I Have Arrived

The Portuguese route people met in front of the cathedral this evening.  Most went to dinner together, but Cate and Challa are vegetarian, so we went elsewhere.  My Italian sisters walk on to Finisterre tomorrow.  Their friends, another Italian and a French man, joined us. It was a good end to the Caminho.

If you do this walk, the albergue (now we are in Spain it is pronounce al-BER-goo) at Herbon IS NOT TO BE MISSED.  Once the doors opened Paco, the host, gave a long speech in Spanish.  Nu-Nu, a Portuguese lawyer, translated it as "Now we sign in."  Nu-Nu is left, Paco is right.

The whole evening turned into kind of a Paco and Nu-Nu show, but don't let me get ahead if myself.

Once we were signed in, showered, and done with laundry, Paco said the grounds were open to explore.  While everyone else went to the pond to soak their feet, I went into the cloister and cemetery and church.  The church is locked to the outside, so when I came through the side door I kind of surprised a man there  setting up for the Saint Antoino festival that begins shortly, soon to be followed by the San Benito festival.  I helped him move the electronic votives across the sanctuary.  He, unlike Paco, spoke quite good English.  I wandered the cemetery and cloisters taking photos, then went back to sit with the other ten or so guests.

Before dinner Paco took us on a tour.  There used to be a priest living there that would say a special blessing for the pilgrims.  The Franciscan order pulled him about two months ago.  There is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen to the monestery now that there are no more monks.  It used to be a boarding school and facility for training handicapped children, now a developer has made an offer for the property.  The Catholic church has given the Galician pilgrims association authority to run it as long as they can do so without running a deficit.

Paco showed us the fields where the famous Padron peppers were first cultivated and explained that the monks were a bit naive and allowed nearby Padron to trademark the name of the pepper.  That is why you hear of Paddon Pimentos or Peppers, instead of the more accurate Herbon Peppers.

Pimentos de Herbon growing where they were first cultivated.

On the feast day of St Antonio the whole community attends mass.  It sounded like it was celebrated back to back all day long, then followed by a massive dinner held in the priest's dining hall.

They let the community dine in peace, no one preaches from the built in pulpit (Anders is German and seemed to like getting between the camera and whatever I was trying to shoot).

We returned to have dinner together.  Paco told long, elaborate stories which had all the Portuguese rolling with laughter.  The translation provided by Nu-Nu frequently involved Schnapps as a solution to almost all problems a pilgrim faces.  We shared a bottle of homemade wine, we shared some schnapps, we did the dishes.   The next morning we made our donations and walked on.

Entering Santiago is amazingly anti-climatic.  Walking through subdivision after subdivision is rarely a treat.  I found my way to the cathedral and started wandering around it.  I came around a corner and heard a street musician playing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".  I had enough sense left to pull out my camera and video it.  It was a perfect way to walk around for my first sight of the main cathedral square.

The line was over an hour long at the Pilgrim's office.  I will have to return tomorrow morning.

My caminho is nearly done.  I wish you all bom caminho or buen camino.