After more than two weeks it was time to walk into Santiago. I can’t believe how that time had flown! We set off early to meet the Canadian ladies, but first we had a quick coffee at the square by our albergue. The host, who was overly fond of kissing pilgrims on the head (?!) waved us off in the early morning light while a postman’s van blasted out Europe’s Final Countdown – I kid you not. And so we set off on the first 4 kms to where our Canadian friends had stayed the night, to walk the last day together. And it felt like we had only started!
The trail seemed suddenly much busier that day, and after waiting for ages to find a place to stop and refuel, without any popping up nearby, we let Mr Google lead the way down a side street to find food. The place was nice and quiet, we were the only pilgrims there and I think the locals were unused to seeing us veer off trail. It was a wonderful lunch, but beware of ordering tortillas – if you don’t specify a piece, you might get a whole one!
On we went, chatting and laughing as we ran down the kilometres. At one point it attempted to rain, so two of us put our ponchos on in the wind and ended up making unintended billowing balloon impressions. It made people around us smile, so that’s got to be a good thing. All in all I will remember it as a day of fellowship, joy and laughter. A perfect camino day.
At one point hordes of school kids suddenly filled the trail, but they were very well behaved and seemed to have a great time. It was nice to have that energy boost and buzz around us. Some of the more confident ones tried to make conversation in English, which was fun – I know some people think they are too loud, too many, too much, but I enjoyed their company on the way.
Dark, dark clouds started threatening as we approached the outskirts of the city, so much so that we took votes on who would be happy to find a café and wait it out if it started raining, and who would want to soldier on. The result was 3 to 1 … but then suddenly I realised where I was, and knew that we would make it to the square in front of the cathedral before the rain hit.
I realised we would enter Santiago old town via the plaza outside the Alameda park, so I was happy to introduce the ladies to the Marias, who stand proudly people watching in their colourful outfits. I had told them the story, so we had to do a group photo (yes, I am a lot taller and my knees hurt) taken by a random German couple who were fascinated by it. Then we crossed the last modern road and carried on into Santiago old town and the cathedral. The rain had thought better of stopping us by this point and we arrived with sunshine and blue skies.
There was laughter and tears as we entered the square and finally joined the crowd of elated pilgrims in front of the cathedral. After hugs and photos I led the ladies down the steps to the surprisingly empty bar café with a view to the cathedral face. What better place to celebrate with an arrival ankerbier and some snacks! It wasn’t warm though, and after sitting still and savouring our achievements for a while it was time to split up and go and check in to our respective rooms, dump the bags, put on extra layers and get out again, as you do.
I hope the ladies had gone for comfort in their chose of accommodation, we certainly went for cheap and cheerful and ended up in a small twin room. So small, in fact, that the shower curtain stuck to the in-shower person, we couldn’t fit our face over the inset sink to wash – and only spit after brushing teeth from a sedentary position on the loo. But we had no intention of spending time in said room, we just did a whirlwind refresh and headed straight out again.
We went to Pilgrim House in Rua Nova 19, where I for once met the lovely Faith without having a little arrival cry. She and her team were busy helping pilgrims, even wheeling out a trolley full of redundant hiking poles for a lady who needed them to walk to Fisterra.
Then we had a drink at the Rua Bella next door to Pilgrim House, before we went for a lovely tapas meal at the Cardinal’s tapas bar – love their selection of hot and cold, small and elaborate dishes, something for everyone and no one leaves hungry. At least I never have.
The long walk had taken its toll though so after the meal we had no choice but to go our separate ways to get some well earned sleep, but we agreed to meet one last time and have breakfast the next morning. Then Nanci and I would have to say goodbye one last time and head out towards the End of the World.
Somewhere Slowly 