Day 36 - Monte del Gozo to Santiago de Compostela

Day 36 - Monte del Gozo to Santiago de Compostela

Rain

We did it! We have completed our journey in good shape and in good spirit. It was not supposed to be easy and it wasn't. But in truth, it wasn't hard as I thought it would be. We were on a steep learning curve the first few days. There were some setbacks but we recovered. Then we got into a rhythm and it got a lot easier once we realized how do it. There were many days that I really enjoyed my walks. 

I said in the form at the Pilgrim's Office that I did it for spiritual reason. I don't know what I have gained spiritually from the trip. I did not lose myself or find myself.  I don't think I have changed that much other than being a bit more tolerant. It is quite amazing that we can have people from everywhere having the same goal, strangers sharing the same room and almost everything else while being nice to each other. It is very encouraging indeed. I did not particularly go out of my way to make friends along the way but people we met, as I said before, will be in our memories.

We took the quick 5 km trek to Santiago de Compostela this morning. It was actually very quick to reach the outskirt of Santiago but took a bit of time to get to the Catedral. Quick pictures and off to the Pilgrim's Office to get our certificates. Where is the crowd? There is no crowd either coming down the hill or at the Pilgrim's Office. There were about 10 people in the line ahead of us for the certificate. That is it. Filled out some factual information on their sheet and we got our certificates. For 3€, we all opted to also have the other certificate that stated the distance, the starting date and starting point. The basic certificate simply says the date it was completed. Dropped off the backpack at the Post Office for storage, had breakfast and attended the pilgrim's mass. I don't think I heard them read the names of the pilgrims who arrived but did catch them saying Canada several times. 

We saw a number of familiar faces in Santiago; Rene from Gatineau who seems to pop up everywhere, the crazy Brazilian, the woman with the same backpack as Gigi who we have seen everyday for the last few days, the French Canadian father and daughter team and the guy with a prosthetic hand who we haven't seen for a few days now.

We got to our last albergue that we will stay for two days. It is big with a huge kitchen and a common area that also has a small supermarket. We are going to do some cooking. The only downer is the rain. Looks like it is going to be like this the whole time we will be here. It would be nice to go to a market to get some fresh foods.

A wet start to the last day