I got up and went to meet Mario at the pilgrim office when it opened at 09:00. Guess what? It was raining again. The Parador Dos Reyes Catholicos, a fancy hotel by the cathedral has a tradition where ten pilgrims are given a free lunch each day. We planned on getting two of the ten tickets and having a good lunch. Since I had received my Compostela last night, they would not give me a ticket. Mario got one, however, because he did not get his Compostela until the morning. The interesting thing is that several years ago, ten pilgrims would get a free breakfast, ten pilgrims would get a free lunch, and ten pilgrims would get a free dinner. The Parador cut back and only does lunch now.
We hung around the pilgrim office trying to wait out the rain, but it did not stop. We agreed to meet up again noon at the pilgrim mass. I walked over to the cathedral's south side entrance and went inside. The interior of the cathedral was being renovated. There were no pews, the chandelier was down, there was scaffolding all over the altar and there was extensive masonry work being done. I saw more of a construction zone than the magnificence I saw at the Burgos, Leon, and Astorga Cathedrals. There are two things that a pilgrim must do: (1) visit the remains of St. James in the crypt below the altar and (2) embrace the St. James statue on the retablo by walking up a stairway behind the altar. Because of construction, the daily pilgrim mass was moved to San Francisco Church. On my way out of the cathedral, I bought a rosary made of wood from an olive tree. Since I had passed by many olive groves on my walk, I thought this was fitting.
I went back to the hotel to dry off, then went to Casa Ivar to pick up the luggage I had mailed from St. Jean Pied de Port. It cost €25, and I got to meet Ivar, the guru behind the website and forum:
caminodesantiago.me. We chatted briefly, then I dragged my roller bag back to the hotel. I hurried up and tried to get dry before mass. Leaving the hotel, I requested a late check out. The receptionist was on the phone and seemed to purposely ignore me for five minutes. I was short on time so I ran to church. I made a mistake and went to a church with a similar name: San Frutuoso. I finally got to the pilgrim mass at San Francisco Church late. Mario was not there. Maybe he also went to the wrong church or decided to change plans. I did see the Dutch pilgrim from the previous day and a handful of other pilgrims.
Next, I walked to the Burger King again for lunch. I had a Double Whopper, an Oreo shake, and a large Coke. The previous night at Burger King some Morroccan teenagers walked in and grabbed cups off of trays that were left on tables to self serve themselves free drink. While I was eating lunch today, the same Morroccan teenagers came into Burger King again looking for used cups left on tables. The restaurant employees told them to get out. I walked back to the hotel getting soaked some more and started organizing my two bags. Most of my backpacking clothes were still wet.
I checked out after 18:00, paid the late check-out fee and ordered a taxi on the Pidetaxi app. I was going to fly to Malaga at 20:50 on Air Europa. The constant rain in Galicia was depressing me. I wanted to check out a warmer part of Spain before it was time to return to the United States. The taxi driver was very talkative and seemed to know alot about the Camino. We talked the whole way to the airport in Spanish.
At the airport, there was a long wait to check-in. I noticed out of everyone on my flight, I was the youngest person. I was surrounded by geriatrics. I later learned I was on a charter plane that happened to have an extra seat. The advanced age Spaniards kept bumping into me in the baggage line and later I'd see them cutting each other off in line so they could be the first one's on the plane. Of course, I was given the window seat in the last row of this charter plane.
