In Santiago

It´s always kind of a down-er to say that I´m here. I keep thinking that one of these years when I arrive in Santiago I will say, ok, that was my last Camino. But it didn´t happen this year, so I guess I will soon be thinking about where to walk next!

I have had two nice days of walking with people all around. It was quite a different feeling. But I was glad to have a young German friend to walk into Santiago with -- we got up early this morning to arrive in time to get our compostela (the certificate that tells you that you have officially completed the Camino, as if you couldn´t figure that out for yourself), and then make it to the pilgrim´s mass.

Yesterday´s walk was beautiful and rural, through forests, over isolated roman bridges, a few romanesque churches thrown in. Today´s walk, all 17 km of it, was essentially through the outskirts of Santiago. It was a continual up and down, one after the other, until FINALLY, we came up a hill and could see the cathedral spires. As we got into the old part of Santiago, you could see pilgrims all merging from different Caminos onto the road to the pilgrim´s office,. There is a new pilgrim´s office, in my mind no improvement over the old one except that the stairs don´t squeak because they´re new. So there we were, all in one long line waiting to get our compostela. I´m not exactly sure why I keep getting them, but it just sort of seems like the thing to do, to get the official certificate, "suitable for framing." After that we took the obligatory picture in front of the cathedral,

and then popped in to see if the botafumeiro was in place -- if it was going to be flown at the mass at 12, it would be set up at 11. As we walked into the Cathedral, it was like magic. The 10:00 mass was nearly over, the priest was putting the incense into the botafumeiro, and the 7 men in brown robes were getting ready to hoist it up. And for the next few minutes, we watched as that enormous incense burner went swinging from side to side, reaching an amazing height. I´ve seen it fly a number of times, but it always gives me goose bumps to think that they have been flying this thing for hundreds of years, originally to kill the smell of all the dirty peregrinos, but now it just reminds us how we are all a part of that same flow over the centuries.

So here I am back in the Hotel Costa Vella. I think it´s a sign that I´ve been here too often when the woman at the desk jumps up to hug me, and her husband comes running out of the kitchen to say hi. This is a family owned hotel, so the owners are always there taking care of business. I was delighted to find that they had had a recent cancellation, so they moved me from their new "vanguardist" hotel, much fancier and more expensive, to my old favorite, where I will stay for two nights. And the weather is fabulous so I will be able to eat my breakfasts out back in the very nice garden.

So, for now, I´m off to be a tourist again, at least after I can check into my room, wash some clothes and take a real shower without wearing my water sandals for fear of what I might catch from the floor.