Still a great Monday

I am writing this for the second time. I was about two paragraphs into this when all of a sudden the computer in the internet cafe bit the dust. I was writing about the mass we attended this afternoon.... I don´t think I said anything powerful enough to blow up a computer. We left here a few minutes before noon to attend the pilgram´s mass at the cathedral. History says that St. James´remains were brought here in the first century BC on a stone boat and buried at the site of the cathedral. A man was led there by a guiding light (which the city is named after)and the church decided to begin a cathedral which pilgrams having been coming to see for 1,000 years. Today´s pilgrams walk a minimum of 100 kms, or bike double that with designated low cost accomodations and meals along the way, then they are given a special mass every day at noon and a certificate of completion. The 1000 year old cathderal is majestic (photos to follow) and huge and it was full to the gills with pilgrams and tourists. Today is the anniversary of Mike´s father´s passing so it was nice to have a special church to attend. We loved the mass although we had to stand (the seats were taken when we go there) and we didn´t understand a word of the service.

We are trying to get a new SIM card for Mike´s phone this afternoon. The Portuguese phone doesn´t work in Spain, so we are starting over. I won´t post the number on the blog, but send an ´-mail if you want to call us and we will send our phone number once we get it. Hopefully this number will work throughout Europe and we won´t find ourselves starting over in each country.

We love this little town and our noisy little space above the square so we are going to do our best to get another night or two. The proprieter of our hotel speaks no English, but he found help to translate for us the day we got here, so hopefully we will make our wishes to stay known somehow. The Spanish don´t seem to understand any English, unlike most of the Portuguese we met that worked in customer service. I wonder if it is the difference in TV... since they don´t hear any English on TV like the Portuguese they don´t seem familiar with our requests. They treat us well enough and we make ourselves known using the few phrases we know, pointing to the menu and looking things up in the phrase book we brought along.

You´ll all be happy to know that the weather has cooled down. It is expected to be in the 70s here all week. We may never leave!

The hours things are open take some getting used to. The stores all close between 2-4:30, but most places stay open until 8 or so. We are going sightseeing this evening to see the sights that are all open until about 8.00. We know from the noise on the plaza below last night that we won´t be sleeping until around midnight, so we may as well adjust to the later day- sleeping til 9:00 then staying up later. Our children are all laughing to read this part, because we go to bed ¨so early¨usually.

We have been living on ham and cheese. As a welcome change, Mike wanted to try a pizza last night. We thought we ordered a cheese pizza only to find pieces of ham and pineapple on it- another ham and cheese meal in way too long a succession. This hotel does not serve breakfast, which seems more common in Spain, so we are saved the obligation of eating ham and cheese every breakfast because we have already paid for it. This morning we went to a msall cafe and successfully ordered our coffees and Mike´s croissant. Deanne´s toast was not expected to be fried bread, but that will be the last time I order toast in a restaraunt. We have committed to a good dinner tonight at my request, so Mike says he will go along with an octopus looking menu on my behlf tonight. We´ll see what we end up with- but it won´t be until after 9:00 when the dinner hour beings. More on that tomorrow.

Well, we are off to the phone store and the sights. Later...
Love,

deanne