A Star is Born

Done and dusted.  I arrived in Santiago just on 2 days ago.  It was an emotional arrival, and a great feeling to have finished.  Within a minute of arriving outside the cathedral I was interviewed by Spanish TV.  I answered their questions in my caveman spanish.  Don´t know if it went to air because in pilgrim world there are no TVs.  I have spent the last 2 days recovering from the physical and mental marathon that is the camino.  I managed to pick up a cold so at least I´ve got something to complain about.  Here is a picture of the cathedral.  I woke early on Monday morning, around 4 am.  By 5 am I was up and packing my rucksack.  For once I was waking the Germans up.  I was on the road by 5.45 am and made the 20 km to Santago by 10 am.  The night before I´d met up with Nick the Greek who I´d had dinner with many times along the way, so it was great to enter Santiago with a friend. As I said, it was an emotional arrival and after an hour of walking around the great golden square I set off to get my Conpostela, it was a long queue but worth it when my name was inscribed in latin on the certificate.  Then it was off to the cathedral, entering through the special pilgrim only doorway and an intimate mass with about 1000 people.  After mass I checked into my pension on a street just off the the plaza Quintanas and  made myself presentable. 

Since then I´ve just taken the time to arrive and relax.  I Haven´t worn shoes for 2 days and my feet are starting to recover.  Drank lots of beer and wine with other pilgrims and suffered a decent hangover this morning.  The local pilgrim first aid organisation is cleaning and dressing my blisters each day.  I was chastised for not covering them up, I was trying to let the buggers dry out and heal, but no, covered up against infection they must be.  Here´s a photo of me outside the cathedral as I arrived.  On Tuesday morning I was up early to visit the cathedral without the hordes and I followed the age old pilgrim ritual.  I prayed before the relics of St James for my family and friends and gave thanks for my safe arrival.  Even took an illegal photo of the casket containing his bones.  Santiago is a vibrant, beautiful city.  I was last here 10 years ago and the number of visitors looks like it has multiplied by a thousandfold.   It rocks all day and all night, my pension is on a small plaza and I have to sleep with earplugs because of the noise from below.  But I´m used to earplugs now.  I run into people from the camino all day walking the streets.  We´ve had  a few dinners and I´ll do so again tonight.  Tomorrow I´ll try to relflect on the whole journey and express what it means to me after such a short time.  I do wnat to say this was no walk in the park.  It was much tougher than I ever expected.  As an experience its second to none.  I would recommend it to others but think once is enough for me.

I can´t get over how busy this place is.  There  are people everywhere and the queues to get into the cathedral are stupefying.  The next photo shows the Queue to get in at around 10 am and follow the pilgrim ritual, anyone can do it so there are lots of tour groups who join in.  The queue goes across the square, turns right and then around the corner.  These people must wait about 3 hours to get in.  I´d rather head for a cafe and a coffee.  So until tomorrow I´ll sign off as a happy pilgrim, looking forward to getting home and the comfort and warmth of my family.  Bob.