10 apr

Walked another 21 kilometres, from Santa Irene to Santiago de Compostela, finishing the journey and making a total of 1437 kilometres.
The day started spectacular enough. With thunder and lightning. These seem to me phenomena for the late afternoon or early evening. But Spain does these things in their own way and their own time.
The rain disappeared as I was putting on all my rain gear and the walk into Santiago was gradually more sunny, just to arrive in splendid blue sky spring weather.
It was strange. This was what I had been heading for for such a long time. And then it was there. It was also strange because suddenly there were an enormous amount of people. yesterday afternoon I had been walking for four hours through the blazing sun and met exactly two persons. And now I must have passed at least a hundred people in four hours walking, including two school classes. Where did they come from? It was like somebody opened a can of pilgrims and dropped them just outside of Santiago. Most of them must only have walked the last 100 kilometers and started in Sarria. I know this must be true because in the comments book in one of the Romanesque churches I visited there were scores of names with people that stated they had started in Sarria. On the page I wrote my comment on (‘lovely church’) I was the only one coming from somewhere else. I was quite tired by the time I dropped into that church. I wonder if anybody in the world will be able to decipher that I wrote down Le Puy en Velay. With a little bit of good will it could have been read as Sarria too.
Just before the main Santiago square I took a wrong turn. While there had been quite obnoxious Camino signs in the outskirts of Santiago, in the city centre it was a lovely subtle shell we had to follow. But I was just following a Camino biker who was struggling uphill and only realized I was wrong when I saw him asking for directions.
Anyway. Julie was waiting for me on the main square, as was my buddy Francisco, who had walked more than 56 kilometres yesterday and had arrived an hour before me. It was so heartwarming to see him. He has struggled with his shin and knees in the past week. We wouldn’t walk together for a long time, but although I walked pretty far each day, he managed to keep up. This was even more special because he was carrying a backpack with cooking gear, a tent, and a small garage of utensils. He let me carry his backpack for a little bit. I think I would have been halfway if I would have to carry that around. In fact Francisco walked the Camino one day faster than I did. As did the English guy Richie, who I heard had arrived in Santiago two days ago. Amazing because the last few times I passed him he was limping. Maria, the girl from Lithuania, and David, the Italian waiter, also arrived this morning and told us that Richie had woken up one morning without pain and just speeded off. I might have felt strong at times, they were all quite a bit stronger.
The easy connections with other people, that’s the most special thing about the Camino. Just the question: Why are you walking the Camino, was enough for other people, and for myself, to pour our hearts out. I remember Irish James in the first days after the Pyrenees. He told me he wasn’t surprised I was a journalist, because I had this easy way of questioning. But it was not only that I learned from other people, they also helped me get new insights in myself.
Francisco, Julie and me had a lovely lunch in a restaurant just off one of the squares around the cathedral. I didn’t want to go and get my Compostela. That has to wait till may 6th, the day we will walk into Santiago with Julie’s sisters Mary and Shelly, and with brother-in-law Wayne.
But before that there will be another time I will reach Santiago. This weekend we will drive to Madrid and meet Claire. Monday Mary will arrive and Julie will go and explore Andalusia with her. I will go to Salamanca and walk towards Santiago one more time from there. Just nine days of walking. After that I’ll go a week to the monastery of Santa Domingo de Silos, the most important monastery of Spain, according to Manuel. Listening to Gregorian chants and ponder a little more about the eight deadly sins. There are no kilometres to go anymore, but this journey will continue.