June 13
Walking distance: 4 kilometres
I started walking the last 4 kilometres to the cathedral of Santiago on my own very early in the morning. I had dreamed of walking it with the sunrise. Ironically, it was raining cats and dogs. But I didn’t mind. I was happy.
This was not the end of my camino. I don’t have special connections to churches, I wanted to walk to something that means something to me. So I had always planned to walk to the ocean, another 90 kilometres to Finisterre, a point, where I can’t go any further…if I don’t learn how to walk on water.
However, walking to Santiago was my proof that I could do it. I proved all the doubters wrong. I was and am strong enough to walk through the whole of Spain with a ridiculously heavy backpack and incredible pain in my body, to cope with all weather conditions and many many different types of people. Of course I was proud!
spotting the cathedral for the first time
Just before the cathedral I ran into Felice and her mum. I had met those two lovely Dutch women on my very first walking day and had bumped into them for the first two weeks, then they sped up and were nowhere to be seen. On my way to Santiago that morning I had thought of Felice and there she was.
It was her birthday and she was just looking for a nice place to have a breakfast, so she invited me to come along. In a dry and warm bar I found out that she too was thinking of me that day, hoping that we would meet. She had arrived in Santiago a week ago and had already walked to Finisterre and got back with a bus the day before. They had been quick. I had been slow. So what. This is not a competition.
celebrating Felice’s birthday with her mum and a camino friend
After catching up with her and her mum, I went to get my Compostela, a certificate stating that I had walked the camino. In the middle ages this piece of paper was like a green card, a ticket to heaven, no matter how many times you had sinned. With this piece of paper you were forgiven everything. In Spanish I would say: Es una tonteria como un castillo!
my Compostela
Then I went to the pilgrims’ mass. A must for all pilgrims and tourists in Santiago. There is a mass every day at lunch time for the arriving pilgrims. I thought I would be very emotional, but I really wasn’t. I didn’t understand a thing the priest said, the cathedral was packed with pilgrims and even more tourists, who were only interested in getting decent pictures done and I found the whole thing orchestrated. It was a big show. I even got a bit sad and angry. It showed me that I really don’t feel very comfortable with Christianity. I am a Spiritulist through and through. All I wanted to do was crawl into a nice Spiritualist church, where I could feel the warmth and love of spirit. I did not get the same feeling in the cathedral at all.
the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
It got a bit more exciting though when the priests got out the Botafumeiro, the huge and very famous thuribe. It is a massive swinging metal countainer, where incense is burned. It weighs 80 kg and is 1.60 m high. It just swung through the whole church. It did look very impressive.
After the mass I had lunch with Felice and then met up with my men, checked into a hotel and was off again to hang out some more with Felice. We met Philipp from Berlin, who was just about to make his way to Finisterre and we met Chris, the non-stop talking American, who I met on my second day. I had also bumped into him in Carrion de los Condes quickly. Now he popped up again. It’s funny with these pilgrims. They come and go and suddenly they are back again. We had dinner together with his pilgrim gang and went to a concert.
Chris and I
seeing a live band in Santiago
Chris, Felice and I
Jens and I took a day off and enjoyed Santiago. We said goodbye to Harald and Andy, who had officially finished their camino. Here are a few words from my diary about Santiago: “Santiago is such a cool place. There are so many bars, people just sit in front of the cathedral and hang out with groups drinking wine. Festival atmosphere. There are buskers on nearly every street corner. Santiago is the city of joy! Never had a city more atmosphere!”
buskers
party time in front of the cathedral
But this was not the end. In the next few days I was walking another 90 kilometres to Finisterre, a place that was considered “the end of the world” in the Middle Ages. The end of the world would be my end of the camino.
The Yellow Arrow 