Santiago de Compostela

We have officially ended our pilgrimage at the Plaza in front of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It was a bittersweet reaction with a set of mixed emotions for both of us. The plaza was full of pilgrims coming from the multiple Caminos leading to Santiago de Compostela. There we saw a few of the pilgrims/families that we met along the way.

We connect again with the professor from Toledo and his family which we had shared the dinner table a few days earlier in Melide. The girls wanted to go to Burger king as they were tired of eating squid so many times. 😍 After a well-deserved nap, we attended the 7:30pm pilgrims' mass.

We went out and had dinner, attended a musical comparsas gathering and listened to a group of Spaniard sing and dance to local songs. At night, the tunnel where we came into the plaza earlier was transformed into a concert hall. There was different style of music being played around the cathedral until the late hours of the morning.

Next day we walked around town admiring the history of Spanish architecture like the cathedral that was originally built in 1211.

Yes, we ate a lot too. It doesn’t matter how much you eat here in El Camino, you more likely burn those calories as soon you are out from the restaurant. You will either be going up or down the hill but surely you will be doing both.

The Cathedral is amazingly beautiful inside and out and that is all I am going to say. I am not going to spoil your future visit. That experience is for each individual to assess. These are holy grounds…

The experience walking with Nick was very memorable and fun. I hope one day he had the opportunity to share it with his future family (and talk about the hill where I almost kill myself). This is funny now but wasn’t then...

We have made our final hotel reservations for Madrid and will be flying from Santiago since there are no cars to rent, or train and I rather spent my time walking in Madrid than riding a 9-hour bus. Yes, more walking... So far over 138 miles…Baca lagi