On to Santiago

Left the final albergue with Venus high in the sky and the half moon also bright.  Venus was still visible until 8.30am – the mornings have drawn in remarkably since the beginning of November: sunrise was at 7.46am on November 1^st and wasn’t until 8.38 this morning, while in the evenings sunset has only been 24 minutes earlier.

It was just about daylight when I passed the Pico Sacro, where the Wolf Queen conned Santiago’s pallbearers into burying him at Compostella, hoping the wild bulls would kill them - they didn't, of course, they turned into tame milk cows: Wolf Queens seldom seem to get it right.  The walk was through pleasant woodland paths until Susana, where it became drearily suburban, and then past a lot of road and rail-building sites so it was a delightful surprise suddenly to turn a corner and see the towers of the cathedral for the first time only a mile or so ahead.

Went along to pick up my compostela and check into the hotel and was able to put my feet up by late lunchtime.

In the evening I went to a restaurant for some scallops & razor clams and watched Barcelona thoroughly thump Real Madrid at football –  in every paper, in every bar and on every tv station I’ve seen for the last week they’ve been talking of little else, so it was good to take part in a real national event.

Wandered back to the hotel past the floodlit cathedral.  It was astonishingly beautiful and very moving.