Time for a break....: Day 53 – Day 55 (31/05/13

Santiago de Compostella

After a late start we rolled down into Santiago, following the last few Scallop shell symbols towards the Cathedral Square, the final destination for the Pilgrims. The route was not particularly special, just riding through the outskirts of the town, past café’s and shops before reaching the walls of the town, cobbled windy streets and the beginning of the Compostella tourist shops.

We stopped before the middle of town at a bike shop we found online, as Johanna's bike now needed a bit of TLC. New chain, new derailleur, sprockets and new brake pads please. Very reasonably priced as well, plus they would get it done in under an hour. That's the difference having a good old bike technician who is genuinely interested and speaks perfect English makes. What a dude. 40 Euros all done. And he didn’t change any bits we didn’t ask for which is always nice. I wish my wheel had broken in Santiago now!

We ambled down to the Cathedral and took some quick pics, then spent a while watching all the Pilgrims arrive. There are loads of people sitting on the cobbled square all around, some have come from Le Puy, many others from St Jean Pied de Port, some started much closer.. Looking at each group of walkers and cyclists, we enjoyed guessing how far each had come from. There were also quite a lot of cyclists, but none we had seen before. The reactions upon arriving in the square are the most amusing. Some people hug each other, some people just quietly sit down and don’t move for ages. Others go straight into the cathedral, the camera never leaving their hands. The Americans inevitably make a big deal of their arrival with lots of whooping and jumping, maybe even some theatrical tears can be expected. The 'touring' cyclists seem to come in two forms. Couples who tend to be French or German, and the teams of Spanish guys who are all wearing team colours Lycra. They like to sing or chant songs when they are arriving or rolling through the square. One such team also had race numbers on their bikes, and “Leon – Santiago 2013” written on them. We were in Leon 3 cycling days ago.

We had an hour before collecting the bike so we had a quick look around the main town, bought a couple of T-shirts and posted some mail before a quick drink in the sun and then back out of town. On the way out, after picking up the bike we saw some faces that we recognised cycling into the town! The two young Spanish guys who we met a couple of times, then the group of Spanish cyclists with the support vehicle from the hailstorm, another older French guy who we saw in Burgos town centre and a few others. We were equally pleased and surprised that we had managed to come first in the strictly non-competitive Santiago de Compostella race, and by a margin of a whole day! Winners! ;) We celebrated with a sit down kebab.

The next day we decided to find a swimming pool, but it was rubbish so we just had another look around the town (a lot to see), Cathedral and took it easy. Had another great Menu del Dia in the evening. Relaxing.