Monday, June 23, 2014

21st June - SANTIAGO!!!

After breakfast, Ignacio drove us back to the cafe-bar where we started walking to Santiago. Most of the walk was on pavements through residential areas. At one stage we could see the towers of the cathedral, one encased in scaffodling.
Finn was struggling today so we walked quite slowly but soon we approached the church of St Francis and and entered the Obradoiro Square with the parador on the right. Gail and I held the South African flag (my old sitting plastic) whilst John took a video of us walking in. Bob decided that he wasn't going to sit through the mass with his sore throat still bothering him.
We took our packs to the hospederia, left them there and then entered the cathedral through the side gate. Johnnie Walker happened to be sitting in the back aisle waiting to do the 10.30am service in the English chapel. He showed us where he had reserved seats for us in the front row of the short aisle. We arranged to meet again at 11.30am. The botafumeiro was hanging so we knew that it would swing at the 12pm mass.
We walked around the cathedral,  visited the crypt and hugged the saint. We went out past the portico del gloria and stood in the square looking at the cathedral. Then it was time to go back inside.
Johnnie showed us to our seats then he and a volunteer from the Pilgrim Office handed out our certificates,  Compostelas to the team members and a welcome certificate to me. We were all given a distance certificate and one Group certificate in the name of the Camino Caracoles 2014.
The mass was special as always and Finn got to see the botafumeiro for the first time. After the mass we decided to visit the pilgrim office (Marlene's distance certificate had Camino Frances instead of Camino Ingles on it.) On the way there Gail dropped her distance certificate.  We sorted them both out at the pilgrim office before going to The Casino where we had a celebratory lunch.
We went back to the Hospederia and checked in.  Our luggage had arrived so we took everything upstairs including the three boxes Ivar had delivered for me. We decided that we would try to have a queimada at 10.30pm at the Casino and would visit Fisterra tomorrow.
We met downstairs and Bob told us that he hadn't seen a medico yet. His voice was quite hoarse. Finn wasn't feeling great -side effects of the medication. We walked down to the park and sat at a cafe bar. It started to drizzle so we squashed up under an umbrella. Bob decided to go back to the Hospederia. Penny phoned to say that she had found a little pub to have something to eat and would join us 'in a bit'.
Suddenly a strong wind blew and the rain sheeted down.  People all tried to jam into the little bar to sit out a typical Santiago la tormenta.
When the rain let up we went back outside and soon Penny joined us. We thought we would try her bar for tapas but it was very small and quite crowded. So, we went back to the Casino but their kitchen was closed so we  couldn't have anything to eat.
The television was on with a soccer match blaring and when it was 10.30pm we asked if we could have the queimada the waiter told us only after the game, another half an hour to wait. We decided not to wait and so we drifted off back to the Hospederia leaving Gail and Penny and another bar to have a night cap.

No comments:

Post a Comment