Friday, September 2, 2022 – Last full day in Santiago.

Travel Blog 3 Minutes

No appointments this morning so we had a late wake up call. After a nice long hot shower it was off to find breakfast.

This is breakfast. It is a croissant breakfast sandwich. They split the croissant in half and spread a layer of vanilla cream and a layer of chocolate cream on the two halves. They put the two halves together and cover the whole thing in chocolate and sprinkle it with almonds. It was way beyond delicious.

After our late breakfast we wandered over to Obradorio Square to watch the groups of pilgrims enter the Square. I decided to tour the Cathedral Museum.

This is the cloister on the roof of the Cathedral.
This is another view of the cloister.
This is a wooden carved altarpiece in the Bishop’s Residence. Each one of the carved niches on the alter piece houses a Church relic. The alter piece is at least 30 feet tall. I stopped here and said a prayer for everyone.
This is a photo of Obradorio Square taken from the balcony running along the top of the Cathedral.

Now it is time for lunch.

This is a great tapas place near the Cathedral. It was very expensive and was packed for lunch. So we decided to have a burrito.
We decided to go back to the burrito place and have lunch.
Start with a nice cold Radler.
Then chips and guacamole.
Then the El Chapo burrito. Not as good as a Denver burrito but good enough that I ate it all and licked the plate.

We found an outdoor store near the burrito joint and I got two new quick dry hiking shirts. I destroyed two shirts on the Norte and I needed to replace them. They are so dirty and stained they will never come clean, no matter much I wash them.

Not bad for 20 euros.
This one was 13 euros.
What is this? It is the suitcase I mailed from the post office in Santander to the post office in Santiago. The post office in Santiago is about a block from the Cathedral. I showed them my paperwork and my passport and within a matter of minutes I walked out with my suitcase and my clean non hiking clothes. I love it when a plan works.
I decided to attend the Pilgrim Mass this evening. Who knows if I will ever be back in Santiago at the Cathedral and who knows if I will ever be back during a holy year. What better way to end this pilgrimage than attending a Pilgrim Mass. Every seat in this large Cathedral was taken and every square inch of standing room was taken. This was a great opportunity to take some time for contemplation and offer up a heartfelt prayer for everyone.
As an added bonus they did swing the Botofumiero. In the old days the Botofumiero incense burner was used to get the stink of thousands of unwashed Pilgrims out of the Cathedral. The Botofumiero swing always moves me deeply. I am so grateful to have had an opportunity to be part of this 1200 year tradition of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.
On this trip there were plenty of times that I had to tell myself that no matter how hard it is I am going to make it. Well, in the end I made it. And I am so happy that I did make it. I have so many people to thank for making this journey possible. I won’t mention people by name for fear of leaving someone off the list. You know who you are and I hope you know how grateful I am for your support over the years. But I do want to give a special shoutout and sincere thank you so much to Jan for understanding my need to do this and being patient with me during this extended absence and for holding down the fort in Denver while I am away and for loving me always. I love you to the moon and back.

Today I walked 13,000 steps, 9 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 14 flights of steps.

I hope you had a good day whenever you are. Good night from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

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Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

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