Sunday, July 17, 2016
Pedrouzo to Santiago
Day 47
Up early to start the final day of walking. I wanted to avoid the heat as much as possible and get to Santiago as early as I could. The weather forecast said it was going to get up to 100 degrees today. I didn’t even stop for lunch, though I did grab a cold drink at mid- morning.
I don’t remember much about the walk other than the relief of finally walking into Santiago. I was heading for the main plaza when who should rush out of a restaurant but our Romanian journalist friend. We hadn’t seen her for weeks, and then suddenly there she was. She said she saw us coming up the street from her seat by the large picture window. She had made it to Santiago several days previously and was winding up her Camino broadcasts. We hugged, and made plans to meet later for drinks.
Later in the afternoon, James and I went to the office dispensing Compostelas. I only took my second Camino passport, not realizing that there was an advantage to taking both. (Having completely filled up one passport with stamps, I purchased a second one about a month into our pilgrimage.) As a result, my Compostela just records the 100 kilometers I walked from Sarria to Santiago, not the whole distance I had walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
James and I later went to the appointed meeting place, but our Romanian friend did not appear. It was fine. There was a lot going on in Santiago. We ran into the New Jersey Six, and all of us high-fived at having completed our pilgrimage.
Dinner was a celebration, with two kinds of sangria. After dinner, we came across some street musicians playing Galician bagpipes and stopped to listen. Of course, we further celebrated while listening by ordering an after-dinner drink.
40,470 steps today
Additional photos of this day can be seen at https://wp.me/P7rs4v-sW.
The Half-Fast Camino Walking* Club 