Arrived!

Our last day, the 49th day of our Camino is here. all week we have heard the weather was changing on this day, so we steeled ourselves to prepare for the expected rain. Instead, we arose to a night sky alive with starshine, with a bright moon just on the wane. A Campus Stellae: a field of stars. How appropriate!

It was windy and cold, so we wrapped up well and set off. My head cold, which I thought had disappeared has lodged itself in the middle of my chest, and for a day or two I am wracked with phlegmy coughs all day and night. I am a bit heady and snuffly too, and my leg and back muscles are sore for no specific reason. I am even a bit nauseated at times. Maybe the body is starting to grow weary.

But walking seems to be fine and we were happy to see the way into the city followed the same type of paths along farmland fields with cows and goats and sheep and chicken, even a white horse in the mist rising from a field as the rising sun touched the trees. At one point we could see both ends of a wide-arching rainbow.

Then forest tracks, past enormous eucalyptus trees. These were brought to Spain from Australia over a century ago to provide pulp and paper. They are lovely trees, and their shedding bark is soft and brown, but I am distrustful of species brought into unfamiliar terrain and worry about their effects on the local wildlife. Nothing seems to grow under them, but the birds still seem to chirp in quantity and there seem to be no other wildlife, other than rats or mice.

At the 8 or 9km mark we sat for our usual coffee break, and within second came a whoosh of rain. We were able to move our table under the overhang, and were warm enough from the walking. It was like a summer rain at home, light and fragrant. As soon as we had finished our coffee, it was gone and the sun had returned. How lucky. We passed by many of the groups we have seen over the last few days, a group from Berkeley in California, and a large group of Japanese, to whom we have spoken what tiny Japanese we have and showed them my Henro Buddha beads I had obtained from the small pilgrimage we did on the island of Shikoku this spring. They all knew about the Henro - it is one of the other great pilgrimages in the world and well supported by the Japanese themselves.

At Lavacolla, pilgrims in days of yore traditionally had a good wash in the river here. I might add that the Muslims and Jews were quite good at hygiene, but the Christians, who made fun of them for their cleaning habits, were a filthy lot, and this could well have been the only time they actually cleaned themselves, or at least part of themselves. In the language of old Lavacolla meant to wash the scrotum. The river is a stream now, but I washed my walking sticks for the first time in the trip.

We passed around and under the airport, with small planes taking off over our heads, then passed the local television studios. Still thankfully, it was pretty rural going. At Monte del Gozo, a slightly elevated site, there is a monument, and - a view! Yes, we can see the city and just pick out the steeples of the Cathedral. It's little more than an hour away now!

Just as we entered the old part of the city, another torrent of rain. We hadn't planned on doing our daily arriving ritual here but fate and the weather persuaded us to duck into the first place we could for our half beer and cheers to arriving at the next stage. Our last stage.

As soon as the rain stopped, we gathered up and made the last few hundred feet, passing a young man playing the Galician version of the bagpipe to call us in. And then, there it was. The Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela! It was glistening with rain drops falling from its statues and metalwork, and the paving stones outside reflected the light as shining gold.

The rain threatened again and so we went to complete our pilgrim responsibilities. Inside the cathedral, it is possible to climb a small staircase up behind the altar, on which a statue of St. James looks. It might be one of the only ones that real people are allowed to access, and we were able to embrace the statue and than him for delivering us safely.

I'll try to get a better photo, but can you see it,
someones hands around St. James's neck
as they embrace him from behind?

Upon descending these stairs, there is another small staircase, this one down into the crypt, where the earthly remains of St. James and 2 disciples lay in a lavish and large silver reliquary. After a quiet moment there, we went to sit and reflect on our journey, until I was just too beat and we left to check into our hotel where I lay my head in one of the plainest, smallest rooms we've had on the entire Camino. We are staying in the St. Mark Hospedalia and Seminary, which is still partly what it has been for centuries and partly a nice hotel. the disappointment in our plain room aside, I was grateful it was clean.

We roused ourselves to go to the pilgrim's office before it closed, so that we could get our Compostela, a document that acknowledges the spiritual intent on our journey (which must be described) as well as the mileage attained. a surly security guard sent us to the wrong line, but I had a lovely lady who went through my pilgrim passport to ensure I had a stamp for every day, and two for every day from Sarria. She particularly complimented me for going to the Museum of Chocolate in Astorga! Once she approved my application, she wrote my name in latin on my Compostela and then congratulated me with a hearty handshake.

That done we were off to the pilgrim's mass at the Cathedral, but I just could not make it. I thought I might either faint or vomit, so sloped off home and to bed.

After 12 hours rest (aided by an extra hour as the clocks changed), I felt a bit better, and we determined to remain resting until the noon mass. It is Sunday, our countries will be acknowledged because we completed the journey yesterday, and we will be included in the total of some 400 pilgrims who also made their entrance into the city yesterday. The Cathedral was packed, and we had to stand at the back, but we made sure we stood in one of the arms of the cross, just in case. In case of what?

The botafumerio, a large incense burner that requires 6 people to work it, hangs on a long rope on which it swings in a wide arch over the congregation of pilgrims. It was used originally to fumigate the sweaty and disease-ridden pilgrims. Now it is done for the ceremony of concluded pilgrimage, but because it requires paying 6 people to operate it, it does not swing every mass, and there was no way of knowing whether it would be operating in 'our' mass. To our delight, after the long mass, the botafumerio was lowered and then swung into action, and the sun shone through the high windows to made the swinging silver shine every time it hit the apex of its arc, the steam and smell of the incense falling gently. Even happier were we to hear the large tour group of Japanese pilgrims had paid for it. Another little Camino/Henro moment.