Yesterday we walked the final 20km to arrive in Santiago. The most meaningful moment for me was our first sight of the cathedral from about 5 kilometres away. There’s a monument there, but it’s off the trail so many pilgrims don’t visit it. That meant our group of 4 were there alone to celebrate the moment. This was a welcome change from the bus loads of pilgrims we were seeing over the past couple of days. In the 2nd picture you can see the 2 spires of the famous cathedral in the distance!
Once in Santiago we received our official Compostella for walking the Camino. We attended the 7:30 mass, where we had the lucky chance to see the famous ‘botafumeiro’. This is a big urn-looking this that swings from the ceiling to spread incense smoke throughout the cathedral. It’s so big it takes 8 men to get it swinging and it gets up to 80 kilometres per hour! Originally it was used to cover the stench of the stinky pilgrims, but now it’s more symbolic (I’ve done laundry every day, I swear!).
This morning was a tough morning for me. I decided to stay an extra night in Santiago as I have a more relaxed timeline than my group. So I slept in while they got up to walk again. I actually woke up before they left, but couldn’t bear to open my eyes to say goodbye. We’ve spent 24 hours per day together for the past 30 days! The saving grace is that I will meet them in Finisterre in 3 days for a final goodbye (until I can meet Marco and John in Rome!).
Today was a nice day to explore the city. I went to the Parador, which was originally built as a pilgrim hospital, but now is a ritzy hotel. In keeping with history they still serve free meals to the first 10 pilgrims who arrive at 9am, noon, and 7pm. Surprisingly there were only 3 of us who took advantage of today’s breakfast!
Where breakfast is served! Just kidding, we actually had to go right into the kitchen to pick up a tray to take into a dungeon-y area of the hotel. Who cares! Free is free!
I was especially excited to be reunited with pilgrims who completed their journey today. Some of these people made a big impact on my journey and I expected I would never see them again.
Then I met up with 3 Spanish and 2 Italian friends for lunch before returning to my Alburgue. A pilgrim’s afternoon is full with laundry, filling water, buying snacks, etc. in preparation for tomorrow’s journey. I’m starting the extra 121kms to Finisterre and Muxia.
Buen Camino!
Hi Dawn, I'm Guy,one of Marc's other brother. I'm writting you to let you know that Christian wrote a great book on his Compostelle pilgrimmage and of course he mentions you and your blogspot.If you like I can ask Christian to email it to you.