Fin : Finisterre

The walk is over! Frank and I reached Santiago de Compostela after a 22km hike on a very wet Tuesday evening, May 25th, on Frank's birthday, and having dumped the rucksacks and collapsed for a while on our lovely pension beds with their spotless sheets, we made our way to the Cathedral and caught the quiet 7pm mass where there is a far smaller congregation that at the tour-bus thronged celebrations during the day. As usual, pilgrims' arrivals were chronicled during the mass, and the most impressive that evening was the mention of a journey all the way from Paris! Many pilgrims of course take several years to complete such a journey, walking a few weeks each year til finally reaching their goal. However achieved, it is an impressive walk, and we felt awed by such dedication. Afterwards we celebrated with a wonderful Santiago dinner at a favourite meson nearby.


Next morning we caught a 10.00 am bus to Finisterre (90km away but three hours via the wooded rias) and walked to the top of Monte Facho, the site of a far earlier pilgrimage in pre-Christian times, and we revelled in the solitude high above the glistening Atlantic. The last few days of the Camino had been somewhat stressful for me, with the sheer numbers of pilgrims all heading for a limited supply of beds, but of course this was a self-induced fear as we never had to sleep by the side of the road! However, the earlier spirit of comradeship and simplicity seemed to have been replaced with a "Santiago or bust" mentality which I did not enjoy, and being out among the pine-trees with gulls wheeling overhead in what was once considered the end of the world set the whole Camino experience back in perspective. On our return to the little town of Fisterra we were thrilled to find a small party of Spaniards with their guide in the 12C Romanesque church of Santa Maria de Areas. It had been firmly locked on our way up as so many of these amazing treasures are. Inside was one of the most incredible collection of Marian statues, including a larger-than-life size one of Mary saving floundering fishermen. It is taken out of the church every August and carried in state down to the Fish Market and then brought out to sea by trawler to placate the waves and protect seafaring folk. Religious tradition is alive and well in Spain!


The sun was shining, and there was time for a swim before returning to the great city of Santiago, where next morning we visited some more churches, and then sat in the Plaza de la Quintana and sipped coffees, taking in the bustle of this great square where newly arrived pilgrims, elated, exhausted, queued with the masses of day trippers for access to the Cathedral. Unexpectedly a huge assembly of priests from all over Galicia processed by us on their way to a celebratory mass. There must have been three hundred of them, with several Cardinals and the Archbishop bringing up the rear, entering through this great eastern portal, the Puerta Real, which has three statues of St James above it and is only opened on Holy Years, and we imagined that there would have been some wonderful music seeping through the weed-strewn granite walls, had we the time to stay. But home beckoned, and it was time to bid Santiago farewell. We had visited a nearby jewellery shop, where the elderly assistant confessed to never having walked the Camino, but having met thousands of pilgrims in the 21 years she worked here. "No matter how difficult their journeys have been, they always come here joyfully, and tell me they will return". Our third Camino is hopefully not our last.

I will gather together some pictures as already promised and post those before too long. Love and blessings to you all and thanks again for the marvellous support and interest in the project!