We had an enjoyable stay at Casa de Casal and in the morning were looking forward to an easy walk into Santiago. It was only about 16 km to Santiago so we took our time leaving. I had rented a flat in Santiago and the host could not meet us until after 2:30 anyway so even if we pushed to make the Pilgrim’s mass (which I did in 2012) we still would have had a few hours before freshening up. So we decided to postpone the Pilgrim’s mass until the next day, but to go to the 7pm mass this night

It had rained during the night and threatened to do so in the morning, but we only felt a few drops. The clouds kept us and the the pavement cool. The walk into Santiago was really uneventful. We kept looking for the spires of the Cathedral, but from our approach, which was a gentle climb entering from the South, there isn’t a good view of the city. We stopped about 5 km from the center of the city for a little refreshment and then made our way to the Cathedral.

We met our host, and were surprised by the spaciousness and how modern the flat was.  Like in Ourense, we had plenty of room to move about, with a nice sized and well equipped kitchen, bath, and laundry.  The flat was next to the main market (Mercado de Abastos)  and about 3 blocks through old town to the Cathedral.  We freshened up, headed for a bar for a beer and some late lunch then went to the Cathedral for the photo below.

The Cathedral was not very pretty being draped in scaffolding and under cosmetic repair. In 2012 both spires were visible. They were dingy and dark brown, but the shape was a nice skyline. This year the scaffolding hid everything (so it has been cropped out of the photo).

We took a few photos, went to the Pilgrims’ office to pickup our Certificates but the line was over an hour long so we postponed that until the next day.  Instead we went to the Post Office to pick up the bag I had shipped ahead, had an early dinner then went to the Cathedral for evening mass.

They did swing the Botifumerio, which is always impressive! Afterwards it was dinner then back to the flat for the remainder of the evening.

It is hard to describe how exhausted we were. Tired no, exhausted yes. On our first day we were not really ready to walk 14 miles with our packs AND climb that hill out of Ourense.  But the total energy expenditure the first three days from Ourense to Banderia were more of a drain than I had expected.  We had planned to spend the following day in Santiago going to the main food market (Mercado de Abastos de Santiago) in the morning, then to the Pilgrims’ Mass at 11AM, then finally some sightseeing and tourist wandering to select a few gifts and maybe souvenirs. Our planned departure to Fisterra and Muxia was to be the day after our day of rest.   But in the afternoon after we arrived in Santiago, over lunch, we talked about leaving and neither of us were really rested enough.  So I called our host and extended our stay another night.  That gave us another full free day with little to do except sleep in, do some more sightseeing in the city, and rest up, which we did.

In the Mercado-

The Mercado really is a must see and a place to stock up.  There are multiple sellers of cheese, bread, ham, fruit, vegetables, wine – whatever you could want.