Day 36 - Tuesday, 27th May, 2014 - 4.7 km
[Michael, Eila and Rupert outside the Cathedral, Santiago]
And so to our final day of walking. We only had 4.8 km to do to get into Santiago. The plan was to try to get a place to stay at San Martino Pinario, the Semenario. So we followed the last of the yellow arrows into the old part of the city and dropped down beside the Cathedral. We decided that we might drop or packs off so tried our luck at the plush hotel that allowed some space for pilgrims. We asked at reception and they apologised that they were fully booked. This would have meant that they allowed pilgrims to book place by phone and ring ahead, which was not much consolation for us who had deliberately adjusted our journey to get into Santiago at a good time. There was nothing for it and we decided to immediately go and stand in front of the Cathedral and just acknowledge our feat - 760 Km's about 500 miles. It was still early in the morning and having watched some jubilant Spanish cyclists arrive and pose for photos of this event, we headed around to the side of the Cathedral where we might get our Compostela, our certificate from the church authorities recognising our pilgrimage. The queue was large and we ended up meeting Franz and Leile from Eindhoven in Holand. We had all been at Orisson together at the very start of the Camino and Franz had mistakenly carried a tent with him because of the rather out of date advice he had found on the internet (about 23 years out of date). They were both looking well and there were no signs of scars on Franz' face from his previous fall wearing his backpack.
[Leile and Franz outside the Compostela Office Santiago]
As we were still wondering about accommodation, Jules a lady from Scotland appeared and greeted us; we had kept on bumping into her during our evening stops and we had been having frequent conversations. She said that she was staying at a new Albergue called "The Last Stamp" just up the hill from where I had stayed before. She recommended it, so we immediately made our way there and booked into the aptly named "Last Stamp" .
Michael had a brilliant idea that we should have dinner in the Parador, the sumptuous hotel in old monastic buildings at the side and looking on to the main square beside the Cathedral. It would certainly make a wonderful end to our travels and Jules asked if she could join us. We all went to the Pilgrims Mass at the Cathedral at midday and although the Botafumerio (the chunky incense burner) was hanging above the main altar, they had decided that it should have a rest until the Ascension Day Mass a couple of days later. So sadly we were not treated to the strange, now purely historical act of sending an over large incense burner into the lofty heights of the Cathedral to fumigate stinky pilgrims, but what a wonderful toy!
Whever I have been in Santiago I have been treated to wonderful weather, but we were to experience Santiago's normally weather which is fairly rainy. We retreated for a rest before our end of walk, end of term dinner at the Parador. Although we were not patrons of the hotel we certainly made the most of our stay being the last to leave at quarter to midnight. We had opted for a glass of Orujo (Orutho) to end the evening and a much more powerful and larger quantity of the liqueur arrived ensuring that our walk back to the "Last Stamp" was not as straight as it might have been. It had been a fantastic evening, which had started with Michael treating us to a bottle of champagne in an establishment where you would normally felt a bit underdressed if you had gone in your climbing boots and slightly holy Marino wool jersey! (My mother would have said - "no darlings you are not going like that are you!")
Buen Camino
Enjoying the Parador Santiago, Jules, Michael and Eila]
