Santiago de Compostela Take 2

In Santiago de Compostela, we saw many cool things. The first was a cathedral that people from all over the world walked to on a pilgrimage. The cathedral was over 1,000 years old. I think it is amazing that the cathedral is more than 4 times older than the United States. The church was huge. It had about fifty confession stands, gold and silver sculptures, and an especially big organ that looked gold. The cathedral was really pretty and also very tall. The rafters were 3 stories up with no floors in between. All these things together made the cathedral stand out like a bright star in the sky.

I saw symbols of the pilgrimage. They are the walking stick, a sea shell, and a water gourd. Another symbol is the incense burner from the cathedral. It is a silver pot hanging with incense which burns and smells nice. I saw the symbols everywhere. Stores were selling T-shirts, shoes, aprons, hats, furniture and dishes- all with pictures of the symbols on them. They also were selling trinkets that were models of the real things. Actually, in a few places, they were selling a full-size walking stick with the shell and gourd tied to the top. Some stores even sold jewelry like a necklace with the shell hanging from it and bracelets with pictures of the symbols.

The symbols and the cathedral were in a medieval town. The town had cool stores and buildings. It is amazing how different the culture in Europe is than the U.S. It is less modern and has and shows more history here. Medieval towns had lots of stone buildings. I know this because almost all of the buildings were made out of stone blocks. These buildings were turned into restaurants, tourist shops, and places where people sell souvenirs. The town had basically no cars and everybody walked on the narrow streets that were also made of stone, not pavement. It was fun to see this town. I had a really nice day. - Jack Rabbit