Dear cats, I said that I would tell you about S de C. I attended a medical conference, and nearly didnt get there because the bus company taking us to Heathrow hadn't got my ticket notification, so it was a £130 taxi from Birmingham at 5 am !
Arrived at Santiago airport, and no one speaks English, but we find a couple who know the city, and got a bus into the centre, where we got a taxi to our hotel. There was a problem in the hotel which seemed to be on fire when we arrived, but it was something to do with a boiler being welded ! Smoke in all rooms for 2-3 hrs, then we escaped out into the old city which was just accross the road. The streets around the Cathedral were tall, with arches all along the sides, with cafes and restaurants spilling out onto the walkways. The restaurants were predominantly seafood, which suited me, but bothered Caro, and octopuses lay upside down baring all, and tanks full of lobsters and crabs were on display. The city is quite romantic, and very old buildings with signs along the way towards the great square of the cathedral, which was floodlit at night, and looked glorious. We didn't go in that night ,but had a meal and wandered in and out ogf the tourist gift shops, listening to buskers in the square ,bagpipers by the cathedral. The food was excellent and reasonably cheap.
The conference was about rural doctors all over the world and their special problems. We arrived at the Palacio de Congressos by taxi at 9am and set up our accordions, and started playing generic folk tunes from differennt countries, and slowly others came along and got out their instrument and started playing. I did attend two lectures in all !, the rest of the conference was a long session, with a strong Scottish contingent, and the lads from Gallecia, who were doctors too, butplayed for a folklore group (very good dancers and costumes)
The food was excellent, and the amount of wine laid on was a constant temptation! We had a fabulous time


the Cathedral is spectacular, a mixture of middle ages and gaudy baroque, with one of those swinging incense burners that they had in the "mission" that swings all down the isles from side top side. You can see it on the Santiago official web site. The arch of Glory was memorable, carved for the original pilgrims from all over Europe in the 11th cent.
The pipers took Caro and myself out on the last night to an out of the way local eating house, where the host played pipes and accordion (badly) and the shack for that is w=hat it was was dirt floored and open through the roof beams to the stars, but it was packed ,and the food was definitely not vegetarian, I ate octopus for the first time, and survived, and there was lots of spare ribs, and wine, and then we took out our instruments and played for the diners. We got home at 3am and will remenmber it for always. Wonderful kind hosts, we were lucky that our hosts spoke a little English.
Thats enough of my tale I reccommend you try Santiago sometime.