Hostal dos Reis Católicos

The arrival was kind of an anticlimax for me. After breakfast, I walked faster than usual (my ankle was making me slow down occasionally, not all the time), and non-stop for 20k.
The reason was, I wanted to give myself a chance to see the botafumeiro in action. I knew it was a long shot, I didn't expect to see it, but why not give myself a slight chance?
I knew there was a pilgrims mass at 12.00, and sometimes they swing the botafumeiro right after.
I didn't have time to be there at the start of the mass, but I could get there before the end.
I got to the Cathedral around 12.30, which would have been perfect in an ideal world.
The Cathedral is huge. I spoke to a security guard at the door who explained: "you can enter the Cathedral for mass from the other door around the building, to the right. But they won't let you in with your backpack, you have to leave it somewhere, like the post office, 300m to the left."
So I walked towards the post office, which was only metres from the pilgrims office.
The pilgrims office issues the Compostelas (a doc to acknowledge that one has completed the pilgrimage) and I read previously that it is a place where pilgrims can relax, feel welcomed, get info, etc. and it was definitely a place I intended to visit.
I asked the guard at the door if I could leave my backpack there, he said yes, but there was a queue to get in.
The guards were asking everyone for a registration code to get in. The queue was slow because people were registering on their phones while queuing. I had done an online registration a day earlier, on advice I received from a tourist info office, however the purpose of the registration and how to use it wasn't clear at all.
I was able to get ahead of other people when I showed my barcode, but the people at the door could have been more helpful in how they managed the crowd. The rego website also could have been more helpful.
Once I got in, I was given a number and there was another double queue to wait for the number to be called. I quickly realised that it was the queue to get the Compostela. I meant to do that later, but since I found myself in the middle of that process and the queue was moving reasonably fast, I decided to stay and give up on the botafumeiro idea (of which there was no guarantee whatsoever, and for which I was likely to be late anyway, if it was used).
Inside, two volunteers directed the people to one queue or the other, in what seemed to be an arbitrary fashion that I found quite rude. We were all pilgrims carrying heavy backpacks and it would have been so much better if we could wait for our number standing on one spot, rather than lugging our pack around.
Anyway. I got my Compostela, found out where to store my backpack, and I did that.
Now I was much lighter, and could do the standard visit to the Cathedral, and walk around the city for a bit. But first, I had to eat! I was starving, having had only an orange juice and a croissant so far in the day.Les mer