San Marcos to Santiago

DAY 41: SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2017

Exciting morning! It was our last nite as roommates. Now we’re heading out to finish the Camino. Only a few miles into Santiago.

Getting closer.

Monte de Gozo is the last hill before Santiago. It is where the pilgrims would get their first glimpse of Santiago and they could see the Cathedral spires. Medieval pilgrims fell to their knees, shouting and breaking out into songs.

Huge modern monument on Monte de Gozo. It’s still a long way into the city.

This is Larissa from Moscow. She was walking beside me and in a quiet voice asked, “is this Santiago?” I assured her it was and she looked very happy.

Coming down the hill from Monte de Gozo were many barrack type buildings … about 30 of them. One of the guidebooks called it a sprawling dormitory and recreational building — the price of an ever-increasing demand for accommodations. They looked like they could be Albergues but there wasn’t anyone around … or else they were all booted out at 8am.

We made it to the city sign. It was still another 2.5K into the city center and  Cathedral.

A few horse pilgrims riding in to town.

Not sure where they park the horses.

It is still a long walk into the city center.

Bagpipes and drum. Love the sound!

Lots of pilgrims gathering in the Cathedral square — many bikers today.

We finally made it to the Cathedral of Santiago which is the resting place of the apostle St. James. They Cathedral’s main entrance was under reconstruction and covered with scaffolding.

Time for a quick celebration … GinTonica and tapas.

Being in Santiago was like our “graduation” from the Camino. We started crossing paths with many of the people we had bonded with at various places on the trail. There were many happy reunions. The first people we found were Helga from Iceland and Jezebel from St. Louis Missouri.

Getting giddy! We got in line to received our Compostela. We each had three credential books filled with stamps from many of the places we had visited on the Camino.

The Compostela document — my first name is in Latin … Joannam.

Ascension is a big church day and in Santiago, it’s a four-day festival. We crossed paths with Marina from England.

A happy reunion with Sebastian, a monk from Bavaria.

Sabastian joined us for dinner. He and David started singing choir songs at the restaurant.

We had quite the Galician feast … including sardines and octopus.

We left our mark on Santiago. It was a very good day.