With the intent not to bore you or drag this blog out, I am continuing really for the hard core fans who have been expressing withdrawal symptoms in order to let them down lightly. Those who don’t mind seeing boring holiday shots!
We spent today walking the feet off ourselves exploring every nook and cranny of this city. Ellen, if I had known John was such a tourist freak I might never have come on this trip. I have been in more churches in the last two days than I have in the last two years I think!
As I said we were in a lot of churches, some with incredible Baroque decor
One that stood out today was The Iglesia de S. Pelayo, a Benedettine monastery cum church
Here are a few examples from there
With a detail from one panel
We had bought tickets for a tour of the Cathedral museum and roof. The only one available was the Spanish version at 4:00 but it was our last chance so we went for it. As we came out from getting tickets we came on these tired Peregrinos in the main square.
The museum had some great sights but one thing that caught my attention in the cloisters was a set of three sundials mounted high up on the surround. It seems that, as they are vertical, each one works for a different portion of the day
Later we climbed up into the roof of the Cathederal and had some fantastic views of both the structure and the surroundING city. The roof itself was incredible, made of large concrete slabs aboout 0.3 m.x1.0m.x0.1m. The roof must have weighed a huge amount but it meant we could walk all over it.
As I said , I don’t want to bore you with large numbers of vacation shots but just wanted to give you another flavour of Santiago and let you know we are thinking of you all.
VDLPbyBike 
Thanks Dermot. Great shots, as usual. The roof is incredible. Wonder how they raised those slabs – maybe they were poured up there. Have a safe flight tomorrow
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When we were in the museum we saw these huge metal pincers that they used to grip concrete blocks and haul them up the building.
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Ah ha! John has been keeping secrets from more than you Dermot!! I didn’t know that he loved climbing everything he comes across and certainly would have lost a bet that he would pose in a window!! – maybe it’s you egging him on? I do know he like a challenge! and you both have certainly risen to the many presented to you on this trip so take a bow and enjoy the last sweet night in lovely Santiago before you wing your way back. Well done again on magnificent photos and blog, our daily lives will be duller after this. Can’t wait to welcome you heros home – the casserole is already in the oven and the welcome mat out. Love to you both Ellen
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Ellen, you don’t know the half of it. You haven’t seen the photos he wouldn’t let me publish!
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Way to go, Dermot (and John). What a great trip. You deserve your holiday, now! See you when you get home.
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Hi Mark. Good to hear from you! Yes the trip was everything I had hoped for and more! An incredible experience and education. Looking forward to some down time now with Breda and the girls! See you for a morning ride – on a road bike- when I get back!
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Hi John and Dermot, delighted to see you have had an interesting and enjoyable day. Raise a glass to your great journey tonight before you head for home tomorrow. Thank you for the wonderful blog and photos over the past weeks. Mary
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Great pictures, wonderful colour.
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Bridie. Thanks, back to Dublin tomorrow and then Breda and the girls come over on the weekend! Give my best to Paul.
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I like the photo of the shoeless pilgrim stretched out and relaxing at last. Hope you are having a lovely evening, no endurance test tomorrow, just a nice wind down before coming back to Dublin. Enjoy tomorrow, see you soon,
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That roof is amazing–it must have been incredible to be up there and walking around. What a view of the city you’ve been working towards these weeks. Thanks for the last post! (I guess this makes me a groupie?)
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Scrolling down my emails I came accross my favourite site, what a welcome back from my holidays. Photo’s and blog as usual, brilliant. Oh, by the way, I had a great holiday, I looked at the terrain with a differnt view and wondered how on God’s earth you managed this cycling trip. Driving up mountain regions was a challange but took no effort just consentration. I will have to wait till the weekend to view all the missed blogs. I’m so delighted for you both completing your amazing challange, congratulations again, well done. You are both great and as I said before an inspiration.
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