It seems like a month ago that we arrived in Santiago, but it was yesterday. We made the hike, got our compostela, found the hotel and ate way too much food. Oh, then slept without an alarm! We had done everything required of a Peregrino, but the mass.

After traveling hundreds of miles, the ancient Peregrino would attend the mass and receive their blessing. Over a thousand years later, Peregrinos continue to do the same thing.

We attended the pilgrim’s mass at noon where the priest, reading off of the records of arrivals from yesterday, announced pilgrims from literally dozens of countries.

One feature of a pilgrims mass in Santiago which is not regularly done is the Botafumeiro, or the swinging of an incense ladened pot through the cathedral while singing is taking place. We were very fortunate to be at a service that had the botafumeiro. If youwatch the movie, “The Way”, they have a really good scene of the botafumeiro. Absent that, here’s my attempt to capture it:

So, it ends. We have carried our burden, left it at the foot of the cross, and received our blessing.  For each of you as you journey, we wish, “Buen Camino”.

We have decided not to continue on to Finisterre. The weather is forecast cold and rainy. As it is not part of the Camino, but rather a choice, we will choose not to do it … this time.

We head to Barcelona tomorrow to become just two more tourists in Spain.

Well, we took our unearned couple of days of rest from the blog, but now back to business. WireWalker rides again!

On Tuesday, we took the train from Santiago to Barcelona. What was fun about that is that for 400 miles, it more or less paralleled the Camino! On several occasions, we saw the poor Peregrinos slogging along and we struggled between wishing them, “Buen Camino” and simply suggesting that they also consider taking the train … much faster and more comfortable!

At one point, the train went right by one of the B&B’s we stayed at. However, with the train traveling at over 100 mph, we doubt that Mercedes (the owner of the place) heard or greetings!

Actually, the train hit speeds of 150 mph. You’d think that we’d cover the roughly 600 mile trip in about 4 hours, but no. 40 stops and many, many small towns insured that we kept the average speed way down. The ride lasted 13 hours.

We arrived in Barcelona at 9:30 pm and were to call our landlord so that someone could meet us at the flat we were to rent. The first challenge was that our phone doesn’t with in Spain. No problem. We can use a pay phone. We quickly located a bank of them and were about to insert coins when a janitor told us, “no funciona” (doesn’t work! ). Okay, I asked him where we could find a functioning pay phone. His look said it all, “no where around here! ” He was, however, kind enough to let us use his phone to call the landlord.

Next, the taxi. We found a seasoned taxi driver and gave him the address. He had no clue! On referencing his equivalent of Thomas Brother’s Maps, we were off. In 20 minutes, he stopped his car in the middle of the street and said the Spanish equivalent of, “you can’t get there from here! ” He pointed to an alley and said, make a right, then left, then … and you’ll be there.  Uh-huh.

He was actually a nice guy and it was only 10:00 at night in a strange city, so why not trust him?

At the point where we were thinking we were hopelessly lost, we hear a “Diane?  Bill?” It was our landlord. The taxi driver really did give us good directions.

Our flat is on the 5th floor (no elevator), so bringing the bags up was a chore but, hey, we just walked 500 miles. We can walk a few flights of stairs.

Wednesday was all about getting our sense of direction. We are staying in the “El Born” area of Barcelona. Tallish buildings, narrow alleys, and non perpendicular streets make direction finding a bit daunting.

We were able to find a large park and did our first run in 6 weeks. The combination of not running for so long and the abuse of walking so much made this an interesting event. We figured it was much like a pirate with two peg legs trying to run. No spring, just: thud, thud.

Today we’ve started branching out. To the beach, Las Ramblas, markets, etc.

And so that this blog won’t be entirely photo-less, here is Barcelona’s Arc de Triomphe:

Also, here’s the Chris Columbus monument celebrating his return from the first voyage to the new world:

Finally, as a follow up to the video of the Botafumeiro, I know the video was really hard to download, so here’s a still shot. If you want to see the full video, you’ll have to come visit us when we get home!

And, the farewell is no longer, “now for chores”. Instead, we’ll go with, Hasta la Vista.