bling

700+ Km done 0 Km to go. Blisters 1 (new). Waist-hip ratio 0.80 (slinkier)

All done. I arrived first thing on Monday morning with a bit of a sense of anticlimax as I walked through a normal European town starting the working week! But the cathedral square was empty and the old city just waking up. I presented my ´credencial´with all its stamps documenting my journey (picture), picked up my certificate and headed for the Pilgrim Mass at 12md. The cathedral is old (11th and 12 the century) quite beautiful and austere but with lots of modern (17th century) bling - gold paraphenalia, stucco figures etc. There are various things a pukka pilgrim has to do, including hugging the figure of the Saint (from the back) and butting the tower of Jesse with your head. During the Mass with a big team of priests doing strange rituals up front, I really felt alienated from the whole biz. But I was tired (actually strangely and VERY tired) and spent much of the rest of the day doing not-very-much and wondering what I was doing there.

But I woke up today after 10 hours sleep and headed off to the cathedral in a better mood. I unexpectedly hit a service during which I felt completely overwhelmed. Exactly the same service as yesterday (and in Spanish of course) but at the point where everyone is asked to greet the people around them, I felt that the United Nations was there and got all tearful. Then (again unexpectedly) they swung the botafumerio. This is an enormous silver censer; it takes two strong men to carry it and 8 to swing it. They swing it high over the north and south trancepts, 40 feet in the air like a huge pendulum, spreading incense over the whole congregation. I have to say that it was an absolutely amazing sight and I suddenly felt part of history.

I know you´ll be interested

587Km done 113Km to go, Blisters 0. Mantras lots

Well I know you will be interested in my feet. Thanks for your concern but the blister is fine. But a few days ago, I got dressed in the dark (as usual) but within a few hours realised that something very exciting was going on under the sock of my right foot. It wasn´t until the toilet of a bar some hours later that I peeped and what I saw made me hurry to the next hostal (ie place where I would get a room to myself). When the compression of 2 pairs of socks came off, some little lumpettes grew in front of my eyes to really dramatic vesicles. Others went a strange purple colour. It was briefly quite mesmerising, unfortunately I didn´t take a picture at the time so what you see is a couple of days later. Bed bug attack, I think. Putting my shoes on the next day was interesting and slow, but once they were on, strangely comfortable, like a baby enjoying a wet nappy. And all is getting better.

Rest of the body is fine and I´m charging along. Km markers have started appearing by the path so you really have the feeling of clocking off the distances.

The other picture is of a mini-Pamplona in a village I spent a night in. Mini because the village was small (one street, one square) and the bull was small (but nifty). Poor creature wasn´t very cross and didn´t seem to understand what was required of it. I found the whole business hard to watch.

I´ve booked my ticket home (next Wednesday) and absolutely longing to be back!

Much love