Day 39 - A Rua to Santiago

The hotel in A Rua seems to be run by a husband and wife and their son, with the son trying to bring the place into the 21st century, as far as technology goes.  He had a bar code reader and scanned our passport, much more advanced than any of the other places we have stayed on this journey.

As mentioned, we had a patio in a lovely garden with chairs and tables, although it had rained a bit during the day so things were a bit damp.  Nevertheless, we took advantage of the garden and sat outside most of the day.

The supper last night was again wonderful, a cut above the perigrino special - but much more expensive to compensate.

The room was okay, but not very clean and unfortunately, it was hot all night with no air conditioning. Worse,  the bathroom had a strong smell of urine in the floor tiles (at least lets hope it wasn't the mattress) and neither one of us thought to close the door. So between the heat, the dirt, the odour, and the excitement of reaching Santiago tomorrow, the sleep was less than the best.

Breakfast was marvellous, real scrambled eggs, and cold cereal, foods we haven't seen in weeks.

The morning was cool and damp, and once again we walked through forests of eucalyptus.  The aroma was strong and you wanted to take deep breaths through your nose, which did wonders to clear the nasal passages. As usual, there were many climbs and descents, some steep, some more gradual.

We were somewhat amazed by the small number of other perigrinos on the trail.  It was unclear whether they had gone further yesterday and were well ahead of us, or if they were starting later or starting from someplace further back.  The numbers did pick up a bit when we were entering the city, but we saw a mass of pilgrims coming in to the old city after we had gotten our compostelas and were returning back along the Camino to get to our hotel (so that was lucky timing).

We contemplated what St James represents to us today as we walked the final kilometers of this epic journey. Santiago has been our constant companion. His statue is a frequent marker on the Way, often standing sentinel as you enter a city and/or  watching as you exit, welcoming you and blessing you on your Way. He also graces most of the churches along the Way, portrayed as a pilgrim but also as Matamoros, or Moor slayer. As mentioned previously, there is no conclusive evidence that James ever came to Spain, but that doesn't change the indisputable fact that St James was largely responsible for bringing Christianity (back) to the area. Thus, to us, St. James was our leader, our guide, leading us to the Light of Christ. We trusted in him, believing that following his Way, or the Way of pilgrims following what they believed was his Way, would lead us to the Light.

We also thought more about the lessons learned on the Camino.  Like the Way, life is a full of ups and downs, sometimes you climb mountains, sometimes gentle hills. The descents can be so steep it almost kills you going down. But really, much of life is like the meseta, relatively flat, and a bit boring. You think it's easy going, but it is the hardest part. When things get flat, you start to question 'why am I doing this', 'what is the purpose of it all', 'when will it end'? How you handle the mesa, in large part, probably determines how content you are with life.

Probably the most important lesson to be learned walking the Way, is that the path is covered in places with manure. You try your best to walk around it, but there are times when you just can't avoid stepping right in it, and when you are most weary from the days journey, you don't even try.

The walk into Santiago was much like that into the other large cities.  The road became paved, the houses denser, traffic heavier, and at one point we passed a jet airplane getting ready to take off.  Reality bites, and here it was biting hard.  The serenity of the rural walk being replaced by the frenzy of modern life.

And then, just as we were getting near to entering Santiago, we noticed a  group of bike perigrinos standing near two parked cars at the bottom of a steep hill on a curve.  We feared the worst, that some biker had been hit by a car.  As we approached, we saw a very dazed biker sitting in the ditch near his bike.  As we walked on, we saw an ambulance speeding to the crash site. We later found out that he had been celebrating his reaching Santiago by waving a Spanish flag in each hand, and had lost control of the bike and had crashed.  We were told that he had either cracked or broken his collar bone.  So close to his goal, which now, may be too far.  It wouldn't surprise us if he got patched up and somehow walked the last few kilometres to get his Compostela.

The way through Santiago to the old city was well marked.  We stopped for a coffee and pit stop, prior to making the final push to the cathedral.  The walk to the Cathedral took a bit longer than expected, as once we entered the old city, the markings became poorer, then seemed to vanish.  We asked a local at one point if we were on the Camino, and she spoke English and started telling us it was far away from where we were. Lynn pointed to a plaza 10 metres away and said we were on it there, and the person just shrugged. We had read in Brierley not to ask the locals the Way because they don't know, and that encounter rather proved his point. We went back to the plaza and figured out where we went wrong, and arrived at the cathedral moments later.  

We went in to the Cathedral and were in time for the 12 noon mass, which we took. It brought tears to the eyes of many a peregrino, including Lynn, being there in that sacred place after that long and difficult journey.

Right after mass we went to the Peregrino office and got our compostela, a process which reminded us of standing in line for the Empire State Building.  First the line to enter the courtyard, then the line to enter the building, then the line up the stairs, then the real line.  It didn't really take all that long, it was just amusing, in a way.  As we were coming out, we noticed the line was now well down the street and a mass of perigrinos were arriving. So we timed that just right.

They recommended that you not visit the Cathedral with your gear, so we found out they would swing the incense burner tomorrow at the noon mass and at the 7:30pm Pilgrim mass, and decided to complete the pilgrim ritual that takes place in the Cathedral tomorrow. We then went looking for our hotel, having a comfortingly familiar piece of pizza for lunch on the way.

Happily, the hotel is fairly modern,  very clean, has a bathtub, air conditioning, and a charming view which includes the Cathedral, a lovely garden, a pussycat on the balcony across from us, and lots of tiled roofs.

Friday, we will finish what we walked all this way to do, enter the Cathedral by the Porticol, touch the statue of St James, and hug the statue from behind. We will also attend mass when they swing the giant Botafumeiro.

On Saturday, we go to Finesterre, Muros, the waterfall at Ezaro, and Muxia. This time on a guided bus tour!

Summary - we are in the city and have our Compostela, but tomorrow we will arrive at our destination.

Distance today - 19km
Distance final - 791.2km