Spain

Well, it’s official, according to my Certificate of Distance, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela on September 28 after walking 312km from León, Spain where I started on September 12th! My Compostela (photo above) has the ‘Latin version’ of my name.

I got my final stamp in my Pilgrim Passport/Credential. I was able to fill every space of it, if you count the 5-leaf clover I found as a stamp, and I think considering that the previous stamp ran into that space anyway, I absolutely do!

After getting our certificates, we went to the Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral. Photos were not allowed during mass itself and those I took before mass started don’t do justice to the size of the Cathedral at all. We were lucky and a group from Florida paid for the incense burning during the ceremony. It took 8 men to haul the thing up into the air to keep it swinging. I was almost too fascinated to think about the physics of the massive pendulum, but not quite. Overall, it was an interesting ceremony that I was able to somewhat follow despite it being almost entirely in Spanish (except for the rules about no photos and the instructions about communion).

After mass, we got lunch and went to the Museum of Pilgrimage. The museum had information about all sorts of things from brief descriptions about pilgrimages for various beliefs and religions, lots of information about Saint James (Santiago), and also information about the Cathedral itself. In some ways I found walking around a museum more exhausting than walking 20+kilometers per day.

We ate our traditional “homemade”, in-hostel Camino meal of salad, microwaved roast chicken, and soup with a shared bottle of red wine. It was a lovely end to the adventure and a great final day with the whole crew!