Santiago! (heaven is a cathedral filled with German tourists??)

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I made it!!

10.30am yesterday, after 25 days of walking and 800km I walked into Santiago with Elin, the fastest Peregrina on the Camino!
We had agreed that we´d find a private hospedaje, and in true camino style we were stopped on the way to the Cathedral by a woman who offered an (obviously illegal) room in her house. We even got TOWELS!

Some camino highlights.

- The walled garden in Trinidad del Arre
- Meeting Jamie (the crazy Scotsman) and being led to the only spare space in Los Arcos where we could sleep (garage floor)
- Sleeping in the church under the altar in Grañon
- The foot massage in Saragun (and meeting Jamie again!)
- The day when I didn´t have to re-teach myself to walk in the morning and it wasn´t agony to put on my boots again (Hospital de Ortega...17 days in)
- The FLOWERS coming down into Portoferrada
- Meeting Elin in the rain and coming to the only town in Europe that has a bonafide funcional jousting ground
- The first (and only) camino donkey!
- Seeing all the pilgrims I´d met along the way in Santiago (there are still lots to come)

Best comeback - When Barbara from Canberra (aged 72) asked me whether I had heart trouble because my feet were so swollen. I was about to tell her that I thought my feet were just fat, but Alec (GP from Townsville) turned to her and said ´Barbara, I don´t think she would have walked 45km today if she had heart trouble.´ Thanks Dr Alec!

You might ask why heaven is a cathedral filled with German Tourists - this from one of my friends who did the Camino a couple of years ago: "the routes are supposed to represent the ages of man, then you enter santiago and reach heaven!" I guess it was true in days of yore, but now there are thousands of bus pilgrims who come (apparently mainly from Germany) to hug the apostle and check out Santiago. It was great to get here, and feels like a real achievement!
Its funny too that my socks are the only things that still fit me properly!

I haven´t said much about bus pilgrims but now I´m in Santiago, I am probably a little more objective (it probably still sounds like whinging, but has been toned down a LOT).
Probably one of most frustrating things about the camino was the people who got the bus each day (bus pilgrims), then stayed in the Albergues (there were only limited beds) leaving the people who walked to have to find alternate accomodation, or keep walking to the next town (difficult when you´ve already walked 35+km that day). Interestingly the bus pigrims also seemed to be the ones who complained more about the showers, the weather, people getting up early, how far away the bus stations were from the centre of town... everything except their feet! Sure, some people HAD to get the bus because they were ill, injured or didn´t have time to walk the whole way, but every day? Why bother?? Everyone walks their own camino though...and I walked mine, just all the way.

So, having 10 days spare, I bought a novel (which I´ve already almost finished) and I´m going to walk to Finisterra (finis - finish, terra-earth) which is another 100km, so about 3 days walk, and then on to Muxia (another day walk).
Back in London on the 4th of June and will be ready for Back to Australia part 2!

Thanks for all your comments and messages! Love to you all!!!

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Comments

[B]

An incredible achievement- and you still want to walk some more!!!

[Elly]

I demand copyright fees!
As someone who bussed it part of the way (the death stage through the desert) as my walking companion a German ex-air hostess called Ebba and possibly one of the most beautiful and interesting people I have ever met was pregnant and started to get pains, then I carried her bag some of the way too when we walked, we were met with derision at the hostels and it pissed me off! I ended up having it out with some angry Czech bloke (what IS it with Czech's, they always seem so angry?!) But yes, I think I might have got Santiago as heaven wrong, I think Santiago is supposed to represent re-birth, or something, oh hell, I dunno, but I did feel a certain joy and glee upon glimpsing the cathedral for the first time after walking down the windy streets. Incidently, I made good money in Santiago after borrowing someones flute on a kind of time share and did some busking!!