Jim and Kim's Travels: Day 6 Walking to Santiago de Compostela

Our last day of walking! My feet were pretty happy about that. One ankle was really giving me grief.

Santiago de Compostela showing on the map. You can see why people are able to walk from many starting points in Europe.

And supposedly a 20 km walk, although our notes from Santiago Ways said it was 26 km. Either way...a long walk on our last day.

Early morning up and at 'em...we were a bit shocked to see we had gained a 6th person. His friend took the photo and I guess photobombing seemed like a good idea.

Once again, not 5 minutes went by before it was pouring rain...

Out came the ponchos...

A mural of pepper farmer Milagros Gonzále...apparently she can tell if a padron pepper will be hot or not just by rolling it between her fingers.

So many churches...this one reminded me of a Chinese pagoda.

And again the pretty purple flowers...

Another communal laundry...you can see the sloped sides for scrubbing the clothes.

It couldn't decide whether it wanted to rain or not. We were seeing more pilgrims as we got closer to Santiago de Compostela.

She's looking pretty relaxed...her feet are not killing her!

All sorts of stone pilgrims...

A very chill dog...

A cat coming to meet us...I was also impressed with the parking skills of the car owner on the right.

Cluck, cluck, cluck...

Always fun to see what was around the corner...

A cat!

Uphill cobblestones...why not? Our feet, legs and hips were feeling the effects of the last six days.

Lovely, clear streams...

I loved this tidy space...lemons, a fountain and an oven.

Shake your tail feathers...dude was pretty proud of himself.

The weather still wasn't sure what it wanted to do...

This was a moment on the walk that gave me goosebumps. It still does.

Background: Terri's mother had made the decision to have MAID (medical assistance in dying) shortly after Terri returned from Spain. Terri told us the doctor said her mom could have anything she wanted that day. She had decided on a certain soup, a bagpiper, and a wild goose. Terri wasn't sure how they were going to manage that last one.

Today was her mom's birthday and as we walked along the trail, all of a sudden you could hear bagpipes. We looked at each other in disbelief. Bagpipes in Spain on the Camino Trail...on her birthday?! What are the chances?! It was a pretty amazing moment.

Under 20 km to go...you might as well have said 200 km to go. We were really hurting at this point.

A little town with a coffee shop always perked us up...no stopping here though.

But we couldn't pass up this one..."please to rest." I think we will.

Love this picture of Lynne and Gina...great memories.

The usual mess when we found a cafe...backpacks and hiking poles.

This church was huge...

We went inside to get a stamp for our pilgrim passport...beautiful interior. I don't know how they manage the upkeep on all of these churches.

Hello, kitty!

Yet another church...

Yeah, yeah...so we've walked a kilometre since the last sign. Depressing!

Carrying on...

This was different...

We're smiling on the outside...

A good reminder...

Kitty was playing hard to get...he had beautiful eyes.

This little guy didn't seem too healthy...

Yup...that way it is.

A moment of levity...Lynne had bought a chocolate milk, but needed a bottle opener. I had a spork. Many different methods were tried until we finally realized the spork had a bottle opener on it. Easy when you know!

Let's add tree roots to the walk just to keep it interesting...

Seriously, are you kidding me? Right about now, it seemed like someone was laughing at our plan of getting there today.

Be brave...we've got this!

Here we go...

Steps to nowhere...

Some roof tiles that had seen better days...

We had just missed the hydrangeas in bloom...

More lovely murals...

Right about now, we were wishing we had something to ride...like a taxi!

Looking back at another long uphill...

Sweet (and quiet) doggies...

You can see how we were trying to amuse ourselves by now...

This house and granary weren't looking too prosperous...

Another nice stream...

Still enjoying the flowers along the way...

And back into the woods...

Under 10 km now...my ankle was singing. Tylenol for everyone.

Making sure Lynne was still coming...yup! There she is.

You see that path on right that looked like a shortcut? Yes, about now we weren't making the smartest decisions.

I really didn't even save that much time. By the time I got to the top, Gina and Terri had done the switchback and joined us.

Hello little doggie...

It looked like a giant pineapple...

Yet another chapel...

An interesting mural...

That's one way to do inukshuks...

We really, really wanted to get there, but it was necessary to stop at this point.

Pastries...always a pick-me-up!

We thought we would eat outside, but quickly got cold as soon as we stopped walking.

Nice and warm inside with lots of Halloween decorations...

That was a pretty boring sandwich and another Americano coffee...the little buns were the "something extra" that we got.

And then you would see something like this and think "stop complaining!"

In the distance, our first view of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It looked so far away...

Ugh, 7 more kilometres...

At this point, we stopped to sing Happy Birthday to Terri's mom. I think we got a little weepy at this point as well.

Interesting...

Kitty...can you take us to Santiago de Compostela? We'll pay you.

A colourful mural showing diversity on the Camino...

What the heck? Bo Camino to you as well!

Under 5 km...seriously? We tried to tell ourselves just another 90 minutes, but realistically, it was probably going to be 2 hours.

Ooh spooky...

I like to think his face was saying something encouraging, but he's a cat. Probably more like "good luck, sucker."

Carrying on...

That did make me smile...

Sweet heavens...was someone changing the km?

And a decision to be made...one way was 1.7 and the other was 2.3 km. We didn't care if we walked on the highway the rest of the way. The shortest distance was definitely going to win.

Good plan...

This was pretty...

And finally in the city of Santiago de Compostela...population about 95,000.

Into the old part of the city...

One last Camino sign...

Look in the distance! The cathedral!

No time to gross Lynne out with this window display...we had places to be!

And into the courtyard of the cathedral...there was lot of laughing, high fiving, and a few tears.

The beautiful cathedral...what a sight for sore eyes...and legs and feet.

We did it!

Another of our online friends, Paula, had arrived yesterday with her husband and were there to greet us. This was their 5th Camino and they had walked over 300 km. Kudos to them! They have the Camino bug. They showed us where the passport office was. Oops...only read the sign after that said no photos. Sorry!

My certificate with my name in Latin...Joachinam Schnarr. Sure!

And for an extra 3€, a mileage certificate showing we walked 128 km.

It was getting dark now.

Paula had made a reservation at one of their favourite restaurants. A large pitcher of Sangria. It was delicious!

A crepe...I can't remember what was in it, but it was also delicious.

Lynne, Terri, Chris, Paula, Laura, me and Gina...a really nice end to a long day and our Camino!

We had heard about the shadow pilgrim. Thank heavens, Paula knew where it was, because the last thing we wanted to do was start wandering around looking for it.

It's a trick of light that casts the shadow of a pilgrim against the cathedral wall. Very cool!

Time to say goodbye to Paula and Chris and thank them for their generosity of advice and tips and more.

Lynne and Gina were in one hotel, and Laura, Terri and I were in another. Thankful for Madam Navigator Laura, so we didn't have to tax our brains.

By the time we arrived at our hotel, the staff had left. They had sent us the code to get in, the code to the safe to get our room keys, and they had put all the luggage in one room. Great instructions...it worked like a charm.