Camino Frances 2024 Day 20 - Jun 24, 2024

We arrived! At 12:20 local time we arrived in the square of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, of the many thousands of pilgrims who will arrive today. It is a magnificent structure and the energy around it emanating from peregrinos, musicians, tourists and locals, was electric. We were able to quickly get into the pilgrims office and be certified, leaving with our official endorsement of the pilgrimage - 398 km, including 20 km today. Today was no different a walk from other days - partly through wooded trails and partly through the outlying of santiago. I walked about 2/3 alone at a brisk space and made it into town until the end with Victor. We saw some familiar faces on the way in, of those who had already finished and until the end were meeting new people - like two German ladies from Frankfurt and Cologne. Just before we entered the square, we saw Steakman from the restaurant last night. He is from Seoul. Even around town we are meeting fellow peregrinos and greeting each other. I also exchanged notes with Trilas and Annette who were excited about our arrival. We spent the afternoon settling into our apartment and will head back to the square tonight. We are sure many pilgrims will be there still.

We went to 7:30pm mass which turned out to be quite an experience. Not only was this breathtaking church packed, but they ended the mass with the swinging of the giant botafumeiro which is only done about 10 times a year and had not been on the schedule for today. Also we were at able to enter the sepulcre of Santiago (James the disciple of Jesus) and actual go into and behind the ornate gold alter. After dinner we walked back to square and a large group of people were singing and dancing lustily to Galician folk songs. It was 11pm and we could not go on.