Day 19 of Camino

Day 19: O'pedrouzo​ to Santiago de Compostella, 20ish km. 

I have arrived, at the end of the Camino de Santiago.  The weather held out today, dropping occasionally into low temperatures, but ultimately avoiding any rain.  It was somewhat of a difficult day, starting off with a ridiculous incident where a tooth I have capped chipped on a piece of toast. No pain thankfully bit it has made eating interesting. The Camino itself started with lovely paths through forests and around the airport, followed by the climb up monte del gozo, where a nice monument to Pope John Paul and St. Francis overlook the spot where pilgrims historically fell to their knees in joy as they glimpsed the Cathedral on the horizon.  After an incredibly long trek through the urban sprawl of New Santiago and then the old city itself, I finally Arrived.  Serenaded by the beautiful sounds of the bagpipes.  Played by a kind man who tirelessly plays all day long welcoming pilgrims to the 12 century Romanesque Cathedral housing the remains of the Apostle St. James the Greater.  

The Cathedral​ is of course constantly under renovation as so many old buildings are, and sadly the famous front facade is covered by scaffolding.  Nonetheless the rest of the cathedral is stunning, a truly impressive monument to piety and the power of the Church.  The resources needed to build such a structure nearly a thousand years ago is mind blowing the more you think of it.  I toured the Cathedral and even was able to embrace the Apostle himself.   

All throughout the day I was deep in thought about the meaning of the Camino, what my expectations were and what I got out of it.  It's been a transformative experience so far and has taught me much about myself and I think the human spirit.  I received my compostella from the pilgrims office, the document that has been unchanged since the middle ages, given to pilgrims who have completed at least the last 100 km of the Camino. 

I did wait to post this until the next day, as I wanted to go to the pilgrims mass which I did today at noon.  It was a fascinating experience, which unexpectedly to me was packed full of people.  I figured mass on a Tuesday would be rather sparse.  Only a few were fellow walkers of the Camino, but as the Priest said (I think, my Spanish is still very weak) we are all pilgrims to Santiago.  It was a very pilgrim focused mass, with references to Santiago (that's Saint James in Spain) and to the sanctity of the pilgrimage.  I followed that up with lunch at a crepe place that served both the best crepe and the best chocolate cake I have ever had.  The rest of the day was spent resting, as the weather looks like it is going to clear up and so I will be setting off for the Camino to Finisterra tomorrow, the only Camino that starts at the Cathedral.  I will bore you all with the history of that pilgrimage later, but for now I will leave you all with thoughts of Santiago and the 310 km journey here.  It's been fantastic so far and I have no reason to suspect it won't continue to be so.     Only a few pictures. It took me forever to upload even this much. I'll try to go back once I'm in the us and upload more of my pictures. I did take over 2000 so far.