The Long Goodbye

Suddenly there’s so much to do. I texted Yvonne the night I finished to take their time in the last stages, soak it up, and stay in the bubble as long as possible. Logistics and real life come back hard and fast; even though we’re still on ‘vacation’, it suddenly feels like so much pressure getting everything done, even the things we are choosing to do.

On the Camino there just isn’t a lot you have to deal with. Will there be a pharmacy or grocery store in town? Will they be open? Should we eat in this bar or that one? Salad with tuna or without? Hand wash all my clothes or wait for laundromat? Nap then shower, or shower then nap? Leave at 5:30 or 7 am? It’s not easy, but it’s really a very simple life.

Today, on the other hand, I actually wrote out a to do list to be sure I got everything done and was where I needed to be when. We knew what time Tom and Yvonne planned to start, giving us a rough idea of when we should be at the cathedral to meet them, and she had agreed to text us at 5K out.

I wanted to attend Mass again, this time the 7:30 am. I had some very specific prayers to be said, and I needed to visit the crypt of St. James, which I hadn’t done yesterday. It lies under the altar, accessible by a short, narrow staircase. It’s a small space, so going when it wasn’t crowded gave me more time to truly experience it.

Then I stopped by the Pilgrim’s House to drop off my shoes. I’d read on the Camino message boards that volunteers will do regular pickups from there and take items to the homeless shelters. It was only little after 8:00 am; hardly anything was open and very few people were out. It was so still and peaceful in town. I was lucky to find an open coffee shop, where I lingered as long as I could, watching the street cleaners start, some shops open, and a few very early pilgrims walk in. I went back to the hotel to finish packing and check out before my massage at 9:30.

The forecast called for heavy rain, which was an unfortunate way for Tom and Yvonne to finish. The day I finished has been declared the hottest June day on record in Spain since 1950, and I still think that was better than walking in the rain. My dirty little secret is that I sent my raincoat home with Missy. That was during the first heat wave, and I decided that I’d rather be wet from rain than from sweat while wearing a raincoat. As long as I had my hat to keep the rain off my face I figured I’d be fine. I certainly never mentioned that to anyone — what better way to jinx myself! I thought the morning in Palas de Rei when it was lightning and had 96% chance of rain that I’d finally pay for that decision, but nope. No rains ever came until the afternoons after we were settled.

Until today.

When I left my massage there was a heavy drizzle. My hat, of course, was in my pack at the hotel. I had assumed that each of the many (many) souvenir stores in the old town would have a rack of ponchos available for purchase and planned to just grab one of those. Except they didn’t. I could have bought an umbrella fairly easily, but I just wanted a cheap, disposable poncho to get me through the day.

I gave up and met Kathy and Mim at our agreed-upon spot.

“I hate to tell you,” Kathy had said last night, “but it makes the most sense to wait in the tunnel by the bagpipe guy.”

I told Yvonne later it was a testament to how much I cared about being there for their arrival that I did that. I did get a brief respite when I went to the luggage storage place on the other side of the cathedral to grab a poncho I’d seen in there. I hadn’t been back long when Yvonne texted that they were about to come through the tunnel. We hugged them, took their pictures, and showed them where to find the pilgrim’s office. The plaza was much emptier since people weren’t lingering in the rain like they had on the heat.

While they got their certificates we got a table at one of the nearby restaurants for a celebratory/goodbye lunch. Kathy had a bus to Porto at 4:30, and I had a train to Madrid at 5:30. Mim is staying another day in town, as are Tom and Yvonne. We said our teary goodbyes in the restaurant, lots of hugs and promises to keep in touch. Kathy went to the bathroom, and Yvonne was looking up directions to her hotel. Kathy came back to find us all still there, so we all walked with Tom and Yvonne to their hotel, where we had another round of teary goodbyes and hugs and promises to keep in touch. After which, Kathy and Mim helped me find a specific store in which I’d seen a gift I wanted to buy. That done, we had round three of teary goodbyes and hugs and promises to keep in touch.

And then we really did leave.

I grabbed my backpack from the hotel and found a bar on the way to the train station for one last cerveza con limón. I hadn’t yet booked a place to stay in Madrid, and I had a blog post to catch up on.

I spent the night in Madrid in a pod-style hostel, spent the morning looking for my last chocolate croissant, and spent the flight back to the states already missing it.Read more