Day 38 Santiago - A Day of R & R
Day 38 October 16 Destination = Santiago / 00 km to go today.
Mission Accomplished!
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.”
– John A. Shedd (quote is same one found on a trail-side memorial to a teenage bicyclist probably by his parents who evidently died while biking his Camino)
In plain English this is a rest and literal recovery day and I will move to a new albergue with a private room. I think it supposed to rain and I may take one or more siestas between meals before considering the walk to the end of the world- Finsterre tomorrow … and what I will call the long goodbye. For now, I woke up exceedingly tired and with a pretty sore body I guess I was running on adrenaline for the last few days. I will study my maps to lessen daily mileage thereby increasing the likelihood of successfully walking the remaining distance as well as make a final decision to do such based on how I feel right this moment. Most walk the distance in three days - there’s not a chance I will do this. I will minimally take four and possibly set up my stages to make it in 4 1/2 days. This entry ends this chapter and the final chapter labeled ‘Epilogue’ will start tomorrow.
I will also post the accumulated mileage in kilometers and miles from the day I took my first step in France. It will not include the mileage traipsing around town seeing sites or touring. This will be on the ‘About’ page. I will not post total number of steps as the number is simply…. ‘a lot’
Today I say goodbye to some friends (haven’t seen them for three weeks) that are heading to the airport and the other group I walked intermittently with show up today so I’ll have dinner with them likely before going to the church service and hoping to see the proverbial ‘Butafumeiro’ swung from one end of the transept to the other. The Botafumeiro is carried and swung by eight men in red robes, called tiraboleiros. Maybe I’ll get lucky and see it swing as it is only in use about once a week or on holy days.
I think they have a noon service and 7:30 p.m. Noon-service sold out an hour plus before! I was told you have to be there 90 minutes before hand and stand in line if you want to get in. If it’s raining as hard at 6 o’clock as it is right now I’ll skip it and I will go when I come back through here next Saturday. (Next Sunday I take a very early (6:30 a.m.) train to Madrid and I fly next day - Monday morning)
I made the 1930 service by getting there at six! It was very interesting even though I don’t speak enough Spanish to follow along perfectly closely. It was a service dedicated to the pilgrim walkers coincidentally enough. Priest named off all the countries that were represented getting compoststellas today. A long list indeed. Didn’t get to see the Butafumeiro swing, they usually do that at the pilgrim services like the one I intended but they didn’t tonight. Oh well, maybe next Camino. My German friend however did get to see it in action three nights ago and most humorously he named it -the ‘Holy Bimm Bamm’ 😳. For some reason we laughed about this for five minutes. Maybe it was the Vino that facilitated. Someone with him took a cool video which he obtained and then re-shared with me.
Masterful stonework that we don’t see in modern (church) construction these days -at least in Minneapolis / St Paul
The picture doesn’t do the size and grandeur of these pipes justice and this is only a portion of the pipes. The other side was filled with more and is opposed to this side. Couldn’t find the keyboard or organist to do a special request for Toccata & Fugue in D minor. Before the service the organist was playing a variety of notes and checking tuning or pitch or some thing the acoustics in the cathedral are phenomenal -too bad there wasn’t a choir present. I still don’t know what’s up with all of the little naked babies climbing all over altars and organ pipes and everything else in churches. Maybe somebody can explain it to me sometime (my next Camino? !).
Definitely the most interesting altar, nave, and transept of any of the cathedrals I’ve seen on this entire trip. Unbelievable with a very unique beauty. The angel representations were really out there, I must say. They appear to be a little overly fair skinned methinks. The butafumeiro is pictured here hanging - over 1 meter tall.
The cathedral is also one of the only three remaining churches in the world built over the tomb of an apostle of Jesus. Groundbreaking was in 1075. Completed in 1211. Definitely Wow!
