We're Official

October 20
As it turns out, we spend hours in the old quarter (one could spend days here).

From the seminary, we make our way, without backpacks (not only does walking minus my pack and poles feel weird and off balance, it feels like cheating to not carry the load all the way to the Cathedral), to the Camino and follow it to the old town.  We enter through the famous Porta do Camiño (Gate of the Way), which we either miss or don't know what to look for because, frankly, neither of us notice anything impressive.  The quarter is a warren of narrow, crooked streets connecting numerous plazas, in no orderly pattern.  All sorts of shops, restaurants, albergues, and businesses crowd together in the streets, offering an abundance of input for the senses.  The area is bustling with people--tourists and pilgrims--and we encounter a jam on a staircase leading down to an arch, under which street performers have drawn a crowd.  Other street artists we pass are a mime, head-to-toe in white and posing as a statue of Ghandi, and a bagpiper (yep, I walk most of the way across Spain to keep bumping into lovely bits of Ireland).

Kiosks dot the squares; statues, architectural features...

...and the almost unconscious watchfulness for familiar faces vie for attention.  None of this prepares us for the Praza Obradoiro, the plaza in front of the main entrance to the Cathedral.

Using the limited and somewhat inaccurate map in the guidebook, it takes us awhile to find this praza; but, as the Cathedral is the center of the old town, we realize that finding it, and the praza, will make it easier to find the other places we're aiming for--the pilgrim office and the office of tourism.  Our approach to the praza is from the back of the Cathedral.  This view whets the appetite for the main course.

Entering the praza is overwhelming.

I know immediately that I will take only a few photos here.  I could never do it justice, nor would I know where to begin.  There is simply too much to take in.  I do take a pair of pictures from the front steps of the Cathedral, looking down on the praza, to represent how futile it would be to try to capture this place.  In the second photo, there is a huge chartered coach to the right and it looks like a toy.

Although the Cathedral, and so much more, is temptingly right in front of us, we had decided on our way here that the pilgrim office would be our first stop.  Upon arrival, and with great anticipation, I climb the entrance stairs with Jerri.  We enter a waiting area.  As the clerks (I don't really know what their title is) become free, they come for the next in line.  Jerri and I get escorted to the counter at the same time.  We hand over our credencials and fill in our information and signatures in registry books.  Then we wait while our compostelas (religious certificates of completion) are prepared.

It's very moving when the clerk hands me mine and points out my Latin name (Catherinam Mariam) and today's date handwritten into the original Latin text of medieval compostelas.  I place my pilgrim offering in the box on the counter and ask if they sell tubes for the compostelas.  The clerk tells me they are available at most souvenir shops.  Sure enough, directly across the street, we pop into a shop where the saleswoman has a supply of them right behind her counter.  Our compostelas safely tucked into tubes in our bags, we venture off to find the office of tourism.

As we wend our way in the direction the map indicates, we bump into Texas Girl.  She walks with us a bit.  I ask where she got the tourist map she's holding.  She got it at her hotel, but she says that she's seen them in stores, etc.  It seems reasonable that we'll be able to get one in the tourism office, which (practically pulling my hair out now) is closed.  The only thing that keeps me from screaming is that, according to our map, there is another tourism office in the area.  Indeed, as we're standing there, referring to the map for directions, a woman stops and tells us the other office is pretty much just down the street.  And it's right where she said it would be.  Inside, we get a much better city map, information on taking a bus to Finisterre, and have our map marked with directions for the easiest route to the bus station.  We also get a sello.  No, we no longer require them, but to us, our Camino is not finished yet.  Besides, we like collecting them.

Guided by our new, improved map, we return to the Cathedral.