As usual it was up at 6:30am, breakfast (tostada and cafe americano) and on the road by 7:30.
Apart from being in fog for the majority of the walk there was little of interest to report other than an over abundance of eucalyptus trees. The Spanish have eucalyptus tree plantations all throughout northern Galacia. It felt like a walk through the Dandenongs.
The walk was 18km and included a couple of stops for coffee and final stamps for our credentials prior to our arrival in Santiago.
The walk into Santiago included more steep uphill sections than we would have preferred and the final few kilometres through the outer suburbs could not be described as being pleasant.
On arrival in the old town we visited Praza Obradoiro in front of the Cathedral and watched the pilgrims celebrating their success of finishing a Camino and sitting around enjoying the sun. At the moment approximately 2,500 pilgrims are arriving in Santiago each day and that excludes the tourists. The whole town is very busy.
After taking some photos of the crowds in the praza and the cathedral we checked into our Hostel before heading out for a celebratory drink with our two friends from Sydney (Tony and Johan) who we have been walking with on and off over the past 2 weeks.
Tomorrow we will visit the Pilgrim Office with our stamped credential and receive our Compostela’s. You are given the choice of three reasons for completing your Camino which are Religious, Spiritual or Other. Your answer determines which type of completion certificate you are given. The religious one is more colourful apparently.
Good to see Paul again, the silent Blog-companion.
I had suspected that the photos you took were with a camera, John, they were so good: the close-up of the statues at the pinnacle of the cathedral's façade provided proof.
Trudging through the outer suburbs would have been tedious: suburbs are modern life!
Congratulations to you and Paul (and Kate at the start) for your herculean effort. Your readers await the sight of the final certificate.