Santiago!

Whew...
If I never hear...
"It's all downhill from here"
again..
I'll be glad.
Rolled into town at 4pm, threaded our way through traffic, pilgrims, tourists, and patient locals to the Santiago Cathedral, the finish line for the Camino.
We got one of the pesky walkers that kept up with us to get our photo in front of cathedral, and then spent an hour finding our hotel...where I collapse into bed for my afernoon nap. It is not really a nap, more of comatose lapse.
42km today, up/down/up/down...not much more of the cowpie goo, and the weather has been pretty nice...ok, not raining is nice now.
Tomorrow we go do the traditional pilgrim stuff, rub St. James's belly, see the pilgrims mass, and get our Compostela, the certificate from the church that states we finished the pilgrimage. It is supposed to absolve you of all past sins (I call it my 'Get out of hell free card)
Pilgrim's Mass is actually quite cool. I suppose it would be better if I understood what they were saying, of course..but there were teary eyes in many spots. The huge swinging sensor (incense holder..65lbs)was quite impressive, 6 monks haul it up after they fill it with incense, and get it going in a huge arc, Dad is going to pace it off...once a surveyor...
He guessed at least a 200' arc.
At 6pm we took a tour of the Cathedral and surrounding plazas with an English speaking guide that was very amusing at times...
He showed us the old hospital, now a Paradore hotel, avery expensive chain of hotels in Spain, always located in historical buildings. This one has rows of gargoyles that double as rainspouts. The two directly over the main entrance have their mouths twisted sideways, so that the entry is rainfree...
He says, "Now count three over from the right one over the entrance, check out that gargoyle...you'll notice it has the rain coming out...a different orifice..".
The drain was a gargoyle mooning the plaza, with a large set of cojones adjacent...you can guess where the water came out.
The tour guide also pointed out a quartet of statues near an entrance inside, one of which was St. Daniel, who was smiling...which is unusual for a Catholic statue.
Rumor has it he is smiling because of the naked breasts on the statue across the pathway...which the shocked clergy kept reducing the bust size on. The enterprising Spanish made up for the smaller titties on the statue by making their cheeses shaped like breasts...'tittillas'.
I just can't help myself...and pipe up: "So, is this where the custom of saying 'Cheese' to get people to smile for photographs came from? St. Daniel leering at titties!?"
Everyone burst out laughing, and Ann said it was being translated into many languages...
I know what I will be thinking of when saying 'Cheese' from now on!
We are renting cars tomorrow and stuffing ourselves, our bikes, and our luggage into them in the morning and driving back to Madrid and our flight home Saturday morning.