Tell me about it! Here in Santiago, we are eyeball deep in Spanish pilgrims from Sarria. There were more than 2,500 pilgrims on Friday AND Saturday. Sunday is looking huge too.
Everything except cafes and restaurants closed early on Saturday. Most retail places will not reopen until WEDNESDAY, 17 August. So much for economic concerns...
Living in Belgium for a few years, I have experienced "bridge holidays" but this is ridiculous. Fortunately we were warned, and laid in necessary provisions to see us through the nearly four-day hiatus. The cafes are open, and my favorite place has my pintas of Franzikaner Weissbier, so I am a "happy camper."
Many, MANY pilgrims of all European nationalities, are leveraging the Spanish national holiday on Monday (Catholic Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven) AND the Tuesday Feast of San Roque, also a "bank holiday" in Galicia, to make their five-day stroll from Sarria with minimal charge to accrued personal or holiday time.
On one hand I understand this pattern. I would likely do the same.
On the other hand, LORD HAVE MERCY! The Pilgrim Office staff are working as hard as they can to process the pilgrims for Compostelas as fast as possible. It is incredible!
I do not know how they manage to stay focused day-after-day, year-after-year. I am here for one-month and after three weeks I am "whipped."
In the new Pilgrim Office, at Rua das Carretas 33, there are 13 positions "puestas" with networked computers, plus another three in the group office. They even pressed some seminarians and local Jesuits into "volunteer" duty to do Compostelas manually, with data entry occurring after the fact. I am told this is "old school," but it DOES work.
So, the Pilgrim Office is cranking on FIFTEEN processing positions for Compostelas, PLUS another three in the group office. This manages to keep the queue to less than an hour, at most times, and days. Still, without volunteers, they would not stand a prayer of a chance.
As an aside, if you want to give back, consider volunteering. You just go the the Cathedral of Santiago welcome page, in English, and drill down on the Pilgrim Offce. On their home page there is a "seeking volunteers" blurb and link. Just do it!
Exceptions occur when the morning surge to make the noon Pilgrim Mass hits at about 11:00, and again at about 13:15, when the Cathedral "flush" occurs. It is much like toilet use at half-time in a football match. At these times, the queue regularly peaks at about two-hours.
It is amazing to see a wall of pilgrims surging down Rua das Carretas towards the office, shortly after the noon Mass lets out. But it occurs, to varying degrees, everyday.
I hope this helps.