Santiago de Compostela!! Where to begin? The easy part is to confirm we’ve made it, in fact Jannik and I arrived yesterday, but it was way too emotional an experience to put anything into words that wouldn’t have sounded complete psychobabble!
The walk through the modern outskirts of town seemed to take forever, but at last we turned the corner into the plaza and the cathedral rose majestically in front of us. We hugged and congratulated each other – there’s a lot of hugging on the Camino!
“What have we done?” I asked him. ” I don’t know” he responded, before softly repeating the same words. But whatever it is, it feels rather special. 
Some more recent Camino friends Carmen and Alex turned up in the afternoon as did Johann, a young German guy that we’d not seen for 3 weeks. He had sprinted ahead of his group to catch an earlier flight to surprise his mother for her birthday.
We spent a couple of hours just lying on the ground in the plaza in the warm sunshine looking around and up at the cathedral, trying to take everything in. We heard some cheering nearby and looked across to see a young pilgrim propose to his girlfriend on bended knee. She accepted, they kissed and hugged and a ripple of applause grew to a crescendo as the hundreds of people congregating in the plaza recognised the occasion. What a Camino they were having. 
We attended the Pilgrims mass at 7:30pm, the cathedral was completely packed. The nun leading the singing had the most beautiful crystal voice and the Botafumeiro or swinging of the incense was incredibly impressive. There was an announcement that mobile phone camera must not be used, but just about everybody took theirs out and filmed this part of the ceremony. Including yours truly, I’m ashamed to say.
Although mass is held primarily for Catholic pilgrims to give thanks to God for helping them achieve their goal, anybody is free to attend and I found myself appreciating all the non-pilgrim Catholics in attendance for supporting us.
The next morning we collected our Compostelas – the certificates proving our pilgrimage, and returned to the main plaza to look out for people we knew. Leo was already there absorbing the moment and there followed the mandatory hugging and photos. Some time later, Liz, Susan and Shimmy entered the plaza. They were holding hands and sharing the moment. At a distance we could see them wipe away tears as they hugged each other and we left them to enjoy their own personal moment of arrival.
Shortly after they joined us… Yes, more hugging, and they too sat for ages taking in the enormity of their adventure in front of the glorious cathedral. After a time, it all starts to fit into place, but no two peregrinos Caminos are ever the same. The common thread is simply that we’ve all done it and feel a huge sense of achievement, but I cannot begin to suggest the emotions that are going through the others.
Later in the day I returned to the cathedral and lit a candle for Pete and Fong and prayed for the sick mother of Scirocco, the owner of a small hotel we stayed at, who asked me to pray for her when I reached Santiago. How likely it is that the prayers of an atheist will be answered I’m not sure, but perhaps God will turn a blind eye on this one occasion.
We’d been recommended a smart hotel for Saturday night that had one floor devoted to pilgrims. If fellow guests inadvertently took the lift to the 4th floor they’d have thought they’d stepped into the servants quarters. Our rooms were very simple with no adornments, but clean and with a basic but functional en-suite. Best of all though, they were single rooms, not twins or dormitories! And cheap to boot, probably 25% of what the guests in the lowers floors were paying. We all ate breakfast in the same room, although the giveaway is that pilgrims eat as much as possible and probably appear extremely greedy… I think of food as little more than fuel at present, mentally calculating how long it will be before needing the next snack!
What has the Camino achieved for me? I honestly don’t know, other than I feel re-energised after sharing an amazing adventure with the most wonderful bunch of people for the last month or so. I’ve never experienced such a prolonged period of goodwill, affection, kindness and generosity of spirit as from my fellow peregrinos, and not forgetting the local peoples of the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturia and Galicia, who enhanced the adventure with their consistently warm welcome. At least 20 or 30 times a day I’ve been wished a ‘Buen Camino’.
There have been terrific highs and some awful lows, but I’m sure the blister days will become blurred over time. The Camino takes from you, yet the Camino always provides.
Not for one moment have I missed my former life, equally there are absolutely no regrets about leaving the Camino and returning to the real world, although this world feels pretty real right now. The only sadness is the natural disbursement of our Camino family, not for the Camino itself. So many pilgrims are on their 3rd, 4th or even 5th Camino. It has that inexplicable draw and I know this will not be my last.
I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. A single person would be amongst friends from the first day. For someone feeling a tad lonely, that is not possible on the Camino, although the time needed for yourself is always respected.
I’d love to be more like Leo, who is not interested in certificates to prove you’ve walked a Camino. For him this is just part of a bigger journey. He absorbs so much of what’s around him and this is what makes him the rich, worldly person he has become…. And the fact he’s Italian and could charm the birds from the trees. I love him!
Yet this is not quite the end of the chapter. Like Martin Sheen in ‘The Way’, we have another mission before getting on the plane home… And my feet are already itching to get started!
Post script: We walked around the corner from the plaza back to our hostel to be greeted by Victor, escorting his partially sighted father as they approached the end. Nobody could have looked happier and more elated. Nobody or nothing could better encapsulate the spirit of the Camino.
Peebeecat 