Santiago!

I woke up today to thunder, lightening, and pounding rain. Uh oh.
By the time I packed up to go for the day the rain had stopped, although the wind had picked up a lot! But it felt delicious to be out in just the wind before the rain. It was a short walk today to Santiago so I wasn’t too worried, but I stopped for a coffee about 3 miles in and then it started to pour! I mean, being out in it would actually hurt. There were a bunch of pilgrims in the cafe just waiting for the rain to let up.
Once it lessened I got going while the going was good. It was supposed to rain all day, but wonder of wonders, the sky began to clear. There were many pilgrims walking in this last little bit before the cathedral. A man whom I had not met struck up a conversation. He was from Germany, (Herbert) and had come by himself as his wife had no interest. He is the father of 4 girls and said he had gotten them through school and out of the house and it was time to do this for himself. He talked about how he had been thinking about his whole life on his walk and had one day walked with another man and they told each other stories about their lives. I got the impression that he had spent his adult life working and raising his family and hadn’t had time until now to do any reflecting. It was fun to listen to him. We decided to finish together.
As we entered the square of the cathedral we both began to tear up. And as we walked farther in we began to see all of those that we had each been walking with. Even people that had arrived the day before- 2 days before in the case of my Scottish ladies- were in the square- everyone hugging and crying. Martin was there and asked me if I had lost my sunglasses the previous day. I actually didn’t know that I had cuz I had no need of them but sure enough, they were gone. AND one of my water bottles. Martin had picked them both up and carried them hoping we would meet in the square. Really touched! The whole scene was really something. We took many pictures with different combinations of people and decided to go to the 7:30 Pilgrim’s mass together.
In the meantime I checked into the Parador and went to the Pilgrim’s office to present my Pilgrims passport to get my Compostela. And now I’m an official Camino completer!
Met my new friends and went into the cathedral. Such a beautiful space. Although I didn’t understand a word spoken by the priest, the whole scene was moving. AND as a bonus they swung the botafumeiro, which is a huge ball of burning incense. They usually only do it on Fridays, so we were really lucky!
I bailed on going out for dinner, (I mean- it WAS 8:30 plus I was just spent). I’m gonna give it a few days just to reflect on the whole experience before I write anymore.Read more