It rained torrentially all through last night. Around dawn I was still asleep (at least my eyes were closed) when there was a tremendous burst of light which I could see through my eyelids. Then there was the nearly simultaneous crack of lightening and a terrible rumble of thunder. I nearly levitated off the mattress. Honestly, I expected to hear the sound of hotel emergency alarms (whatever they might sound like), or smell a burning fire, or hear the crumbling of walls. But there was only pounding rain.
So today I am thankful we were not struck by lightening which would have been so sad, especially since we were newly minted peregrinos who had walked through the EAST door of the cathedral.
Breakfast was a full buffet of actually good breakfast food. The best breakfast in Spain - anything would be better than the normal two pieces of toast and hot chocolate
We finally made it into Santiago - we had waited quite a while for the rain to stop. Our goal was to explore the cathedral in an organized manner and go through the cathedral museums.
As I see it, there are five big must see/do
activities.The first is to enter through the west door and walk under the Portico de la Gloria. Here is the west door (you saw this yesterday). But notice the scaffolding which means you can not go under the portico!!! The portico is a super famous sculpture by Mateo. Fortunately the museum had a big display showing how the restoration work was being done.
Right in the center is the Tree of Jesse which depicts the family tree of Jesus. Google Tree of Jesse, to understand what you missed in Sunday school. Here are photos I got from the Internet cuz you can't see it now.
Bottom and top of pillar.
And a photo of a big poster of St James.
Second is to climb the stairs behind St James and put your hand on his shoulder - did this yesterday.
Four is to be at a mass where the big 175 pound botafumeiro,which is the largest censor for spreading incense smoke in the world, is swung back and forth from a pulley system high above the alter.
The only time you can be sure to see this spectacle is on Friday at the 7:30 pm mass. And we were there! Settled in the incredibly uncomfortable wooden pews (I'll never complain again about our cushioned pews in the chapel), we were there at 6 :30 prepared to wait for an hour. Then.......an announcement over the loudspeaker, "Due to safety concerns, the botafumeiro will not be swung tonight. Lo siento." Well, that was a bust! We weren't the only people in the packed cathedral who quietly got up and left.
Five: during Holy Years (when St James Day of July 25 falls on a Sunday), the Puerta de Perdon (Door of Pardon) which is the entrance on the east side of the cathedral, is opened and pilgrims can enter and leave through this door. I hear you wondering why this is important. This year has been declared by the Pope to be a Year of Mercy and therefore a Holy Year and as such, by using this door you can receive full indulgences rather than the partial indulgences that a non-Holy Year bequests. So we used this door. 
Our next activity was to go to the Pilgrim Museum. What a frustrating afternoon! We couldn't find it. We had the address but we couldn't find the street on our map. After asking for directions we finally found the building with a tiny note attached to the door saying that it had been moved to a different location. And then we still couldn't find it.
Sigh. Then it started to rain. We gave up, got a taxi and went to the hotel to wait for dinner time. Dutifully at 7:00 pm we went to the restaurant and were told dinner wouldn't be served until. 8:30. We couldn't believe it. So we ordered a sandwich from the bar
And so went the second day in Santiago.
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