So after 1500 km about 62 days walking we had arrived at the door of the Cathedtral of Santiago de Compostella. To comlete our pilgrimage we needed to give the statue of St James above the altar a hug and get our Compostellas from the Pilgrims Office.
In the square we bumped into the young Frenchman we hat met at Rabanal who was playing the recorder in the church there so exquisitly, after congratulating us on our arrival, he gave us the full low down of what to do and where to go.
[What has been so very special, since our arrival in Santiago is the way fellow, long term pilgrims, (those who have been walking for at least 10 days, often longer), are so pleased for us that we have safely arrived, as we are for them, there is a special bond we all now have, that only people who have walked the way can have.]
It was now time for us to enter the Cathedral,
The main door was barred as 2011 is not a holy year (years when the feast of St James falls on a Sunday) it won't be opened again untill 2020! So we had make do with the side door
My first impression was that the Cathedral was not as big as I expected, the nave is not particularly long or wide, certainly not as big as Norwich Cathedral or many other British Cathedrals I know. But it is special, for someone from Britain the Gilt and statuary takes a bit of getting use to but there is somthing about the place, probably the fact that thousands upon thousands of peole have journeyed there from the four corners of the world and have offered their prayers of thanks and intercession to God.
as an American we met said, "you can't walk the way without it becoming a spiritual experience," if you walk for long enough it will change from being a cultural experience to a spiritual one, which while true is very diffrent from the medieval pilgrim saying, "begin a pilgrim ..." (if you want the rest look it up or ask me, but be prepared for the explanation in full detail, as well as the answer).
The queue to hug St James was a little long, so we decided to get our Compestellas and find our accomodation for the night first.
So after saying midday prayer we headed for the pilgrims office, and joined a queue of pilgrims waiting to be interview for their compostellas,
eventually we were at the front of the line, a buzzer sounded and No 9 came up on a box telling us which counter to go to. A young lady took our credentials, examined them, page by page, she then confirmed where we started and why we had walked the camino. She typed furiously on her computer, stamped our credentials with the official Cathedral stamp and handed us our Compostellas
with our names Latinized. (to be added at a later date!)
In the square we bumped into the young Frenchman we hat met at Rabanal who was playing the recorder in the church there so exquisitly, after congratulating us on our arrival, he gave us the full low down of what to do and where to go.
[What has been so very special, since our arrival in Santiago is the way fellow, long term pilgrims, (those who have been walking for at least 10 days, often longer), are so pleased for us that we have safely arrived, as we are for them, there is a special bond we all now have, that only people who have walked the way can have.]
It was now time for us to enter the Cathedral,
The queue to hug St James was a little long, so we decided to get our Compestellas and find our accomodation for the night first.
So after saying midday prayer we headed for the pilgrims office, and joined a queue of pilgrims waiting to be interview for their compostellas,
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