We slept late this morning, until 7:30 am, then finally roused ourselves and went in search of breakfast.  The weather had been raining throughout the night but not actually raining when we ventured out.  It stayed dry throughout the rest of the morning as we joined an English speaking tour guide who showed us around the old part of Santiago and gave us a potted history and insight into some of the wonderful buildings as well as the myths and legends.  He was very good.  He told us of one story concerning the statue of two sisters.  They had been republicans in the civil war and the men in their family had gone off to war.  Unfortunately, the two women left behind were captured, tortured and abused which left them very damaged.  For some reason they believed they were still young girls of about seventeen and would wear unsuitable clothes for their real age and plaster their faces with unsuitable make-up.  Every day at 2 o’clock when the young men left college, they would wait outside and hope to meet a boyfriend.  They had no-one to look after them and they received very little help.  They died alone.  Our tour guide then produced a photograph and told us it was not just a story, the photograph was of the two real sisters.  How sad.

Afterwards we went to the market where they sell fresh fish, meat, fruit and vegetables as well as cheeses and cooked meats.  We nearly bought cheese but decided against it in the end.  Instead we went to a supermarket and bought food for lunch and a bottle of cava to celebrate our achievement.

After lunch we decided to find the airport bus stop for early tomorrow morning, but first, we thought we would check the pilgrims office to see if Vincent and Thadeus had turned up.  We last saw them at Portomarin and Vincent said he’d had his worst day on the camino and was complaining of shin splints.  They were talking about having a rest day so we thought they may be a day behind us.  When we left our room the weather was atrocious.  Within minutes we were soaked and we did not see anything of Theo and Vincent, and now I doubt we ever will.  I do hope they made it.

You may remember Nicholas from California with the shin splints.  Laurence emailed him to say we had arrived and to ask if he had made it.  We received a really nice response to say that he’d been unable to continue and had returned home but he was determined to try again and finish next year.  We replied, wishing him well.

We did eventually find the bus stop, having gone round in circles, but at least we should manage to make it to the bus stop on time in the morning.

We have now packed our bags as best we can as we have our wet clothes hanging up to dry.  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow night we will be sleeping in our own beds!

 

Yesterday morning we woke early and got ourselves ready, packed and on the road by 6:45 am just as dawn was breaking and the cockerels behind the albergue were having a crowing contest.  We walked to the nearest place that was open for breakfast and stopped about 7:30.  We continued on through the grey misty morning and met a woman who was originally from New York city (and walked very fast) but now lived in Florida.  She had walked from St Jean, the first two weeks with her daughter, which must have been really nice and it made me think of when I suggested walking with Vicky for a week.  Perhaps something we can do in the future.  Walking and talking helped to kill the miles and before we knew it, it was time for lunch but we didn’t want to stop as we were definitely becoming more excited.  In the meantime, we met two women from Nottingham who had also started in St Jean and we all walked together for a short time until we came to Monte del Gozo.  This is the first place on the camino where you see the cathedral for the first time and also where there is a sculpture commemorating the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II in 1993.  We had talked about how disappointing the weather was and how we would not be able to see anything.  Amazingly, as we arrived at Monte del Gozo the sun appeared and was shining over Santiago!

We walked on and eventually came to a sign indicating it was 4.7 kms to the cathedral.  It was a very long 5 kms through parks, industrial estates, new city and eventually into the old city.

We followed the camino signs all the way down to a monastery which is the second largest in Spain and has St Martin, patron saint of France, in the middle on top of a horse, turned towards and welcoming the pilgrims who are completing the camino Frances.  From there we continued down through the small archway to the sound of the Galician pipes.  Someone stands there all day, every day, playing the pipes to welcome the pilgrims into the main cathedral square.  Then we were there.  We had done it!  It was 1 o’clock.  There are five pathways that lead to the centre of the square where there is a commemorative stone.  These are the five different caminos that all lead to Santiago and finish at this point, ground zero.

There was great excitement in the square with lots of pilgrims milling about and having pictures taken.  We eventually left the square to find where we were staying for the next two nights.  It wasn’t far from the square (about a minute’s walk), with a view of one of the towers from our room.  After checking in, we dumped our bags, quickly ate a pie each then went in search of the pilgrim office to collect our compostella.  We had been told to expect between 3 – 4 hours queuing but we only queued for about 1¾ hours and this passed quickly as we chatted with people we recognised and swapped camino stories and compared credencial stamps.  Afterwards we were invited upstairs for a cup of tea and a biscuit and an informal chat about our experiences with volunteers working in the office.  Most people declined but I accepted, more because I was desperate for a sit down and a cup of tea.  We were pleased we did as it was really nice to talk about some of our more memorable experiences and recollect some of the highs and lows.

We left the pilgrims office and returned to the main square and into the cathedral.  We had previously been told that everything in the cathedral had been removed but it was still possible to visit the apostle although little else remains inside.  Once inside, you are immediately aware of the smell of dust in the air and the noise of constant drilling in the background.  Everything, from floor to ceiling is covered in plastic and scaffolding.  We were able to catch glimpses of the giant botafumeiro through the bars and the amazing altar.  We were able to walk up a few stairs to the bust of St James where you put your hand on the scallop shell, and then went to see the cask where his bones are supposed to be.  It would have been nice to see the cathedral in all its glory but it won’t be finished until 2020.  All services are being held in different churches in the city.  We went to mass (again) at 7 o’clock at Iglesias Santa Maria.  It was not a pilgrims mass and it was all in Spanish, as you might expect, and surprisingly short, less than half an hour.  After that it was time to eat and then to head back to our room.  We were both very tired having raced to the end and then stood in a queue for nearly two hours, but very relaxed and pleased with ourselves.