Home safe & sound!!! Here is my last Spanish sunrise at Santiago airport this morning! I perhaps saw more sunrises the past two months than at any other time in my life - as many of you know, I am not a morning person! However, on the Way, pilgrims are usually walking at first faint light and if they remember to stop & turn around, there's a spectacular sunrise to give them hope in a new day!

Then from the plane window, the sight of this fog in a valley brought back wonderful memories of those early mornings where I walked in the encompassing whiteness & dampness of fog.

The trusty day pack came to Omaha with me!!

And kind friends came to the airport to welcome me home!

And here is the backpack all shrink wrapped for last leg of its travel!! Son Paul picked me up and delivered me to home sweet home!! Omaha looks great especially after the cleansing rain today. It was a long day so I am going to crawl into MY full-sized bed with cotton sheets!! Thanks for all your support, prayers, encouragement and love during my time of walking the El Camino de Santiago!!

Unbelievable!!! With Judi's help, I tallied up the approximate number of kms or miles that I walked on this adventure!! Are you ready?? Better sit down... From St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compestela, I walked 436 km which is 270 miles!!! YES!! That is a little over halfway...much more than I thought I did. I was on the path for 51 days. A very surreal feeling that I really did accomplish what I set out to do!

 A happy arrival in to the Praza Obradoiro on October 17!! It was so nice to be greeted by friends - this is Judi from MI.

And here are Hilde, Agnes, Judi & Marijka - Melanie was there too.

Waiting in line at the Pilgrim's Office to get my compestalo - it was a joyous time being with others having same emotions, etc.

My three creditionals + US passport to prove what I had walked and that I was really me!!

Okay, once again the pack is packed and ready for the journey home to Omaha starting rather early so off to bed I go! Arriving in Omaha around 6:40 pm on 23rd!

Well, no success for an English rooftop tour so we did the Spanish one which got us up on the roof!!! Well, I was sort of on the roof

Judi got me holding on for dear life when we first came out from just behind me!!

- I wasn't able to walk up & across the top of slanted stone 'tiles' but was able to creep down to where it was flat along the balustrade!!!

 What the ten other people casually walked across!

 Judi had no trouble!

 My vantage point until I saw the others go down to metal walkway - then I used scaffolding to go down to join them!

 One view from rooftop!

I had crawled up to ridge so able to see over!

 This is with no zoom!!

 Also no zoom!

 Another view out over Santiago! It was worth the 10€ & fright!!!

Another wonderful day in Santiago!! A nice sleep in as shutters make the bedrooms so nice and dark!! Then up the street stairs to a nice little cafe that Judi found yesterday for breakfast - I am going to miss chocolate croissants! Then back to Cathedral to sign up for roof top tour. Today's answer was there were no English tours at all today!! We grumbled a bit then left with the plan to take a Spanish tour tomorrow if English one isn't available. We will at least see the views! Off we went to find the market - we did:

Meat - some still with hoof attached!

Fish - cleaned while you watched!

Fish close up

And closer!

Courtyard of market with fruits & vegetables also being sold. It wasn't busy when we were there - Wed not a shopping day, we were late & everyone had already shipped, or we were early!!!  Then we wandered along some streets we hadn't been before and found some interesting sights:

A simple church on outside...

Quite nice inside!

A handsome statue.

Another nice church dome with impressive doors:

We had a lovely lunch back at the nearby cafe - tomato caprece and area cheese plate- it was all delicious & I'm sorry I forgot to take a photo because it was presented so nicely!! Then home for a rest - we are finally in sync with siesta time!! Then off to walk in the large park close by:

Yes, there are palm trees in Santiago!

This is one huge tree!

Some friends I met in the park!!

Past bedtime - tomorrow is the pack & organize day! Plus hopefully a Cathedral rooftop tour in English!!

A sunny day in Santiago!! We slept in then attempted to get tickets for Cathedral rooftop tour to no avail. So went to noon mass with hopes of seeing the botafumeiro swing - the Cathedral was full by the time we got there so sat on stone steps & enjoyed the beautiful voice of a nun who warmed up the crowd before mass started. Aha! Success in seeing the botafumeiro in action!!!

I don't know if this video will work or not...

 Getting ready to start swinging

 The botafumeiro

 The pulley system

The ropes used to make it swing!

The men doing the work!
After that wonderful experience, we had a delicious lunch at the San Martin Pinario

which used to be a monastery but now is a hotel.

Dining room

Seafood stuffed pepper

Dab = fish

Sorry that I forgot to take photos before eating some of each dish!!!

Then home for a rest then we went to the San Franciscan convent/church for me to a compestalo:

Then we took the miniature train tour of the city - I forgot to get a photo of it & it was to rough of a ride to take photos.

Except this one did work - the Cathedral in the sun

 Then a nice dinner of ravioli at a small cafe with a stop at our nearby ice cream place!! Then home to settle in:

Our place is the small building behind tree. You can see the Cathedral tower with scaffolding in the background. We are so conveniently located!!