Santiago at night

Thanks for the photos - Aug. 28th was the day after I left Santiago. I got there on the 24th of August and stayed for 3 nights (including one night at the Parador, because after 40 days of walking it seemed worth the splurge).

The best part of Santiago was spending time with fellow pilgrims. A couple weeks before Santiago I'd hooked up with a group of Spanish peregrinos. We met off and on all the way to Santiago, and after arrival we had great fun celebrating the completion of our trek. They took me under their wing and wined & dined me all around town.

On our last night, we went to a cafe up the street from the pilgrim office and had some sort of flaming brew served up in a cauldron (if you could provide info on what that was, I'd appreciate it). We toasted our trek and said our farewells. A nice bunch of folks that I'll never forget

Hello vinotinto,

sounds like you had a "queimada".

It's fairly well described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queimada.
They even have the spell that goes with it in Galician with an English translation.