Santiago de Compostela, Spain

It was a full day walking in a stream of pilgrims through eucalyptus grove, up and over Mount Gozo. We took it slow but steady to savor each moment of the day. When we came up on Mount Gozo, we caught our first Glimpse of Santiago, but it was partly hidden by trees. We hiked in at the same time as Jeff, Deb and Linda. Linda was taking it slow walking in with full blown tendinitis. We got in at around 2:30 after lunch. Lunch was salad and nuts for me and Norm had a sandwich at a campground on the last mountain before we descended into the city. When we came in it was of course the usual long march through suburbs following a zig zag path until we caught sight of the Cathedral spires. We found our hotel, with our bags waiting for us right next to the cathedral. We also began to meet friends who we had hiked with this last month. It was a holiday so music was playing, and costumed dancers wandering the streets. We were greeted by a serenade with bagpipes. We took a nap before tackling the city. Once rested, we lined up for our Compestela around the corner from the Cathedral. I was nervous about this thinking perhaps I wasn’t worthy. The fellow behind us helped me calm down as we talked about our journey to Santiago. He was from Portugal, and had done this before. When we reached the window, there was no quiz. I suppose the clerks thought that anyone walking the 500 miles must be worthy, so we both left with our Compestelas rolled in a tube and big smiles on our faces. We were going to meet some friends for dinner, but on our way across the plaza we ran into Texas Dave, and he had some important news. He had heard rumor that the botafumeiro would be swung after evening mass. We tried to find our friends, but ran into Shiva and David instead at the Paradora. We made a quick decision to all attend the evening Pilgrims Mass. We scrambled to find seats in a church crowded with scruffy backpackers. The service was all in Spanish, but I was pleased I could understand a good part of it. The service is given by the resident clergy and visiting pilgrim clergy jointly. The best sermon was delivered by a pilgrim priest who described the way in terms of a journey of self discovery where heart and spirit find renewal. Naturally all the Pilgrims were blessed. At the end, they did swing that huge botafumeiro which spewed frankincense and myrrh. Everyone greeted and shook hands with everyone around and that concluded our mass. We felt warmed and doubly blessed by the miracle of arriving on a day when they performed the full mass with the botafumeiro because it doesn’t usually come out on a weekday. We went to dinner with David and Shiva to celebrate our successful pilgrimage. We enjoyed our evening so thoroughly that we didn’t get to bed until close to midnight.