27 May 2008

This is our final day on the Camino. It is still raining, but not too cold. Danielle has been unable to shake off the cold that she has had for days, and it is beginning to wear her down. We are all thankful that this odessy has come to an end. This morning we strapped ourselves into our harnesses as usual put on our grimy shoes and for the last 10 kms set off down the road to the Cathedral of Santiago. Most of the way was through an urban landscape, and it seemed as if hundreds of pilgrims were converging into the narrow streets leading to the Portal de Compostella. It turns out that they were, all the various Caminos converge here, so those doing the Portugese, the Northern and other less well known routes all converge here in Santiago. When we finally entered the Cathedral grounds, we were greeted by a friend with whom we had walked many miles. She had arrived in Santiago a couple of days ago and was spending some time in the town. She showed us to her pension where we were lucky to get a room, as it was very close to the Cathedral. After checking in, we went to the office of the Perigrinos and stood in line to get our Compostella. Well we are now certified pilgrims, so we attended the pilgrim mass, and saw the huge boit a fumero being swung across the entire church. It was a sight to behold. Our completion of the Camino will be read out at the pilgrim mass tomorrow where we will be listed as ´two Canadians starting from St. Jean Pied de Port´. Tonight we will go out to dinner with a friend, or friends and decide what we will do with our remaining time we have in Spain.