I thought I would try to give you a taste of Santiago
Last evening we came on aN awareness event for Doctors without Borders. A group were playing Galician music in a square, which involves bagpipes, a thing like a bodhran, wind instruments etc. John was in his element as were the crowd who were dancing in the street, singing along etc. I took some video to upload but I need to upgrade my blog to accept video and cannot do that from here.
We started our day by heading down to the Cathederal for the Mass for Peregrinos which was at noon. We got there around 11 expecting it to be busy, it was. Probably 2/3 rods of the seats were already full.
It was a very impressive e ceremony, particularly as the attendance was from hundreds of people from all over the world who had walked or cycled hundreds of km to get to this point.
After the mass they did the thurible show. The thurible in Santiago is the biggest in the world, weighs 80kg and is 1.6 m tall. It hangs from a pulley system in the roof by an enormous rope. The original is called the Botafumiero and is only used on special days. Today they used the alternative, the La Alcachofa, just as big.
They fire this thing up, you can see the flames coming out and then swing it. It swings almost up to the roof on either side, quite incredible!
You can see the thurible hanging there. Below is a bottoms up view of one of the chandeliers in the Cathederal
Leaving the Cathederal We came on an interesting art exhibition with all these nude male figures up on balcony
John decided to offer the alternate male figure for comparison
By the way, thee was a murmur of excitement around me as John appeared and I noticed others taking this photo also!
After all, which of these fine figures would you like to share a hotel room with?
After lunch we explored the old town, an amazing Warren of narrow streets and very impressive buildings, many of the churches of course.
One church in particular we visited. It is now a museum and was incredible inside. I used up my camera battery there and will give you a few examples.
It was the church of St Martin Pinar io
Tomorrow we hope to get up on the roof of the Cathederal for an overall view of the city. That was booked out today.
VDLPbyBike 
Thank you for sharing Santiago. The cathedral looks magnificent, you must have been high on the incense. It must be incredible to be able to relax. I hope there are good restaurants in the city so that you can make up for the past weeks of little choice and poor meals. Mary
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How great to get another post today, and so glad to see you’re enjoying your first day “off-camino.” Great pictures–the churches are incredible.
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I was really happy to see your blog. It really needs a gentle let down for all of us to get used to not having a new exciting bit of news from both of you every day. Yu may need to continue the blogs for a while just ease us out over time. It has been such an interesting ‘journey’ for each of us.Love from Kathleen
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Kathleen, it has been great for us to have all of you guys cheering us on!
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Really great pictures of the churches. I didn’t realise that so many people stilled did the pilgrimage.
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Bridie, i think it is bigger than ever. I was reading some place they were estimating 250000 this year, the vast majority on the Via Frances. There were certainly not that many on ours.
D
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Hi Dermot and John, thanks for continuing the blog. As you can see, we are still checking in – withdrawal symptoms! The thurible is huge! All I could think of was the chandiler in Phantom of the Opera – so glad it stayed up! I like the balcony picture John although it is a bit tame – I was expecting to see Dermot up there posing in the buff! Have a great day tomorrow and looking forward to seeing you on Friday Dermot
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