In Santiago

It was a good day not to be on the camino, as it was sheeting down with rain and very cold.

Went to the pilgrims’ high mass at noon and was surprised to find the service being taken by the cardinal archbishop and the cathedral packed - it was St Andrew’s Day.  At the start he read out the number of pilgrims who had claimed their compostela in the previous 24 hours – me, an Austrian, 30-odd Spaniards.  The responses and credo and so on were led by a nun with a lovely voice.  Of the 1000+ people at the service, over half must have taken communion, but they had five or six people giving out the wafers, so it didn’t take long.

Afterwards made my abrazo and saw the ancient tomb.

There are three distinct types of people in Santiago: mostly locals, who scurry about apparently oblivious to the beauty surrounding them, “ordinary” tourists taking pictures and the few pilgrims, mostly fairly scruffy and glancing furtively at each other’s walking shoes to check we’re right in guessing that we’ve both been on the camino.  It’s a shame there doesn’t seem to be a greeting one can use once we’re here that is the equivalent of the “Buen Camino” for getting here.

All the restaurants and bars in the evening were much emptier with no "classico" match, and I enjoyed navajas and an excellent fish soup in relative quiet.