SANTIAGO

5 October 2023, Camino 3, Day 36

O Pedrouzo to Santiago

Glen and I have had a little joke along the camino. When we are close to our destination and need to push through he says, “Let’s finish this thing before it gets out of hand.” Well today we’re going to finish it.

The day has been cool (really almost cold), misty, and overcast. We ploughed on and the walk was actually easy. I had butterflies in my stomach when I woke up but as the day progressed I felt a peace come over me. I don’t really care for the walk into Santiago. It’s a couple of kilometers to get to the old part of town where the cathedral is.

The meaning of Santiago de Compostela is St. James under a field of stars because in the 8th century the monk who had a dream about the location of the bones of St. James envisioned them under a starred filled sky. Under a field of stars…such a beautiful image.

As you enter the old cathedral square you must pass through an arch. There is almost always someone greeting pilgrims by playing the bagpipes. Bagpipes originated in Africa and migrated into Spain. Later when the Spanish set sail for Northern Europe they landed in Ireland and brought these Celtic traditions with them.

But we didn’t stop at the cathedral. Our first stop was at the pilgrim’s office. We had heard that each day 1400 pilgrims arrive in Santiago and the majority of them will head to the pilgrim’s office to get their compostellas…the certificate of completion of the camino.

Our fear was that they might tell us to come back in a day or two because the line was so long. That was not the case. There were actually only about 30 pilgrims ahead of us in line so we got in quickly.

I will upload my Compostela and my certificate of distance in another post as I will need to scan them.

There is so much more to our arrival than the bare facts I’ve laid out here. I’m going to need some time to process my feelings more fully. I’ll be taking the next few days off as we travel by train to Madrid and then fly home.

Thank you so much for being part of this journey with me.

Buen Camino