Visited the Museo de Las America's, also the needle, and tested bus time

Hello, everyone. Today we were strolling in Madrid. 

First we tracked down the booth with city tourist information.  The nice lady gave us a downtown map of the city, and a metro route map, and told us about the lovely 001 bus that goes right to the area of the Museo de Las Américas. While we rode it, we noticed that the opposite direction of travel ends at Atocha Station. Which is where the Yellow express airport bus departs from. Synergy!

These are weapons used by the natives of the Philippines before they got iron tech from the Spanish. (Sawfish jaws)

We visited the museum--honestly it's a bit of a "grandma's attic" place but with some beautiful pieces--and then rode the elevator of the needle 92 meters up to view the city. Interesting info boards in the viewing platform. Then, starving because we hadn't eaten breakfast and it was after 1 pm, we stopped at McDonald's for a coffee and cheeseburger in the university area. Caught up to that same bus where it turns around to head toward Gran Via and then Atocha Station. 

We timed the ride from where we will likely board to the Atocha end of the route, about 20 minutes,  and then by way of the Decathlon store, the Barrio de Las lettres, and the Mercado de San Miguel, strolled back to our place. (There was, of course, drinking and snacking en route.)

Remembering some of the paths

Hello, everyone. Now that we have completed our pilgrimage to Santiago, and have some moments to reflect (sitting in the laundromat) I will share something about the paths we encountered in Galicia.

The province does trail maintenance in some places. This place is somewhat low lying and after rain, as we can see, there will be standing water. They added a row of stone down the middle for walking on.

After the amount of dancing around flooded trails we had done already, we were grateful for this steady place to step.

Pilgrims' Mass at the Cathedral (edited for spelling)

Hello, everyone.  Yesterday,  after my post, we went to the 1930 Pilgrims' Mass. We should have gone into the church earlier...like a whole hour early. But we were only about 25 or 30 minutes early. So we were Standing Room Only. (Have the Cathedral people cut down on the available seating? I think I remember more seats than there are now...) I was going to put up a photo of the Altar area from the place we were standing, but the Blogger app keeps turning it sideways...

My Spanish isn't super, but Mass was still very edifying. I was so grateful to be there and to have completed our pilgrimage. 

This is kind of wonky, but we were standing under the pipes of the great organ. As y'all can see, the Botafumeiro is out of action. I saw a post on the Camino Forum that they had brought it back after the renovation but a bit of hardware fell off and it's back in the shop until they craft a new replacement piece--remember that these ancient things predate standardized parts, you can't run down to Ace Hardware to get a new 6x25 screw to put into it--and the rumor on the Camino Forum runs toward months before it flies again.

Nonetheless I was purely grateful to have completed our pilgrimage. The distance certificate says 1,007 km. (Over our two seasons of progress!)