Certified Pilgrims!

October 23

Linda

Hola amigos!  Yesterday we walked into Santiago at approximately 10:30 AM. It was exciting and a little surreal to enter the city and see the huge Cathedral, and know that we had done it!! Our Danish friends, Erik and Margit, actually met us on the street as we entered, so that was a very nice surprise. They showed us where the pilgrim office was, so we could register and receive our "compostela" before the noon pilgrim mass. They also were kind enough to take our backpacks to our hotel so we didn´t have to deal with them at the mass. The mass was in Spanish but very beautiful and at one point the priest read out all of the pilgrims who had completed the Camino that day, and where they had started from (3 people from Canada started from St Jean Pied de Port) - that was as much detail as he gave,but it was still nice to hear! While walking around the town we kept bumping into fellow pilgrims who we had met at some point along the way, so it was a very joyous atmosphere, and everyone was congratulating each other. Some people were planning to continue on to Finisterre, while others were saying goodbyes as they would be heading home shortly.
We had decided previously to continue on to Finisterre with our friends, which we started this morning, and it was a perfect day- beautiful warm weather, lovely forest paths to walk on, and great company. We had to walk 22 km to get to a town with albergues,but tomorrow we may have to walk 30 km. The towns are farther apart on this route, so not as easy to stop when you feel like it! We will see how the weather is tomorrow, and decide then how far we feel like going. Now that we´ve completed the main Camino, we do not feel as rushed about this part!!
That´s it for now.