What an emotional day! All morning we had very mixed feelings about it being what we thought was our second to the last day on the Camino. Our bodies were tired but our souls wanted to continue. We were so sad that this unbelievable experience was about to end.
My feelings of frustration with the "tourist peregrino" was replaced with feelings of sadness that they missed so much of the journey. I am not sure how to adequately describe a peregrino but generally, I think it is a person who is searching and open to the beauty of the world around them from the plants to the birds to the people who share the path with them. The more time putting your feet to the ground, the greater opportunity to see and feel that beauty.
Much of the path today ran alongside the busy highway so I opted for only the third time in nearly 40 days to listen to my music. When my playlist came to the instrumental song "Memories" by Ryan Stewart, so many images of the Camino came to life - images of mountains, flowers, people, butterflies. I set the song to repeat and let the joyful but also sad emotions coming spilling from my heart and my eyes.
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| My Fence Cross |
We once again came upon a chain link fence where previous pilgrims had placed within the links crosses made from sticks. I added my own to this display of Christian belief. Felt good to leave a little mark of my passing behind.
Thankfully, after some time we moved away from the highway so we could once again enjoy the song of the birds. Previously, their song seemed incongruous with the sounds of the cars that had been whizzing by.
Further down the road I received a sign, if you can call it that. We stumbled upon just four dairy cows in a field all in a row. One was black and white, one tan and two were black. It made me think of my three sisters and how they want to do the Camino in a few years. I'm sure this was a message that I will be back with them. Crazy, I know, but they will understand.
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| Four Sisters |
Our original plan was to stop at an albergue 5K outside of Santiago and then walk in the next morning all fresh. But it was earlier than we expected when we arrived at this point and we decided that we would rather arrive sweaty and spent as it seemed more akin to our journey. At this point in the path, there was a giant monument to the Camino and it's pilgrims. We were greeted there by Pia who was also going to continue on to the city.
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| Pilgrim Monument |
Walking the last kilometres was quite emotional. Once we saw the cathedral, it was hard to contain them. To reach the cathedral, you go through a tunnel and just on the other side we heard someone say, "Welcome to Santiago" - it was Greg, the young man from Georgia. What a great way to be greeted as we came to the end of our journey.
It was important to us to go inside the cathedral and follow the traditions of the pilgrim - to hug the statue of St. James at the altar and to visit the crypt where his body lies. The other tradition is to pass by the Tree of Jesse and touch your head to the head of Maestro Mateo but that portion of the church was under renovation so we would not be able to do that.
We were not allowed to go into the cathedral with our backpacks but fortunately for us, Jim & Marilyn were there and Jim said he would watch our packs while Marilyn guided us inside. We followed the tradition of hugging the statue of St. James and went down to the crypt where we were able to kneel and pray a prayer of thanks for a safe journey.
After that it was necessary to find a place to stay so we could get showered and go back to the church for the 7:30 mass where they would also be lighting the botafumeria. We asked at one hotel close to the cathedral but it was 110 euros for the night and after paying typically only 10 - 20 euros for a bed, this seemed way too much. Luckily a woman approached us about a room she had in her pensione and in the interest of time, we took it. We were led to believe it was a private suite but learned we were actually sharing it with another room. We would find something else for the next evenings.
We got back to the church at 6:30 but already all the seats that were reserved for pilgrims were filled so we found a perch on a column toward the front and off to the side. This was when the emotions of our journey really took hold as the nun who was singing had such a beautiful voice and in the large vacancy of the cathedral walls, it reverberated and fell down all around us. Simply beautiful. Tears.
As it turned out, we were perfectly positioned to view and take pictures of the botafumeria as it swung past. It was so hard to comprehend that this ritual that was started to essentially fumigate the smells from the pilgrims of old (bota = boot + fumeria = perfume) was still taking place. Although the modern day pilgrim probably does not have the odors of the medieval pilgrim, this ritual had a way of creating a link between the souls of today and the many that passed before.
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| Botafumeria |
Having been spirit-filled, it was now time to fill our bodies as we had not eaten since very early in the day. As we were walking to find a place, we walked past the Pilgrim office where we could get our Compostela and saw there was no line so went in to be one of the last pilgrims to get their Compostela for the day. From there we stumbled upon Jim & Marilyn who invited us to join them for tapas. We went to a couple places, the last one with quite a wait that gave us an opportunity to meet some new pilgrims - Joan and Thelma from England.
Exhausted but fulfilled by the day, we found our way back to our room and slept deeply knowing there would be no early morning wake-up as we were now peregrinos who had completed their journey to Santiag
Lesson of the Day: Some things are worth seeing through till the end.
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