Santiago Rest Day

After a great sleep last night (thanks to Arlene for the sleeping pills!), we woke up to sunny skies and the gorgeous view outside our window...

 

...and spotted a cat on a cold slate roof looking for food or what??

We've just finished an amazing buffet breakfast in our Parador hotel together with Jeff and Chris (who are leaving at noon today by air to London and then home the next day - they have a high school class reunion Alaskan cruise to catch, poor souls!), and Joyce Wierda and Arlene Stegeman (who are leaving by air tomorrow to Paris overnight and then home the next day).  Over breakfast we again met a number of people we've come to know on our pilgrimage, including Andrew from California, who suffers from epilepsy due to a brain trauma and had a grand mal seizure during his walk.  He's doing fine, and he's going to continue walking first to Finisterre and then south to Portugal.

At the moment Diane and I are sitting each in an old antique chair, enjoying our room with a view and the cool breeze wafting through the window, our feet up on the window sill.

As I mentioned yesterday, shortly after we had arrived and showered and enjoyed a cold beer and snack, we set off to get our compostelas.  We shuddered when we saw the lineup but realized that with up to 1000 pilgrims entering the city per day (the majority having walked just the 100 kms necessary to get one), lineups were going to be unavoidable...

The lineup behind us was just as long and you cannot see how long the line is once you enter the middle gate you see above.  The last in line were told to expect a 2 hour wait; it took us about 90 minutes.  Once inside, you are asked for your pilgrim's passport , which we received in St. Jean and which has been stamped at every place we stayed along the way as proof that we had earned the compostela...

...then you are asked what your reasons were for walking the Camino (religious, non-religious, otherwise - remember Jos from Amsterdam in the movie The Way?).  You then receive your compostela and your first name is supposed to be written in Latin.  Obviously my simple and only name stumped them!

We then returned to our hotel to enjoy a delicious bottle of white wine with 6 of us (Jeff, Chris, Joyce, Arlene, and us) and headed out to the cathedral for the 7:30 pilgrim's mass.  It is only on Fridays that the botafumeiro is lit and swung during the service, so we wanted to be sure we had good seats, which we did - in the third row to the side (where the botafumeiro would swing right past us).  While we waited for the service to begin, we took turns looking around the cathedral.  The only picture I took at this time was of the silver ossuary in a barred vault under the altar that are said to contain the remains of St. James (Sant Iago), the son of Zebedee and disciple/apostle of Jesus.

When it was time for the service to begin, the church was packed to the rafters with well over 2000 people, most of them pilgrims from all over the world, though many are not Christian believers (we know this from personal conversations - people do this walk for many different reasons).  We were led in singing by a nun dressed simply in black and with a beautifully clear voice.  Accompanied by a majestic pipe organ, she would sing a line and ask us to sing it back.  The acoustics were amazing!

Then the priests came forward and the liturgy began with a couple of readings and a short homily, which was translated in summary form in English and encouraged us to live a life that was a witness to Christ as we left all of our separate ways.

Look to the right and you can see the nun's hand conducting the singing.

Then the mass was celebrated and Christian pilgrims from all over the world, including Diane and myself, came forward to receive the wafer representing the body of Christ given for us.  It was a very moving and meaningful experience, especially also to sense the communion of saints from so many nations and languages.

Then it was time to light the incense inside the botafumeiro, which is a symbol of purification but which, the priest also jokingly explained, was used once to cover the stink of pilgrims in ancient days who did not have access to showers and baths as we do.  I'll simply post a series of photos with brief comment.  First, the botafumeiro in repose and the pulley system in the ceiling to which it's attached...

The botafumeiro is lit and then a group of monks in red begin to manipulate the thick ropes that manipulate the pulley to which the botafumeiro is attached...

The photos that follow try to capture the botafumeiro in flight.  Watch the reaction of the priests in white and look carefully.  When that thing comes by you at 68 kph, it's a blur, and you can understand why they make sure the aisles are clear!

Oh, and if you're thinking that a video would have been easier, would you believe I didn't know how to put my iPad on video mode?  Believe me, I know now!!  

All in all, it was an unforgettable experience and I'm trying to figure out if a system like this would work in our new church in Abbotsford from our catwalk 70 feet up in the air....NOT.

At this point, I'll stop writing. We're going out to look for some simple souvenirs and get some fresh air in the square and look for other friends we've met along the way.   I'll finish a little later this forenoon...

OK, we're back with a few small souvenirs and having on nice and unexpected surprise.  We went up to the cathedral again just after the noon mass and went inside and what did we spot - a student wearing a Calvin College t-shirt!  Of course we ran over to discover a whole group of Calvin students with their teacher, a Mrs. Slagter.  They had finished walking the Camino just this morning, though they had begun their Camino in Burgos, which was our second rest day stop way back.  And everyone was excited because the botafumeiro had been used again as an exception, sponsored and paid for by a donation from Calvin College.  What a great way to promote Calvin, and (ironically) in the heartland of Spanish Catholicism!

Now we're back in our room, with no intentions to leave the hotel anymore today.  We find that we are good travellers, but lousy tourists.  Outdoors is our thing, so we're resting up for tomorrow's adventure, about which we admit we're a little nervous as well as very excited: our concierge has arranged a car rental for us tomorrow at 10, so we get to drive the Atlantic coast and visit Finisterre at our own leisure for only 3 euros more than a bus would cost for us both.  

So tomorrow we'll write our final blog of this trip, with hopefully some amazing pictures of the coast, and some reflections of what this Camino experience has meant for us.