The Holy Grail!

Well we finally made it and after checking into our hotel we had a great nights sleep. We got up around 7:30 and went down to the breakfast buffet. Plenty of coffee and all kinds of food. Yum yum nom nom! After breakfast we planned to head out to the Pilgrim office and have our trip and Pilgrim passport validated. If all of our stamps look right (Meaning that we got at least two stamps a day.) to them and we have truly done the 200k required by bike from Ponferrada then they will issue us our Compostela. This will include our last stamp in our pilgrim passport and our certificate of completion our Compostela. When we got in the building there were only a handful of people in line in front of us. We felt we had done everything required but to us this was the Holy Grail. The validation of our trip and a job well done. We had told ourselves along the way that if this part did not work out we would still be happy with the trip. Yeah right. We wanted this it was our Holy Grail and it would really mean a lot to us. When our turn came we went to the counter together and handed over our Pilgrim passports and everything checked out. They entered our information in the official books that will be on record there forever. Next thing I knew we had our official Compostela in our hands! We bought two tubes to put them in and walked out of the office and in to the hallway. We were greeted by Sister Katherine. She asked if we would like to come into the sanctuary and have a prayer and reflect on our Camino. We said yes and she showed us a slide presentation that was both simple and yet meaningful. It really did make us reflect on our entire trip. After we finished there we decided to go to the Pilgrims mass. It is held every day at noon at the Cathedral of Santiago. It is beautiful in every way. The pictures below do not do it justice. There was a sermon in spanish and singing through out. It was beautiful to say the least. We were waiting for the swinging Botafumeiro to be swung but found out it will be done the next day. The Botafumeiro is a giant incense burner that was originally used to fumigate the sweaty pilgrims. We will see it tomorrow for sure. Here is a video clip from the movie The Way so you can see how it looks.  Click here to see a short video. After mass we went back to our room and had peanut butter toast. The lunch of Champions! We took a short nap and headed out to take our bikes back to the bike shop that we rented them from. They were the ones that boxed up the bikes and sent them to Ponferrada. Because it was so crowded we walked the bikes there. We found it without too much trouble. The owner welcomed us in and we gave him our bikes. As crazy as it sounds we had gotten attached to these bikes. It was kind of sad to see them go. The owner was super nice and wanted to video tape us talking about our trip. So we gave him a short interview and we were off this time on foot with no more bikes to worry about. We walked back and found a outdoor cafe and had a few snacks and beers. We felt great. We called it an early night and were back to the room by 9. We have two days left but most of our mission is done but you still never know what might be around the corner. That is the one thing that makes this trip so fun. Oh yeah and that Sherpa thing I was thinking that my job was over. But while I was in the bathroom. I hear my Dad yell out. I am OK and not to look out the door of the bathroom. Well of course I had to look and there was dad laying flat on his back. He had been taking off his shoes and some how slipped off the bed. His only comment was that at least he knew how to fall. Ha Ha Joanne get ready you are getting him back Saturday night! We are looking forward to tomorrow whatever it might bring. Buen Camino!