Celebrating in Santiago

Our first focus after getting settled in Santiago was to make sure we were in line early for the 7:30 evening Mass.  The lines earlier in the day were long - with tourists flocking to join in the Pilgrims Mass.   Four years ago the noon Mass was packed but virtually all of the participants were Pilgrims.   The Cathedral has since prohibited people from bringing backpacks into the Church so know it is hard to tell Pilgrims from other participants.   We were in line by 6:30 and got right into the Cathedral - allowing us time for reflection prior to Mass.   The Spanish Mass was presided over by a dozen priests - I would guess several were visitors also walking the Camino.   Would be pretty cool to have Fr Culloty walk with us someday and co-celebrate Mass at Journeys end.   It is a time to give thanks for God's guiding hand in our travels and reflect on St James - the Patron Saint of the Spanish people and the Camino.  At the end of Mass they often swing the "Botafumeiro" - a giant incense burner that requires 6 attendants to swing it the width of the Cathedral.   It was originally done to help balance the stench of the Pilgrims who had walked for months to arrive at the Cathedral.  Today's Pilgrims still are in need - but to me it is a form of adoration that I associate with special events in the Catholic Church.   

 After Mass it was time to celebrate with friends New and old.  We found a great tapas place and emailed a group of folks - everyone made it there and we enjoyed a special evening together.  We saw many folks we knew as we walked around town and Santiago felt like a small town in many ways.   We enjoyed the time but also knew our time together was growing short and many of these friends would become treasured memories in our future.  

 The very next day we rose early to get our "Compestells's" - an official certificate in Latin that acknowledges your completion of the Camino for either spiritual, health or other reasons.  Most folks choose spiritual - only each of us knows for sure the driver to our walk.   Chris was in line very early and as one of the first ten Compestellas of the day he also received a free lunch at the Parador....well done.   

We enjoyed some shopping and site seeing around the city for another day and got to spend some time with Chris's cousin as her group arrived on Saturday.   I enjoyed the special moments in Santiago but was looking forward to continuing on to the coast.  Chris would hand another day with his cousins and drive out to meet us in Finisterre.   Our return flight was scheduled for Thursday and that gave me thrre more days (plus a travel day to Madrid) to enjoy the Pilgrimage.   Our good friends from Ireland were on roughly the same schedule and also anxious to continue their walk.   Spain was in the midst of an unusual heat waive so we adjusted our plans and instead of walking to Finisterre and busing back we decided to bus to Muxia and walk along the coast (about 20 miles) to Finisterre.   A plan we were initially disappointed about but we got excited the more we talked about it.   We would be off early Sunday morning and plan to return to Madrid late on Wednesday.