Day 30/19 A Escrevitude to Santiago

When you embark on the Camino you buy a passport in which you collect stamps from businesses and landmarks you visit along the way. The last stamp you receive is at the cathedral in Santiago, which also grants you a certificate of achievement. Since as many as 2500 pilgrims arrive in Santiago daily, we thought it would be wise to arrive as early as possible to beat the crowds.

And so, today we were up at 5:15 and on the road at 6:30 under partially cloudy skies and a temperature of 15 C. We were out so early, the lights on the side of the path were still lit.

Anita took the lead today and set a blistering pace for the last leg of our Caminho. Despite some steep and difficult hills, we covered our first 5 kms in only 55 minutes! We stopped for coffee at 8:15 and had already almost reached the 10 km mark.

The skies opened while we were on our coffee break, but by the time we were finished, the rain was barely more than a mist. It continued on and off like that most of the way into Santiago.

During the last 100 kms, the signposts began showing the distance remaining to Santiago. We were all very excited when the distance fell below 10 kms. We all counted down each and every kilometer until we arrived in Santiago proper with about 2 kms left to go. That's when the signposts all disappeared. There were still the yellow arrows pointing us in the right direction, but we had no indication of the distance we still had to travel. And then, as we rounded a corner, we caught our first glimpse of one of the cathedral's spires.

Our already fast pace quickened and, just as the bells rang 10:30, we were standing in front of the awe-inspiring cathedral.

It was a moment of great joy and a sense of accomplishment mingled with a feeling of melancholy that the trek had come to an end. Clearly, many of the other pilgrims in the plaza shared similar emotions. Tears, laughter, hugs, handshakes, high-fives and wide smiles of joy were everywhere.

From the plaza we went to get the ultimate stamp on our passports and our certificate of achievement before returning to the plaza for another look at the amazing scene there.

We all then purchased matching souvenir t-shirts that we'd later wear to pose for our fab four photo.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the labyrinth of streets of Santiago, drinking and eating to celebrate our accomplishment and reminiscing on the wonderful journey we just completed.

The day was topped of by an array of very creative and tasty pinxos and a couple of glasses of wine before we turned in for the evening.

Tomorrow Brenda and I travel to Lisbon to spend some time with our friend Marie from Calgary while Anita and Ernie go to Porto for a couple of days before flying home.

We all leave Santiago with many fond memories that we'll cherish for as long as we live.Read more