My instructor Pablo is a native Gallician and has some very specific ideas about what our project is about. (Remember that we are supposed to be suggesting improvements to the final 12 km of the Camino de Santiago.) After listening to what we had come up with on Thursday, he threw out some ideas more in line with his thinking and then gave us until tomorrow (Monday) to come up with refinements and justification for one of those ideas.

Specifically, Pablo proposed that the enhancements to the camino should take the form of one of the following, each of which should be modular, seasonally applicable (available during the festival weeks during summer when the highest number of pilgrims come) and should benefit both the pilgrims and the people of Santiago:

• A solution for storage of backpacks, bikes, etc. after pilgrims complete the Camino.
• A solution for accessibility for those areas of the Camino inside the old city that involve stairs.
• A solution for bathing, washing.
• A solution for creating and storing stages, which are used during the festival.

For one reason or another, I am not feeling connected with any of these issues, so I kind of went off on a bit of a tangent (although, in a slight stretch, I could argue that my “problem” is related to bathing).

In short, I am proposing a public fountain that would allow pilgrims to wash their hands, faces and feet, and allow the children of Santiago to play. I’m thinking of something that combines pools, channels and waterfalls/streams. The water would be recycled and purified as part of the fountain.

If possible, I’d like to incorporate a way for pilgrims (or anyone really) to add a stone or water or something as a dedication to someone or something. The idea is that a pilgrim could complete their journey and then drop a pebble or small amount of water into the fountain to dedicate their walk to someone or something. I haven’t figured out exactly how to make this happen in a manageable and sanitary way though, so this aspect might have to be dropped.

I’d also like to have the fountain change based on the ambient temperature. When it is warmer outside, there would be more water falls and more opportunities for play in the water. When it is cooler, the fountain “contracts” and becomes more of a place of shelter, quiet bathing and enjoyment of the flow of the water.

I have found a really great site for the fountain — it’s on a fairly steep slope right outside the city walls, across from one of the tourist information offices (for the pilgrims) and next to a public library (for the children and people of Santiago). I spent a good deal of time yesterday mapping out the details of the site and documenting them.

We present our ideas tomorrow. As I said at the beginning, Pablo has very specific ideas regarding this project. So I’m guessing there is at best a 50% chance that I will end up going ahead with my idea. I’ll let you know in my next project post what happens.

Nothing really happened yesterday, so I’ll dive right into today.

Today we took a field trip out of Santiago to the Rias, which are inlets/bays that are a combination of salt and fresh water on the Atlantic coast. The Galicians do extensive farming of mussels and other aquaculture crops in the water, so they are an important part of the culture in this area.

We started out at Noia and took a boat (there’s a photo in today’s set) across the calm water to Muros. The map I have unfortunately has no indication of scale, so I can’t really tell how far that is. It took us about 4 hours, but we stopped for about an hour to swim and went pretty slowly the rest of the time. I imagine it is on the order of the trip from San Pedro to Catalina for my Southern CA people.

As far as swimming — I did not go in. I learned my lesson jumping into Lake Superior several years ago. No more swimming in really cold bodies of water for me. However, several of my classmates jumped in and swam around in the very salty water for brief periods of time.

When we arrived at Muros, we found a spot for lunch and ate some really excellent seafood. I had fish, although I could not tell you want kind it was — something white and large-ish.

After lunch, we drove along the hills next to the Ria (think of fjords without ice maybe) to a cemetary that is placed on the hillside. The cemetary was designed in the last 10-15 years and is so against the traditions of the area that no one is actually buried there. The hillside did have some lovely views though.

Finally, we drove just past the cemetary to the end of the world. Fisterra (translated from the Galician as “the end of the world”) is the westernmost point on the Iberian penninsula (and thus in Europe proper, not counting the island in the Atlantic — the Azores and Curacao etc.).

And now we are back and I’m ready to go to bed, although I still have a bit of work and one more post for you all. Photos from the trip today are here. (The passionflower is from around Santiago yesterday, but the rest are from today.)

Hi All,

I’m catching up again, first with Thursday and Friday, then today (Sunday) and finally a quick post about the project. Here goes…

Thursday morning we went to Bonaval Park designed by Alvaro Siza. The park, right next to Siza’s CGAC (the contemporary art museum) is very pretty and features a number of different sections — an open section, a grove of oak trees, the old cemetary and a small formal garden. The museum and park sit on what used to be part of the convent just outside the old city. Siza attempted to keep much of the land as it was, retaining paths, trees, fountains, etc. and only adding a few consistent elements to make it complete (some walls that blend entirely into the old ones, some trees, a couple of doorways).

After our trip to Bonaval Park, we got to see a stone work demonstration and got to try it out for ourselves. I did it too, but the photos of me didn’t come out very well, so I posted ones of my classmates.

Friday morning we toured Peter Eisenman’s Ciy of Culture, which is just south of the main part of town. The City of Culture is somewhat controversial group of buildings that are still under construction. The Wikipedia page is here as a starting place if you want to know more.

Photos from Thursday and Friday are here. Enjoy!

In the Compostelas program there are four groups of approximately 6-7 people (I think we will ultimately all be 7, but at the moment there are two students missing). Two of the groups are focusing on the problem of access to the City of Culture that sits just south of the old city of Sanitiago. That is not the project I’m working on and since it is fraught with subtlties, I’m not even going to try to go into it here.

The project I’m working on focuses on the last 12 km of the Camino de Santiago from the airport into the old city and to the cathedral itself.

So, a bit of orientation for those of you who aren’t up to speed about what Santiago de Compostela is all about.

Sometime about 813 AD a boat showed up on the Western coast of Galicia with some human remains that were purported to be those of St. James (the Greater) the apostle. The remains were taken to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela (which obviously had a different name at that time) and placed in the crypt there. As would be appropriate for a place that holds the remains of one of the 12 apostles, Santiago subsequently became a major pilgrimage site. It was a popular destination through the middle ages and then its popularity waned but a small number of pilgrims continued to visit. About 1993 the popularity of the pilgrimate to Santiago took off and since then it has become a major destination. If you are interested, there is TONS on the internet about the pilgrimage, called the Camino de Santiago, and a movie called “The Way” was released last year about it.

The Camino de Santiago (called St. James’ Way in English or “the Camino” for short) can be accessed by a number of routes, but by far the most popular is the one that begins in the southwest corner of France called the Camino Frances. For the purposes of our project, we are focusing on that piece, although it is important to know that there are many other routes. The Camino is particularly popular in the summer when travel is easy and there is special incentive to end the pilgrimage around July 25 (St. James’ Day). (This is why Santiago is currently crawling with tourists.)

Back to the project…

The city of Santiago has come to the Compostelas program to try to improve the last 12 km of the Camino Frances. This portion of the route starts at about the airport, travels about 6-7 km through the outskirts of town (that technically might be called suburban, but by my standards seem more like small semi-rural towns) and into the new portion of town and finally into the old town and the square in front of the cathedral.

All that is fine and good, except that no one seems to think that there is any real problem with the last 12 km of the Camino. The pilgrims are a bit disappointed, but apparently it is about the same as entering any of the larger cities on the route, and once at the Cathedral, everyone is so happy to have arrived that it doesn’t really matter.

My team and I walked from the nearest hostel (aubergue) into town along the main route of the Camino last night and although it’s a bit drab in places, there are no obvious issues that seem to require intervention on an architectural scale. So, I think at this time I’m going to focus on what happens just after the pilgrims arrive. If all goes well, I’ll post my problem statement tomorrow that will include my thinking on the project and what needs to be done.

There are several photos in the set that show the main points from the edge of the old town into the Praza do Obrodoirio (in front of the cathedral) and a couple at the very end that show the location that I’m thinking my intervention will occupy. (More on that in the next few days.)

I’ve tried to condense a TON of information into a very short post, so if you have questions or if I completely missed including some basic information, please post a comment and I’ll try to answer.

More tomorrow!

So I’m going to lump a few days together, but post a separate post about my project work.

Monday morning I started my program: the Compostela Architecture Institute or Compostelas for short. We started off with a welcome from the mayor and the director of cultural activities (or something similar) of Santiago de Compostela and then went up to the roof of the highest building in the old town to get oriented. After a break, we went to our lecture room and studio and were introduced to our instructors, the director of the program and our projects (more on that in the next post). Monday afternoon after lunch we had a lecture about the monastary where our classrooms are and a tour of the facility. Then we took a bus to see the “site” of our project and ended about 8:30p.

Tuesday the program gave us the morning off to do any errands (since we work during the times that shops are open) and anything else we wanted to. Then we had a lecture on the Manifestation of Ideology in Landscape — a topic I’ve never come close to thinking about before. Did you know that landscape wasn’t even a concept in Western cultures until the mid-Nineteenth century? It was kind of fascinating.

After lunch we were yelled at by our instructor and then he gave us a 90 minute lecture on Galicia, which was also really interesting.

Random facts:

• Galicia (the province where Santiago is) is approximately the same size as Tokyo.
• Galicia is the largest producer of Eucalyptus in Europe and has the largest Eucalyptus tree in the world (at over 50m tall)
• Galicia has approximately 3 million people and another 1 million Galicians live in Buenos Aires.
• Tectonically/Geographically Galicia was at one time a neighbor of New York and Ireland and thus has similar soil and rock conditions.
• The rias along the Western coast of Galicia are a mix of salt and fresh water in a way that is only found here, Chile and a small portion of Tokyo.

After our lecture, I walked about 5 km out of town on the Camino de Santiago and then back (with a detour to someplace that I still haven’t identified, but will try to ask someone tomorrow). I figure that yesterday I walked close to 15 km including the walk to class, back to the dorms, back to class and the Camino walk. Needless to say, I was pretty tired this morning.

Today is a national holiday, so everything is a bit unusual. We have no class, but we are definitely expected to make progress on our projects. I woke up late (I worked late and the walking apparently tired me out more than I thought) and then went to the cathedral square to observe the pilgrims arriving and to attend the pilgrim’s mass at noon. Since today is the festival of St. James, things were unusually crazy and some sort of important person attended mass at the cathedral, so the mass was delayed and then it may have been a regular mass and not the pilgrim’s mass. I will try again on Saturday to attend the pilgrim’s mass. I also spent a good deal of time sketching, thinking and trying to organize my ideas about my project.

In an hour or so I plan on heading back out to see the fireworks and the festival, which is similar in character (if not in size) to a fourth of July celebration in DC.

Photos are posted here.

So many things to share today!

First, I forgot to mention anything about the trains I rode on… From Barcelona to Madrid I rode a high-speed train (the AVE in Spain) — very similar to the Acela at home. From Madrid to Santiago there are no high-speed trains, so I rode the slow train. I believe that out of the 16-17 cars of the train there were four engines — one at each end (pointing different directions) and two facing each other in the middle. When we pulled out of Madrid we were travelling “backwards” and kept up that way for about and hour or a bit more. Then the train stopped and all the power went out (there was some explanation, but it was in rapid Spanish over an extremely poor audio system that was barely intelligible anyway). After a bit, we started up again, but in the other direction. At that moment, the engines pointing in opposite directions made sense! We must have been waiting for the tracks to be switched and the control of the engines to the two facing the other direction. Kinda cool.

The landscape of Spain (at least the part that I traveled — Barcelona-Madrid-Santiago) was largely dry rolling hills covered with small desert-like plants changing over to more mountainous tree-filled area in the north. I was surprised at how uncultivated or unmanaged most of the land was. There were some farms (particularly north of Madrid), but lots of the land seemed unpopulated. I’ll have to look up the population density of Spain, but it must be much lower than what I’m used to.

Last night when I got into Santiago de Compostela, I checked into my dorm room in Fonseca Hall about 9:30p and then went out to explore a bit. The Festival of St. James (the Apostle not the brother of Jesus, btw) is July 25 and things are already in full swing. There is a carnival just up the hill from my dorm that starts up about 9p and goes until after I’m in bed. Carnival apparently means the same here as at home — there are games, and rides (bumper cars and round and round things), cotton candy, roasted nuts, churros and lots of cheap goods for sale. Down in the old city there are tons of people walking around, eating, chatting and buying stuff in the stores that are open late for the festival. Apparently last night there was a free symphony, but I missed it. There are more concerts throughout the week, but I think most of the rest of them cost money.

This morning I went out again to find a market, the classrooms where my program will be held and the place where we will meet tomorrow. On my way, I ran into traditional Galician performers getting ready for a parade. If you’ve ever been to the Renaissance Faire, it’s a lot like that. Galicia (the part of Spain where Santiago is located) was populated by Celtic folks way back when and is very much influenced by their culture. The traditional music features bagpipes, tambourines and drums and dances that look extremely Celtic (think Riverdance, but in an old fashioned way). A lot of the architecture is also very Celtic and Gothic, which is an interesting combination.

This evening I wandered around a bit more and then got a snack at the carnival and headed back to my room. When I got to my room, there was a note from Jackie (who was another grad student at VCU), so I went to chat with her. Jackie completed the Camino (the pilgrimage to Santiago) a few days ago and had some great stories of her experiences.

And now, I must be off to bed. My program begins tomorrow morning, so I need to be fresh.

Photos from today are here. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I haven’t really seen anything of Madrid. Still feeling sick with stomach flu, I arrived yesterday afternoon by train, made my way to my hotel (the lovely Melia Castilla) and crashed.

This morning I ate my first meal in three days and shortly I will leave for the train station and my train bound for Santiago de Compostela.

I’m sad I missed seeing Madrid. I will have to return someday so I can see it.

As a side note, Jon’s missing luggage arrived in Barcelona yesterday just as he returned to DC. Hopefully it will eventually catch up with him there.

And that takes me up to the present. Unfortunately, I caught some sort of unhappy stomach thing yesterday and have been sleeping and taking it easy all day, so I doubt we’ll make it to any more sights.

Tomorrow Jon heads home and I head to Madrid for an overnight stay and then Saturday off to Santiago de Compostela. I’ll try to post something Saturday with news from Madrid.

Hope you all are well, wherever you are.

Wednesday we visited the Palau de la Musica Catalana, the gothic Cathedral and the Picasso museum.

The Palau was designed by Montaner (who also designed the Fundacio Antoni Tapeis building). It is in the heart of the city with buildings all around, yet manages to be filled with light. It is another beautiful example of Art Nouveau architecture (or more properly Modernisme, as the movement was called in Spain).

Wednesdays photos are here.

Sagrada Familia. Antoni Gaudi’s most famous work deserves every bit of praise it receives. Originally started in 1882 by another architect, in 1883 Gaudi took over and planned a basilica that would take nearly 150 years to complete (scheduled completion between 2030 and 2040).

It’s hard for photos to do justice to the building. It is a riot of shapes and figures and towers and structures. Everywhere you look on the exterior there is a scene or a saint or something of interest. Inside the ceilings are filled with small bursts, each with its own medallion in the center and columns like trees that grow up from the floor and then branch into the supports.

We rode up to the top of one of the towers and then walked back down taking pictures along the way. In all, we spent over 3 hours at Sagarada Familia.

I have posted a few photos to try to capture the experience. But like I said earlier, it’s not really possible without visiting in person. Check out the photos here.