This morning was a little overcast, so we took our new $5 umbrellas when we went out on our tour. And I wore both my coat and my sweater. It was a good idea, but by noon, it was way too much of a good thing.
We had the best city guide I can remember for this walking tour, enthusiasm, great people skills, and an ability to pack a lot of information and activity into a three hour tour. 
I think the best part for me, though, was when we first got to the square in front of the church. A woman walked into the square from the "French" entrance, and it was such a moving experience for her to have arrived that she was trying very hard not to cry. We saw many other pilgrims arrive today, one of the fun parts about just hanging out in the square, but that was the most raw emotion I saw all day.
A good part of our tour was inside the church, because there is so much to see. One of the cool things is that they have a big sensor (just tried a million spellings for that and none of them looks right-- a thing that distributes incense) which is about five feet tall.
On special occasions (religious holidays, or when someone pays for it) they swing this sensor the whole length of the church. As with so many things on this trip, we got lucky. It's absolutely amazing to see. They have five or six guys pulling on the rope to make it go. I made a video of it, but can't upload it. I think when out of town priests bring groups here, they might get to help celebrate the mass. One of the priests was so thrilled, he kept whipping out his cell phone to take pictures. Santiago really is a very spiritual place, even to a heathen like me, and even with all the commercialization.
Being an old medieval town, it also has some tiny narrow streets, some too narrow for an umbrella. 
We had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe, with perhaps the surliest waiter I've met in Europe. Or maybe he wasn't really a waiter. Everything he brought to the table he kind of slammed down like he was angry, refused to change my order when he got it wrong, and so on. But it was a good time anyway.
We had a really nice almond cake for dessert, though the rest of the meal was nothing to write home about -- though I am writing home about it, after all. Once we finished eating, we shopped a bit more, didn't buy anything -- but John's back was hurting so he lured me back to the hotel so he could take some naproxen, and about ten minutes after we got back a thunderstorm that lasted for 3 hours started, so of course, by that time John was in airplane worry mode and we never left the hotel again. I may go out at midnight, because tonight is bonfire night for the solstice, and there are several that will be near our hotel. But then again, we are leaving at 6 a.m., so not all that likely.
Changed my mind. It stopped raining so I went out and walked a bit around 9 pm. The smoke in this picture is from all the bonfires at about 9:30. As you can see, the sun is still quite high in the sky. It's now almost 11, and it's finally dark. 
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