Sanitago October 30/31 & November 1

On Thursday after we checked in and got ourselves sorted out there was a lot of this

We did some walking

At the university of Santiago 

Yesterday we managed to print our boarding passes from Porto to The Netherlands, so awkward, there may be something I need to learn about that.  Also purchased magnets for my esteemed Fridge of Fame collection....and rested.  In the evening we had dinner with

And shared best camino experiences, ( some were very heartfelt) and what we could have left behind.  Unfortunately the restaurant acted like they were doing us a favor by having us...so,the dining experience was a bit of a bust but the fellowship was awesome.

This morning we attended the pilgrims mass.  

Today is All Saints Day...another very large celebration in Spain.  So large that the archbishop from somewhere was also attending the mass.  Two of the women seated next to me were Anglican priests from the UK, they said that an Anglican archbishop was also present

There are about 7 pews ahead of us and the above is a shot of the crowd behind us.  It is packed.

To our left

Where the who's who emerged

And to our front right

Because it is All Saints Day the large incense burner Botafumeiro was used.  The guide book says it was originally used to fumigate pilgrims, and is still likely valid!  The ritual requires half a dozen attendants to preform.

Sid took quite a good video of this...but I could only figure out how to post it to Facebook ...

The service seemed steeped in ritual that is not familiar to us and was preformed in Spanish. The music and pipe organ was awesome.

The statue Praza das Praterias just outside the cathedral 

We have had a good rest here in Santiago .

Tomorrow we begin our walk to Finnisterre - the end of the world in the pre Columbus era. It is approximately 100 km - or four days.  When we arrived in Santiago I wasn't sure I had another 100 km in me....after some rest we are both good to go!

One of the many things we appreciated about the camino was the clarity of the way markers .  Other than our guidebook we never carried a map and never needed to, we just had to look for the yellow arrows....hopefully those arrows take us to the end of the world also!