Saturday & Sunday Oct 12 &13, Padron to Santiago de Compostela

Hotel “Casa Douro”

The last route to Santiago was more or less the same route Coline and I did in May from the French route. In the distance you see the Cathedrale of Santiago, however the path we had to follow through this forest was unfortunately not directly aiming towards Santiago, so we added some additional kms. Other Pilgrims were smart and took the road directly towards Santiago.

We finally entered Santiago, and we checked in at “Casa Douro” where Coline and I stayed in May as well. We then went to the Cathedral where the office is close by and got our Credentials. Luckily it was not too busy in the office and within half an hour we had our Certificate. Then we went looking for a well-deserved nice place to have lunch celebrating our completed journey.

We walked around and bought some souvenirs and planned our next day to go to Finisterre as I had seen you could book organized trips to Finisterre at the plaza. However, we didn’t see any opportunity to book this trip. So the following morning we went early to the bus station to catch the 9 am bus, however, the return bus from Finisterre is scheduled at 5 pm and that didn’t work for us. So next time we will try again.

We bought some souvenirs, walked around and had a nice lunch. We decided to go to the Pilgrims mass @ 7 pm. We entered the Cathedral at 5 pm and took a nice place upfront. This Pilgrims mass is always very popular, and you must be early to get a decent seat, as all pilgrims have to go through security.

Maria was sitting next to a person, who mentioned that the Botafumeiro swings every night for this special Pilgrim Mass. Waiting 2 hours + to see this in real life, was worthwhile so we prayed a bit more. However, Mass finished, and we left the Cathedral with the Botafumeiro still hanging the same as when we entered the Cathedral. On FB I learned that they swing the Botafumeiro on Thursdays in the Pilgrims Mass.

The following day we went by cab to the airport for our flights, Maria to Tenerife and I to Malaga.



























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