Finito

I arose early to a heavy moist mist for my trundle into Santiago what a difference to my start 29 days previously, the fog lasted until 11.30am I was nearly in Santiago what a bonus!
On the way in I met a couple that had walked from Salamanca(500k´s)they were about 15k´s from the city and were waiting for a bus, I felt sorry for them and confused. As i started approaching the centro area(the old city) the narrowing of the streets made traffic even more chaotic but with about 500 metres to the cathedral the towering spires came into view rising above everything else, I turned a corner to a riot of people and noise,I was not ready for the amount of people, tourists and pilgrims,the tourists nattily dressed mostly in this seasons colour red and the pìlgrims, well, whatever makes you stand out, the sillier the hat the better, shells tied on their clothing and hats, with thick heavy walking poles in hand, this was a complete contrast to where I had been and their numbers were many. I bustled my way along the approaches to the Plaza De Obradoiro they were occuppied by buskers, souvenir merchants, beggars and the never ending array of coffee/bars shops eager to get bums on seats. The plaza was full of pilgims and tourists standing around spinning a myriad amount of photos, if you stood still someone would ask you to take their photo so I did the same, stood for awhile admired the Portico de la gloria(stairs to the cathedral)and the facade stretching to the sky I slowly made my way out of the plaza found a comfy chair and ordered a cerveza grande(large beer) and peopled watched the most noticeable feature was the "Santiago walk¨" caused by sore feet nearly all had socks and sandals and seemed moderately equipped. This morning I went to the office to pick up my forwarded backpacks and found out that there are over 1500 pilgrims arriving each day over 95% have only walked the required 100km´s for a cerificate worse still they were getting up at 4am to get to the next alburge leave their backpacks there then wait until the next day to do the same, I met less than 30 walkers on the whole camino and only 3 for the first 500k´s so you can imagine the difference. Some friends Mishy turner and Chris did the frances about 2 months ago and it was not that bad maybe the 20% unemployment has the spanish seeking a cheap holiday.One other observation is the amount of bikers I believe it will be overtaken by bikers soon they get the certificates for the same trip and let me tell you a lot of these bikers could not walk 5k´s I am talking obese as I said a sight to see and yes they shave their legs they are all Alberto Contadors.
Well, my camino has now come and gone I have been lucky enough to achieve the 1000k´s and in a time that made it much more interesting than just walking it, as if the (PTI) in me was going to let me do it any other way also Mishy giving a challenge to beat her time was something not to take lightly I would never heard the end of it if I had lost.
Due to the lack of the internet I was unable to bring a lot of the walk and things that happened to me to you, by the time I had access I had moved on, but hopefully there was something there to give some idea of a camino´s walk on the via de plata. I have really enjoyed getting the emails especially from my mate chuck I believe you all should have read them and of course dennis keeping me going with his quotes.
My mum has done a lot of work in raising money and spreading these blogs at 80 plus their is no stopping her!
I am off to Frankfurt tomorrow a few days to settle and see what is on the horizon.
adios
Ian