Another early flight, and we landed in the rainy city of Santiago. This city of the final destination of the Camino de Santiago, a famous collection of walks from across Iberia. 1000 years ago, Saint James took a walk from Saint Jean Pied de Port across Spain to Santiago to establish a church.
This Camino was the sole reason for us to make it to the city. Not cause we were going to walk in backwards, but because my mom was finishing the whole thing, and we wanted to celebrate it with her at the end. She started her journey from France 40 days before, and by the time we met her walked officially 772km to the cathedral square. This was her second Camino, completing Camino Portuguese before.
Our Camino de Santiago was much different. We started at the cathedral square, and then walked the other way a kilometer or so. We stopped for a banana loaf (we were very hungry) at Cafeteria Londres, with no indication of when we would expect our company to make it our way. While waiting for our order, my mom and her friend Cyanne came walking the other way! It was a very emotional reunion. We hadn’t seen each other for 11 months.
The gang then made the journey back to the cathedral. We let mom and Cyanne go ahead of us. They had just walked almost 800km, from France, and who were we to join them for the last kilometer and pretend we did it all. It was quite the celebration at the square for them all. Many other pilgrims were in the square, and we got to meet all sorts of new faces in one of the most emotional moments of their lives. Most walking the Camino appear to be walking towards or away from something, and the completion of the walk meant the end of that journey. That is not to take away from the accomplishment of walking to the end of Spain all the way from France.
The Camino family really is a thing, and it was great to see all this final support from everyone in their accomplishment. Many tears of triumph are shed on the square every day. We gave our space and took a lot of photos for all the pilgrims. We had a little seafood breakfast, and retired to a little apartment. The three of us collectively had the energy of a dead battery, and we spent the entire day hanging our and chatting. I had quite the nap, and the gals used that time to grab groceries and run errands.
It was only one day in Santiago, mostly spent napping, giving a short but sweet reunion. But now the camham are three, and we are on a journey together, onto the first repeat destination of our trip. We will see you there!