Day 20: In Santiago

The Botafumeiro

Santiago is teeming with pilgrims - they are everywhere. You know them because you've seen them on the road, by their heavy bags, and by their limping or tired way of walking. We keep meeting people who walked with us - yesterday evening we met Mark and Susannah from Poland, they are now walking on another 90km to Finistere - today we have met with so many others that we became acquainted with.

First thing this morning we went to the Pilgrim's Office to join a short queue. Each place we had stopped on our Camino had stamped our pilgrim's passport. The office now examined those passports and issued us with a Compostela, or certificate. We bumped into 'the man who collects women' and his entourage so it was high fives all round.

The good natured queue at the Pilgrim's Office

Then we spent some time walking around the old and new cities. After this, we attended the pilgrim's mass in the cathedral - we got there 15 minutes early but we still couldn't get a seat. When mass finished, the dramatic event of the swinging of the giant incense burner, the Botafumeiro took place - see our photos plus look it up on YouTube. This evening we will go out for dinner and hope to meet some more of our fellow walkers. Tomorrow, we fly home.

Crowds leaving the cathedral

So, what was the Camino about for us? It was about people, some we had names for and others we didn't: Pat and John (aka the Beach Boys), Gerry, Shane, Mike, the Beautiful People, the Ice Queen, Charlie, May, the Woman Collector, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Dave, Catherine, the Judge, Mark, Susannah, the Girls From Ponferrada.............

We walked over two years and noticed some differences in the origins of those people. There were much less orientals this year than last, especially Koreans who seemed to be everywhere then. There were also far fewer Canadians. The countries that dominated, in our view, were Spain (of course), Germany, Italy, France and the USA. Statistics show that between 2004 and 2012, Ireland moved from 17th biggest participant to 7th - but we saw few Irish and most of these were after Sarria.

We have no great tips to impart - maybe a few suggestions to any reader who might be thinking of making the trip. Use the albergues to get to know your fellow walkers a little better, or at least use them interchangeably with small hotels. Often the private albergues, for a few Euro more, are better than the municipal ones (though this is not always the case). We would encourage anybody to do the final 100+km stretch from Sarria to Santiago, but if you can, cover all or part of the earlier stretches - places like Los Arcos, Santo Domingo, Najera, Pamplona, Burgos, Hontanas, Leon, Astorga, Villafranca ........ And finally, make sure you have the correct footwear.

So, we'll finish before we bore you. Hope you enjoyed our few notes,

Burn Camino!!!

Botafumeiro again

Exclusive Late Photo

We meet a few friends on Friday evening