Day 31. A day in Santiago

A sleep in. What a luxury. Unfortunately the weather was grey and scattered showers. Typical in this part of Spain in autumn. A feature of completing the Camino is a fancy certificate, in Latin with our name printed, issued by the main Cathedral. We had been advised to register online prior to our arrival and all went very smoothly. A five minute wait and all was sorted. Spanish bureaucracy at its abnormal best. Souvenir plaques were also purchased so a solid/ tangible reminder of our journey.
An essential part of arriving in Santiago is attending a pilgrim mass at the beautiful Praza Obradoiro Cathedral. We joined a very long entrance queue and even though we got inside 40 minutes prior to the service commencement we still had to stand. A moving service followed, mainly in Spanish but we still felt very much part of it. The highlight is the swinging of the giant incense burner 'Botafumeiro'. Originally used to fumicate the sweaty and possibly disease-ridden pilgrims. Not us of course. The rain continued to fall so our impressions of Santiago are of a very damp city, almost Dunedin like. A few celebratory beers followed. Hence the 24 hr delay in writing this.Read more