3 October 2018
15.0 miles in 6 hours 18 minutes (with breaks)
After 2 weeks of walking almost 200 miles from León, we finally arrived in Santiago de Compostela.
What a beautiful city with incredible architecture. The cathedral was even more magnificent than any of the photos we had seen.
We walked through the dense forests for half of today's walk until coming to the edge of the city. After a few more hours of walking, we finally reached the center of this densely packed medieval city. Santiago de Compostela is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its ancient and historical significance.
After lunch, we went to the Pilgrim Office and waited in line for 1-1/2 hours with all the other pilgrims in order to receive our 'Compostela', the document that proves we completed the pilgrimage. We had to show our 'Credenciales' (or pilgrim passports) with stamps we received along the way to prove where we had been.
We then visited the huge Santiago Cathedral and went to a Pilgrim Mass in the evening. Later we returned to the monastery (now a hotel) where we are spending the night.
Tomorrow, we head to the Atlantic coast to do one last walk - between Finesterre (called the 'End of the World' by ancient people) and Muxía. This will be 18 miles and it will be the last of our long walks on this trip.
Ah, it is all coming to an end too soon.
15.0 miles in 6 hours 18 minutes (with breaks)
After 2 weeks of walking almost 200 miles from León, we finally arrived in Santiago de Compostela.
What a beautiful city with incredible architecture. The cathedral was even more magnificent than any of the photos we had seen.
We walked through the dense forests for half of today's walk until coming to the edge of the city. After a few more hours of walking, we finally reached the center of this densely packed medieval city. Santiago de Compostela is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its ancient and historical significance.
After lunch, we went to the Pilgrim Office and waited in line for 1-1/2 hours with all the other pilgrims in order to receive our 'Compostela', the document that proves we completed the pilgrimage. We had to show our 'Credenciales' (or pilgrim passports) with stamps we received along the way to prove where we had been.
We then visited the huge Santiago Cathedral and went to a Pilgrim Mass in the evening. Later we returned to the monastery (now a hotel) where we are spending the night.
Tomorrow, we head to the Atlantic coast to do one last walk - between Finesterre (called the 'End of the World' by ancient people) and Muxía. This will be 18 miles and it will be the last of our long walks on this trip.
Ah, it is all coming to an end too soon.
The gigantic trees of the forest made our early walk a little eerie. We walked through the forest for some time before the sun came up.
At one point, the trail dipped into a gully and we then hiked below the surface of the surrounding ground for about half a mile. It was like being in an underground tunnel.
As twilight lifted, visibility improved. The signs always pointed the way, including into this highway underpass.
The sun finally peaked out and lit up the forest. This was our last forest sunrise. How glorious!
Shortly after sunrise we came to the edge of Santiago. We took this shot with our shadows on the stone that showed we were in Santiago.
We came to a place that ancient pilgrims called the Monte de Gozo (or Mount of Joy). After walking many months, this was the spot where the pilgrims caught their first view of Santiago and its cathedral. This statue was erected to commemorate the joy that ancient pilgrims must have felt after surviving their journey.
After 2 weeks of walking about 200 miles, I felt like celebrating, also.
Shortly after the Mount of Joy, we crossed this freeway before entering the main part of the city. Seeing this freeway was a shock for us because it had been a few weeks since we had seen civilization on this scale.
As we approached the oldest part of Santiago, we were struck by how narrow the streets are in this medieval part of town.
Before approaching the main cathedral, we entered a tunnel with a Galician piper playing for the arriving pilgrims. You could hear his music for a long distance due to the echo from the tunnel.
We walked into the plaza to visit the Santiago Cathedral. The cathedral was truly massive. This church has stood here for around 800 years. Millions of pilgrims have traveled here since the middle ages, and now it was our turn.
Inside, the cathedral alterpiece was a mass of gold and silver. A life-size statue of St. James sits in the center as shown here. We walked up a staircase behind the statue and gave it a hug, just like all the other pilgrims. We later attended a special pilgrim mass in the cathedral in the evening.
In the basement is where they keep the bones they say are those of St. James. The bones are in a gold and silver coffin.
Next we went to the Pilgrim Office to claim our Compostelas (our proof of completing the journey). We waited in line with a few hundred other pilgrims for 1-1/2 hours.
We presented our 'Credenciales' (or pilgrim passports) with all the stamps we picked up along the way, proving we were actually on the Camino.
After reviewing our Credenciales, the Pilgrim Office issued our Compostelas (written in Latin).
After completing this pilgrimage, we walked by this statue of St. James outside the cathedral. He actually seemed to be smiling his approval on us!
So our journey is not quite over yet. Tomorrow we travel by bus to the west coast for a few days to hike beyween the cities of Muxía and Fisterra (orFinesterre asthey call it in Spanish). Ancient peoples of this region believed the world ended at that point because they couldn't go any further west (hence Finesterre meant 'finished with earth'). This should be a fun 18-mile coastal hike.
