Santiago

We spent a couple of hours in our room just chilling out...the bottle of vino blanco from Rueda helped, and the it was time for pre dinner drinks with the new group. When we got down stairs nearly all the group were watching a big screen TV of golf. Some numpty asked me whether I followed golf; and I proceeded to let them have it about  what I thought of a group of grown ups hitting a tightly bound ball of rubber bands long distances across grass, sand and water into a hole that has a flag stuck in it and no sooner finally getting the rubber band ball in the hole to whisk it out without even leaving it in there long enough to take a photo and then doing it all over again for at least 9-18 times. And then.... Lying about how handicapped you are. I would have thought that in this day and age of PC the last thing you should be doing is taking the mickey out of people with disabilities!!! I just don't get it.... But after my explanation to all and sundry, that seemed to set the tone of the evening.
As luck, providence or happenstance would have it, Jo and I ended up in the middle of the long table for dinner and without deliberately meaning to, we ended up holding court for both ends of the table. We had our little group in stitches. As Jo says, we really were the life of the party. Everyone of them want to be in our gang, but I've already warned Richard, the American retired teacher from Pennsylvania that he needs to be careful that I don't vote him off the island. There's another fellow who sat opposite me that I have no idea what his name is, that I've already had to do two 'hurtful's to for laughing at me while I've been telling a story, so he is treading a fine line. So, all in all a good night. Food was okay and the smaller group really makes a huge difference. Back to our room to enjoy heading off for nigh-nighs without having to set an alarm for the morning...bliss!

Am feeling very human again after a good night's sleep. Up at 8 at which time I made a cuppa in the George Clooney coffee machine in our room. This is heaven... Leisurely breakfast at 9.30 and then we decided to walk to the St James cathedral ( where all the pilgrims who end their walk come) and wander around the old town. It was about a 15 minute walk from our fabulous hotel and the old city is very much up hill and down dale so we are certainly getting our exercise today. We found a great shoe store that was having a sale so as my money was burning a hole in my pocket I bought myself a pair of blue sandals. Jo liked them that much that she bought herself a negros (black) pair and other pair to boot! More wandering around and then we decided it was lunch time so picked one of the outdoor seating restaurants (there are dozens to choose from) and I had a lovely bowl of moussaka plus the obligatory cupo de vino blanco. We watched the world go by for a while and then hit the shops again. Lots of jewellery stores but most is in silver which doesn't float my boat. We still had an hour to spare before we were due to meet with the rest of the group for a tour of the cathedral so went back to a pastry shop we had passed earlier to buy ourselves some afternoon tea for later. That duly done we headed back to the cathedral square, met our group who had all gone to visit a fishing village in the morning, and did our cathedral tour.
This cathedral houses the remains of St James. He didn't die in Santiago but came to Spain to preach Christianity and met his demise when he lost his head, literally. Some 500 years later they found his remains in Santiago and built the cathedral around them. Hence the start of the legend of the pilgrims walk. It was quite interesting but I'd had enough walking around for one day so was pleased when the tour ended and we made our way back to our room for another George Clooney and my chocolate donut. As it was now 5 pm and we had the rest of the night free, it was also time for a swim. Had good intentions of doing the faffing about and trying to add photos, but the pool beckons!