The Religious Road

Tuesday, September 16, 2014, 11:10 a.m. Joyce and I walked into Obradoiro square and looked up at the cathedral. We had done it! Our goal was accomplished and we were both glad and amazed that we had. 

Then it hit us. Ok, now what - and then we looked around to see that the square was somewhat smaller than we had thought it would be, and the cathedral facade was under wraps for renovation, and yes, there were pilgrims in the square but also lots of groups of tourists and day trippers and no one was delirious with religious exaltation - oh, and it was gray and rainy and windy.  In short, kind of anticlimactic. Maybe that's how it also is for marathoners and other people who put out lots of effort for a project and then it's over... 

Well even though no pilgrims prostrated themselves before the gates or walked in on their knees, there were plenty of religious/spiritual examples that we saw on the way, big and small. 

And we had our own spiritual moments

And we saw that people had tried to commemorate important things

This was an awful monument, but it was dedicated to the visit of Pope Benedict on the Camino. 

And stands in sharp contrast to these humble crosses intertwined into the fencing along a roadway

And we went to the evening mass, even though neither of us is Catholic, to participate. Because that's what a pilgrim does. The altar area was beautiful and we did experience the swinging of the huge incense burner, the botafumeiro. 

We also got our "Compostela" the official paper acknowledging your pilgrimage, that is, after a two hour wait in line in the rain... 

And tomorrow: to the end of the world - we are taking the bus to Finisterre, right on the Atlantic and once considered to be exactly that, the end of the world.