Final Day. In Santiago de Compostela We again attended the noon Mass which was longer and more elaborate than yesterday. More priests and nuns and the purification ceremony of swinging the incense burner took place. Apparently some well-heeled peregrinos ponied up the 500 Euros for this. Very impressive. We also took a tour of the upper floors and roof of the cathedral and learned it's history. We are staying in Hostal de Los Reyes Catolicos - Parador Santi...

Day 39. To Santiago de Compostella Finito de Camino. A picture of drenched pilgrims at the end of today's short walk to the Cathedral. We arrived at 10:45 am (1:45 am Vancouver) on November 3 under heavy rains Happy and a bit sad also. We need a day for thoughts to sink in. More on these tomorrow. We walked 787 km (489 miles) in 37 walking days plus 2 rest days. We averaged 21.3 km (13 1/4 miles) per walk and walked for a total of 199 1/2 hours. Doesn't so...

Day 38. To Lavacolla Lavacolla is where pilgrims in medieval times would stop to wash and purify before walking into Santiago. Another long walk today of 28 km in order that we can finish the remaining 11 km into Santiago and attend the pilgrim mass at noon. Winds of 55 kph today with some rain and warm. Great walking day. This area is quite tropical with grapes again, some palm trees and prickly pear cactus. The picture is a typical room with us flopped out ...

Day 37. To Arzua Again a nice walking day but a bit long especially for Lynn; 29 km and she was a hurting turtle for the last two hours. Now 2 days and 39 km to Santiago. The picture is of pan (bread) delivery vans as we started out today. Pan is delivered here to houses like newspapers at home. The van races into each hamlet and honks it's horn loud and long so all the housewives and cafe owners come out and get what they want. We have even seen pan sitting ...

Day 36. To Palas de Rei The picture is of a small storage structure in the yard of a house. Maybe 3 ft by 10 and 6 high. This one is dated 1957 and has the cross so we thought they had religious meaning or maybe a burial? discovered they are to store grains and nuts off the ground and away from mice and birds but open to the air for drying. See them everywhere here but never earlier on the walk. Lots of chestnut trees and see people collecting all the time. ...