El Camino de Santiago 2008: final words: epilogue

hey everyone,

in case you're interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/spjones268 has all of the pictures from my pilgrimage. hopefully sometime I will go through and label all of them...

this will be my last entry in an effort to sum up the end of the trip and to post some final pictures that I promised you earlier. on our free day in Santiago we started by going to a museum that had parts of the original cathedral (9th century) on display along with plenty of art from the tenth century on of Santiago, Christ, Mary, and everything else you can imagine. the cathedral is constructed on a hill in Santiago so climbing to floors will bring you to the cloister which is level with the east entrance of the cathedral. after touring we attended the pilgrim's mass at noon where we received recognition for completing the pilgrimage the day before. After this we went down into the actual crypt where Santiago's (James's) bones are held. It was interesting. After this we left the cathedral and went to each lunch as a group. We went to a small tapas bar where we had small appetizer like portions instead of a huge meal. After this we all went in search of an ice cream shop for about twenty minutes without success. After giving up all hope we ended up finding one (actually Grace found it ) hidden away in an old bar that had a nice piano and everything. We all relaxed together for the afternoon enjoying the last half day in Santiago together. After this we got to go to the church's famous rooftop tour where we actually walked around on top of the roof of the cathedral. (The face of the cathedral is actually a baroque facade built in the sixteenth century in front of the original cathedral which was built in the twelve century in romanesque style.) This tour was impressive and included beautiful views of the city. After this we returned to the piano room where I was able to play for some of the people in our group for a while. We then took care of our last minute things before we returned to the hotel. At this point we all geared up for dinner, which was a very nice thank you to our guide Curtis and our professor Dr. Dyer and her husband Steve Hodge for everything that they did for us on the road. At this point we all said our goodbyes and started packing. The first group left for the airport at 6:00 AM, and I ended up eating breakfast at 7:30 and left at 8:00. I ended up having to pay a fee for my bag weighing more than the limit on the way to Madrid, but thankfully once I made it there I didn't have to pay any extra because my final destination was in the United States rather than the EU. Anyway after much traveling and attempted sleeping with several movies and CDs finished I finally arrived at Houston. After racing through customs I was relieved to see my family (mom, dad, and older brother Clint) waiting for me at the gate . All in all it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I hope to do this again sometime soon. I really enjoyed getting to know our entire group on the camino. We definitely had all kinds of experiences together, and I definitely grew a lot as a person as a result. I appreciate everything guys- we definitely should get together sometime in CS! Here are some last few pictures: