Santiago!

Today I arrived in Santiago!  After several overcast days today was bright, sunny, warm and offered another one of the Spanish deep blue skies that almost don’t look real.

My walk into Santiago was about 15 miles. I started out in the dark with the path illuminated by my head lamp. I had my own little following of fellow pilgrims who either had no headlamp, no batteries, or just decided to follow one light in the darkness. It was peaceful and silent with our little pack spreading out when dawn came.

Most of the path was protected from the sights and sounds of the approaching city as we walked on a dirt track through eucalyptus forest – not indigenous of course but introduced some time ago through many areas of northern Spain. At one point we crossed very near the approach runway for the airport here. The big jets just coming in to land are noticeable. The chain link fence that separates the Way from airport land has been adorned over the years with crosses made of sticks placed there by pilgrims. At this point too you begin to see where people have left behind momentos from their Camino – tee shirts, walking sticks, rain ponchos and hiking boots.

I got to the cathedral at 11:30. My hope was to be there for the pilgrims mass celebrated daily at noon and in the evening. There is an English mass at 10:30 each morning as well. I will attend the English one before I leave Santiago. The noon pilgrims mass is in Spanish and very beautiful.

My next stop was the Pilgrims office where a long line forms to get the official certificate or Compostela for completing the walk. To get the Compostela you must walk the last 100km or bike the last 200 km and must have at least two sello per day stamped into your pilgrim credential that you guard like your passport when you are walking.

There are 7 clerks validating credentials and the wait is still quite long but so worth it!  I’m not sure what I should make of the fact that my clerk pointed out that I was his oldest pilgrim so far on the day and had walked the Norte! He seemed to be pleased about that. I’m not so sure it warranted comment ☺️

I really don’t think I can put the feelings of this day into words. It was an emotional, quietly moving experience. It has to do with so many that have gone before (for hundreds of years) and how many in that moment are having their own special experience along side you, and knowing how many more are yet to follow. The cathedral fills every day with pilgrims arriving from Camino starting points in every corner of Spain as well as France and Portugal and from homes all over the world.  They represent every nationality, age, background, fitness level, race and ethnicity you can imagine.  They enter Santiago running, walking, limping, cycling, in wheelchairs and baby strollers. They shout with joy, sing, laugh, weep, and are silent.

For me it felt peaceful really. I felt physically very good; I felt strong; and my steps were light and easy. I had no pain at all. I felt happy to have reached Santiago and admittedly sad that my Camino was ending ….. for now. I felt grateful. I felt blessed; fortunate; whole.

I felt like I would be happy to begin again tomorrow.

I really loved this time; this opportunity to be present without distraction; to be unencumbered by responsibilities and expectations; to reacquaint myself with me – what interests me when I’m free to explore; what catches my attention; what does my eye and the camera lens find; what flavors excite me; what do I choose to eat when no one is watching; what sensations do I feel in my body; what thoughts come to mind and how do they flow with time to let them run as they will; what is silence really like; what do I notice in others; I became aware how little I have taken the opportunity to seek and accept the kindness of others and understand how really deep and wide and enveloping human kindness can be. While I have always valued being dependable, I haven’t understood that depending on others is the other part of this beautiful symmetry that is the human condition; the human order of things. So many, many discoveries in only a little over a month. It has been very special, as inadequate as that word or any other is to describe it.

So tomorrow brings another day in this adventure. My walking companion for a brief time, Brigitte, who was with me when I got hurt, finished the Camino several days ahead of me and went to visit a cousin in southern Spain.  She is coming back to Santiago tomorrow to get an evening flight home. I will meet her bus in the morning and we will enjoy Santiago as we had once envisioned we might had we finished at the same time (she finishing on the Norte and I on the Primativo). It will be nice to see her.

The wifi here in the albergue is iffy and pictures are downloading very slowly so I will hope it is better at my airbnb tomorrow. I will add some photos then.