18-June-2016 Santiago

We started the day with a nice toasted croissant and coffee, Lynette had tosada again then we headed back to the cathedral to get our seats for the midday pilgrim mass. We had been told to get in before 11.00 to get a seat. We noticed that the tour groups all came in around the 11.30 mark, 11.15 you would have still got a seat but not long after.
The mass was interesting, that had primary school kids seated in front of the altar, secondary behind, then a priest procession of about 20 appeared. The mass was given in Spanish, it seemed like at one point they were naming the routes and the nationalities of the pilgrims but we couldn't tell for certain. The mass cumulated with the swinging of the incense, apparently this tradition started to mask the smell of the pilgrim congregation, maybe the scrotum washing wasn't sufficient.
After mass we spotted Felix and Phoebe talking to Martin, we exchanged numbers and rushed off to catch up with Julie and Chris for lunch as arranged. It was a good lunch with plenty of our highlights and lowlights discussed and lots of belly laughing.
We said our final goodbyes, then we had souvenir shopping to do. We bought the small stuff, fridge magnet, hat pins, a couple of tiles, a desk top way marker and a pair of arrow socks.
We retired for an afternoon rest. Lynette received a text from Phoebe to come out to a bar in the evening to celebrate Felix's birthday. We did this, Martin was there for a while, after he left Dermont, Matt and Hannah turned up. More good reliving of the last three weeks, much beer and wine consumed. Eventually we headed off sadden that the journey is complete and we now have to return to the world again. We  leave Santiago at 6.00am on the train to Madrid.
Lynette will continue Spanish studies in Madrid for another week before heading to Valencia for 2 more before heading back to Australia to visit the kids. I will return to Ghana one day earlier than usual to have an offshore medical. Hasta luego!