On our way to our final destination of Santiago today. Our group has split up every day for walking,
today we decide to walk the final 8KM or so together. Joan and Tom are speedsters, they are always
way ahead, it will be hard for them to stay back with us lol. So many pilgrims now it would be impossible
to get lost, or you would be lost with 100 of your new friends if you all
followed each other.
We walk into Santiago, but a little anticlimactic as there
are so many people we are all not together as we enter the square where the
cathedral is. It is fun just watching
the pilgrims arrive, some have been on the journey for weeks and they are so
relieved to be here, others like us have just done the 100 km.
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| Paul and Bill, our van drivers for the week |
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| Starting off in Fog this AM, at this point we are all together still |
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| Head towards the steeples, and just follow the crowds |
Mass is at 11AM, but you need to be there at least 30 minutes
before if you want to sit in a pew. Our
entire group went to mass, it was nice, all in Spanish. The church was overflowing, they did not wait
for the offering to finish being collected before they continued on with the service,
we may still have been there. Communion
was long lines, but may priests there so it didn’t take too long to get through. Hard to believe this goes on every day.
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| Church where pilgrim mass is held since Cathedral is under renovation |
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| Exiting pilgrim mass |
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| Cloister in our hotel |
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| Line up to get stamp for Santiago |
After Mass I went back to my room to drop off some things
and happened to meet up with the 4 women I have been hanging around with at
night and joined them for lunch. We each
picked one small plate for us all to share, so much yummy food again. I picked those little fried green peppers, with
the surprises hot ones. Excellent meal with
a bottle of wine we shared, 14 Euro each, a great meal. One of the plates was cheese with anchovies,
who knew they go so well together?
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| Lunch, so yummy |
Daniella and I went exploring town after lunch, the other 3
went shopping. Managed not to get lost,
there are some nice pedestrian streets here.
Back to the hotel again for a bathroom break then I ventured out on my
own for more exploring in town. Front
desk gave me a map and suggested I go to a part that was not far. Really pretty views, and locals milling
around, always fun to see. I also spent
some time in the square just watching pilgrims arrive, lots of fun.
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| Inside cathedral, very little is not under construction behind tarps |
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| Views from Park |
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| Chapel in Park, but it was not open |
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| Gorgeous banquet hall in our hotel |
Dinner tonight is at 7PM, but far the earliest we have had
dinner. Paul and Bill join us for dinner
tonight, the only time they have had a meal with us. They said they used to eat with the groups
but too much time was spent with questions directed at them and they really just
want the group to mingle. Plus, we are
served way too much and if they ate all that they would be huge as they mostly
drive the vans all day. Some days I ran
into them walking the wrong way on the trails, they would walk until they
caught up with the last group, then walk back with them. This gave them a bit of exercise. A fantastic last dinner, Paul Jr also joined
us at the end, he is running the group next week. I said my goodbyes tonight, I have an early
taxi tomorrow morning, I did manage to shed a few tears…. We are given our certificates and a final
stamp on our passports that Paul got for us, we did not have to do the long lines
of pilgrims waiting.
Homeward bound
4:30 wake up call, 5Am taxi to airport. I am taking a Ryan Air plane to Madrid, then
on to my international flights home. Such an amazing week, that all came to be because
of the Courage Program being offered at work now. Dovico sponsors you $3,000 every 2 years that
you can apply for something that takes courage for you to do. Something out of your comfort zone. I loved it so much that we will seriously
look at Andre and I going from Porto in a couple of years.
But, for this year, 110 km Camino walking in 6 days, 160km
over 7 days for me, or a total of 240,500 steps.
Daniella and Margaret – the 2 Dr’s from London that are 73
years old, friends from University
Maree and Jan – Sisters from Australia
Joan and Tom- Oil speculator from Philly USA
Margot and Christopher – Laywer from Australia
Jeanne and Nikki – Celebrating their 50th together,
friends from childhood that hadn’t seen each other in 30 years, Jeanne lives is
Australia, Nikki in USA now
Kate and Eric - Anesthesiologist
Travelling with Margo and Chris from Australia
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| Company I booked with, highly recommend! |
