Today is Monday, May 5th so first off let me wish you all a very Happy Cinco De Mayo from Vigo, Spain. It's day ten of our adventure and seventh day on board the Eurodam. Today started out much like any other day so far, the weather is great – perfect weather for shorts, which suits me just fine. We arranged with HAL for a tour to Santiago De Compostela to visit the St. James Cathedral. People from all over the world make their way to the world’s third most important pilgrimage site. For example, many French citizens regularly make this pilgrimage on foot – a distance of over 750 kilometers to visit this religious shrine.

Religious folklore says that everyone who enters the cathedral immediately has all sins forgiven – that being said, Deb thought she saw a bright blue light and a puff of smoke surround my body when I walked through the huge metal doors. I hoping that the big guy upstairs has reset the sin meter and that I’m good to go for the last 20 or 30 years that I have left.

We managed to make it inside for the 12:00 noon mass. In the pew that I selected there was a BOSE speaker directly next to me on one of the huge stone columns that delivered some of the most heavenly music and singing that I’ve heard in such a long time – so I took the opportunity to record some of this music thinking that I would overlay these to my pictures taken inside the cathedral - more on that later. Seems that the Spanish security people inside the church didn’t appreciate my photography methods. During mass one guard seemed to hone in on me specifically warning me twice, he said it was three times in his broken English and gave me ine final ultimatum – "one more time and you’re out". So much for being sinless.

After mass they perform what is called “Sensor”. What this means is they have very large solid silver incense burner about 5 feet tall that is hung on a huge rope from the very tallest place in the ceiling and operated by seven men dressed in burgundy robes. They start this thing moving and get this sucker swinging about 100’ over the heads of the faithful in an arch that covers the entire nave of the church. The traditions of Sensor got started back in the 1700’s when the pilgrims regularly slept in the church overnight after their pilgrimage so this custom was started in order to diffuse the smell of unwashed bodies that permeated throughout the church.

Freshly removed from all my sins Deb and I headed into the old town for lunch and some Wi-Fi as I had a relatively urgent need for the facilities. Getting our order in I proceeded to the “banos” where I sat peacefully. Within a few seconds I started to hear this heavenly music and I thought “that’s odd” they’re playing the same music that I had heard in the church minutes earlier. I looked around for speakers but could find none. I thought could this might be another sign from above. No it wasn’t. The music was coming from my pants. I guess I turned on the recorder as I was in getting in position. Oh well so much for miracles. Other than some pictures and some window-shopping we returned to the bus for our one-hour trip back to Vigo.

I consider myself pretty well traveled having been to so many fantastic places on this planet. Of our ports of call on this trip alone we’ve hit – Cartagena - Sintra – Vigo – Cascais - and over the next couple of days Portland and Cherbourg – places I’ve never heard about….ever. These places all have their specific heritages, commerce, modern architecture which is a delightful contrast to thousand year old buildings. After spending just a brief moment in these places my eyes have been opened just that much wider. Our trek never continues to be linear – instead our parachute continues to remain open consistently with unlimited and unique opportunities that we grab a hold of daily. Travel is amazing.

Our brief stay in the Galicia area of Spain was an enjoyable one. Our floating hotel is now bound for Portland, England after one full sea day tomorrow. I’m still number rated #3 on the Black Jack Tournament so we’ll see if my cash totals hold up one more round before I have to get back in to boost my numbers beyond $2,000.

Thanks Everyone – your comments are appreciated – I’d like to know that someone is actually reading this drivel.