Santiago de Compostela

Monday 27th June 2022 Day 37

20km to go today so we are up early as usual hoping for a bit of peace and quiet. We open the door of the hostel to find … a large group of children at 530 setting off. We followed them most of the way to Santiago!

Robin is hobbling a bit so we took it slowly. It was a fairly easy walk through eucalyptus woods, not very quiet though, lots of children!! Found a great road sign! Watch out for pilgrims crossing the road!!

We came to the Santiago sign (which is actually miles from Santiago) where I had a photo taken in 2014.

and here I am today.

We made it to Mont de Gozo and can see the cathedral spires in the distance. We didn’t go over to see the famous statues of pilgrims overlooking the city. Robins leg was really hurting and he was limping badly by now.

In the way down the hill we passed an enormous complex to house pilgrims, they had obviously had a party the night before and the whole hill was covered in rubbish. Then the final leg into Santiago, we were nearly there but I was starving and Robins leg hurt so we stopped for breakfast first.

Absolutely worth it!! Fortified we walked into the city. First to our hotel which is next to the cathedral, it’s an old monastery and beautiful. We had to drop our backpacks off because they are not allowed in the cathedral.

We went round to get our compostela, we had been warned about long queues but there weren’t that many people there so we were quick and out in time to go to midday mass. We got there early to get a seat and I am so glad we did, my feet hurt!

The mass was lovely and we were not expecting the Botafumeiro. This is the enormous incense burner that needs 8 people to swing it in an arc across the cathedral. It weighs 53kg apparently! It is only done on special days and if someone sponsors it. There were gasps when they came out and lit it. The singing was beautiful and the experience amazing. I cried as did others. After that we needed good so after a quick scout around we found a great little place and had a mountain of seafood! Delicious!!

We are here, it’s difficult to believe, 800km on foot, meeting amazing people, moving on every day, only carrying what we absolutely need, sorting everything out in a language we don’t know, learning about what we are capable of and what’s important to us. Tomorrow we will be sightseeing then off by bus to Muxia for the night. I will use that opportunity to write up what I have learned and what I plan to do next. I know it’s easy to go back to the same way of life but I hope I can make changes!