Camino Frances 2024

Today we completed our Camino. We only had 10.3km to walk today. It was quite cloudy and foggy when we started our walk this morning and the walk into Santiago de Compostela takes us through an industrial area so nothing too exciting to photograph. Our mood lifted when we got to the Monte de Gozo, statue of two pilgrims high on the hill overlooking Santiago. We actually nearly missed it and another pilgrim had turned back and told us he missed the turnoff. We went cross country and up the hill and took our group photo. Shortly after that we came across a group of about a dozen guys all in the same gear and they had walked from Sarria to Santiago without a break, about 110km. They were from a running club and had walked all day and night. As we entered the city our excitement increased and strolling down the steps to the cathedral and we were welcomed by a young man playing the bagpipes. They had a number of these pipers playing everyday, all day, piping in the pilgrims. We took out photos in front of the cathedral then made our way to the pilgrims office to register for our Compostela. They were so efficient and only took a few minutes to register and receive our certificates. As we left the pilgrims office we bumped into pilgrim friends, JJ, Eric and Cheryl. They had come into Santiago the day before. Over 3000 pilgrims came into Santiago today and the place was packed as it was a festive day celebrating St John the Baptist and the locals light bonfires in any square they can find, have sardines and hot sausage on bbq’s, play music, sing and some even run through fire. As we sat around in the square we saw many familiar faces that we had encountered at some point over the last 40 days. We all went to the pilgrim mass, choir was amazing, we thought we might see the batafumeiro but we weren’t in luck, it didn’t swing today. What an adventure. Hasta la proxima!!!Read more