Day 44-Santiago de Compostela

Well, we did it! After almost 500 miles of walking, we arrived at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It's hard to wrap my mind around it. It seems like climbing over the Pyrenees happened so long ago; the never-ending meseta ended; and the recent days of rain stopped as we ended our pilgrimage. What a wild ride. Some days were really hard but we kept putting one foot in front of the other.

We went to Mass and saw the botafumeiro swing and then we went behind the alter to hug the statue of Saint James (Santiago), the patron saint of Spain.

We visited the pilgrim office to collect our Compostela and distance certificate and celebrated with a steaming bowl of ramen to warm us up. We followed that up with churros and chocolate.

What happened next was such a treat. Way back at the beginning of our journey, we mailed a suitcase of our non-pilgrim clothes to the post office in Santiago which we were going to pick up tomorrow. When I checked their hours, I found that they were open today (Sunday). So off we went to collect our suitcase. We couldn't remember what was in it, so we were so happy to find a set of warm clothing for each of us. It's a little strange having to manage more belongings when for the last seven weeks all we've needed was in our backpacks. There's a lesson there.

Well, now were on vacation for a few days before flying home.Les mer