Friday, April 24- cloudy, rainy day. Rémi and Ron left around 7:30 headed for Portomarîn- 22.1 km. Monique and I took the bus to Santiago. We will hang out together for two days until she leaves for Paris and then home on Sunday. I will stay here the guys arrive on Tuesday. We walked from the bus station to the old part of town and eventually found our hotel just outside of the busy pedestrian area. This town is hopping. So many pilgrims and tourists. I hadn't imagined that it would be this busy at this time of year. I can't think of being here during the real pilgrim high season.(June to September)
After checking in and dropping off our bags we hit the town. We hadn't had much to eat so that was our first stop. Afterwards we wanted to visit the Cathedral. It's definitely the highlight in the town, unless of course you have finished walking the camino then The Pilgrim's office is the place to be. There you your official credential of completing the trek, at least the last 100 is that's all you did. Neither Monique nor I can claim that fame, but Monique is much closer than me. She only has to come back for 5 days to finish it up. One day she will do that. Not sure about me yet.

Renovations are going on at the Cathedral.

The Altar inside of the Cathedral

One of the side streets in the old section.

There's a statue of St.James behind the altar area where people go to touch it and pray or whatever. Monique and I did that today. There is a pilgrim mass everyday at noon so we will attend tomorrow.