A day late with the arrival blog and I can't even blame the lack of wifi. We had so many glasses of wine with the pilgrims who we had met along the way that it probably wouldn't have made much sense. But we are here with the 500 plus miles all done and some feeling of achievement. It's not a punch the air feeling but it's not anti climatic and we do have another 60 miles to go onto Finisterre. Both of us are really glad it's not ending and are awaiting the arrival of our 4 friends who are going to do these last 4/5 days.
We had 13 miles to do yesterday to bring us into Santiago and I was expecting it to be much busier, but we still had lots of quiet time and it was quite rural until about 2 miles outside the city. Santiago has a beautiful old town, largely car free , but not quite as dominated by the cathedral as Leon or Burgos. There are so many old squares and beautiful buildings. Although we saw the exterior of the cathedral yesterday we didn't go inside until today for the 12 pilgrims mass. We arrived at 11.15 and it was standing room only. Although there were some devote faces and people, most seems to use it as a photo opportunity - despite the many requests not to film or take photos during the service. I donn't mean to offend, which probably means I will, but it felt like a lot of the old catholic ritual of touch this statue and I wondered if they were still selling holy relics whether there would still be people queuing up to buy. But enough.....the huge incense burner was swung the whole length of the cathedral at the end of mass and it was a very impressive, if not miraculous sight. So the big pleasure has been bumping into so many people who we have met along the Camino and quite a few are going onto Finisterre too. You would never meet such a cross section of nationalities outside the UN , and although few will remain friends there has certainly been a spirit of warm, support and genuine interest in each other's stories.. Ops,a thunderstorm has just arrived so I will have to get in my washing from the balcony of this super hotel who probably don't appreciate my small and socks decorating the balustrade. The blog will continue next week with a photo of the full team tomorrow. Thanks for all your messages and comments and keep them coming.