it Santiago (St James) de Compostela (campo de estrellas, or “field of stars” for the celestial bodies that guided the monk). It took 150 years to build the church up to what it is today. 

As for the history of St James, he and his brother John were fishermen in Galilee when Jesus came to them and said, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They both threw down their nets and became apostles. After the death of Jesus, St James spent a decade as a missionary bringing Christianity to the farthest reaches of the known world, which back then was the Northwest region of Spain. 

The legend goes that as soon as he returned home to the Holy Land, in A.D. 44, James was beheaded by Herod Agrippa. Before his body and head could be thrown to the lions, as was custom in those days, two of his disciples brought his body back and entombed it in the hills of Compostela to hide it from the Roman authorities. There it lay hidden for almost eight centuries until the monk found it in 813.

We had a tour guide that was with us on the hour drive from Ferrol to Santiago explaining all the history. She also took us around the outside of the church and showed us all the buildings around the main square. One of the coolest things was seeing all the people who finished their walk all hugging and congratulating each other for this huge accomplishment. There were also large groups of walkers and bicyclists (yes you can do it by bike but you have to go a longer distance) all taking group pictures in front of the church. So cool!

We had a quick lunch of delicious tapas before our tour guide took us inside the church and explained all the details on the altar and the surrounding walls and rooms. But the coolest thing we got to do is follow the route inside the church that all the pilgrims do which was to walk downstairs beneath the altar to see the tomb of St James (it is small since it’s just an urn of his ashes) then walk behind the altar and hug the body of St James to thank him for your safe trip along the long pilgrimage trek. 

It was really an amazing and quite moving day seeing the beautiful cathedral and all the pilgrims. Now it’s back to luxury cruising! I’ll send an update out later after dinner. TGIF to all!