Farewell to Santiago

"Today is Tuesday, and we are off to Madrid, after we were forced to leave behind Santiago, where we had quickly fallen in love. Yesterday, at the beginning of the morning, we gathered together for mass with new guests who arrived especially for the occasion, the head of the Franciscans in the region and Portuguese speaking nuns.

At the end of mass, we were told an interesting story that we could all learn from! In this story, we were told about a blind person who is walking with a lamp. Someone asks him, why he, a blind person, would need a lamp. The blind person answers that the lamp is not for him but to light the way for others. In the course of the story, one of the members of the group covered his eyes and held a lamp that was passed from one to the other, to each person in the chapel. After the mass, we had to take leave of our friends the "Riquinios" (the host group). The parting was long and emotional but we hope we might meet up in Madrid.

From there, we set off to the Tomb of Saint James the Apostle, but the queue at the entry was so long that we gave up on the idea of the visit. We divided up into small groups in order to walk around, and of course whoever wanted to could stay in the convent and rest. At 17.00 according to Spanish time we met at the Cathedral and went back to the convent to pack our bags. When bags were all packed, we went out for a satisfying and delicious meal and then went to the square of the Cathedral. There, each day, at 22.00 there is a performance of Spanish folk music. In addition, we enjoyed watching a ceremony of a witch hunt that was taking place in order to promote a restaurant adjacent to the Cathedral. We danced a little and we had a good time and thus we said our farewell to the Cathedral and we went home to sleep."