Day 5... End of The Way

 

Getting out of bed this morning was surprisingly ok... I almost leapt out..  almost. 

My legs, who forever will be like some kind of entity with their own minds, were not moaning. 

Day 2 my legs had been 'what the fcuk are you doing to us... again.?' 

Day 3.. legs... Really... not just the one day...

Day 4.. oh ok then... 

Day 5... ready and raring to go boss. 

Not that they will be overly disappointed to find themselves having an easier day tomorrow. They always feel like they deserve it. 

Once again, we were pleasantly surprised to discover, once we had left o pedrouzo, that the route took us into the woods and fields. Again the Eucalyprus and pine, again the babbling brooks and little bridges. Nothing overly spectacular in terms of scenery... just nice and tranquil. 

Or it would have been had there not been an inordinate amount of pilgrims, all treading the same path (unsurprisingly). It seemed like the numbers of people had doubled overnight and not only. did we have to deal with the undulating terrain, but also getting stuck behind people, dodging their walking sticks as they threw them around with gay abandon, and tripping over people who inexplicably stopped in the middle of the trail. Somewhat close to my worst nightmare. 

The saving grace came when we bumped into people we had met on the Privitivo part of the trail, when buen camino was said to all who passed. Here with so many people, the cameraderie of the trail felt lost. 

God knows how the ones who had done the whole of one of the routes felt, now they were faced with a tide of humanity. 

Still it was what it is... or is what it was. Either way, we had 12 miles to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella... and the weather wasn't looking promising at all. Grey skies and cloud dominated the scenery and whilat not as cold as it had been in Lugo, it was far from the image conjoured up when ome mentions Spain. 

We passed more small churches and got our passports stamped, keeping up a good pace despite this being the 4th day of pounding our feet on the ground. We aimed not to stop until around 5 miles so blasted past a couple of cafés. 

We settled on one just before 5.miles and bumped into M and M, the german couple we had seen along the way.  Seems like we weren't the only ones who resented the mass of people... they had the same complaints... although as m said.. 'for us.. it was you!' 

He had a point... they had been enjoying a nice quiet camino with few people and then found themselves bumping into us every few miles. 

The rain started with about 6 miles to go... raincoats went on and basically stayed on today. It went from drizzle to torrential and back to drizzle again. Needless to say, Sonia went quiet as soon as the rain fell (she doesn't walk in the rain (she says that's true). 

Santiago de Compostella came into sight at the top of a fairly strenuous hill (one of a fair few today). Even with the rain you could just pick out the spires from that distance. Unfortunately we could also see that it was at the top of a hill (of course) and we first had to go down a steep hill... down being a real pain for already tired muscles. 

At this point we were on the outskirts of Santiago... in some kind of park, fighting our way through a torrent of people who all seemed to be milling about. It took a bit of effort to get past them but at least we were now in front of the massive crowds. 

The entry into Santiago was grey and uninspiring, roads with traffic,  run down. shops, basically like many small towns. 

We kept our heads down and our feet moving... 1.5 miles to go.... 

They were the longest 1.5 miles of this journey. 

Pounding tarmac... up a hill, on feet that had done nearly 70 miles in 4 days was not a very pleasant experience. I felt kinda like I had done on my London to Paris ride when I reached the outskirts there. The enjoyment had gone... I was now only continuing because tradition dictated that I end up in a certain spot. London to Paris would have been a whole heap better if I could have finished on the outskirts and taken a train to the eiffel tower. 

But tradition does dictate... so we carried on. Also a little hungry as breakfast was a little while ago, we passed numerous places to eat, all smelling great. Many people dived into these, but for us, it seemed a bit wierd you would stop now, when so close to the finish.... 

so onwards and upwards.... 

Finally the old town emerged... with cobbled narrow streets leading to the Cathedral.... through a tunnel, down some steps and out into the square... the cathedral standing tall. and aloof, uncaring of our small achievement. To be fair, it felt a bit fraudulent to me to be standing here after only doing a small section of the route, but we had fitted in what time would allow and so must be happy with that. 

The square was full, yet didn't seem too overcrowded. People hugging each other, jumping up. and down, clapping. 

We saw a few people we had seen days earlier and congratulated them on their journey..  no sign of m and m but they had gone on ahead of us since the cafe. 

Then, it started to tip down... cold wet, England type rain. We looked for the Pilgrim office and followed google maps to another building where we registered our names, where we had started and what date, before printing out a ticket with a number. We then joined a really speedy moving queue, where a screen displayed the numbers and the desk we should go to. 627... desk number 1....

off I went, where my ticket was scanned and  certificates printed out for me. I then took it to the counter to pay as I had elected to also have the 2nd one for 3 euros with the mileage on it. Then of course we had to buy a cardboard tube thingy to roll up the certificates into and protect them from the downpour. 

Our Way was done. 

Perhaps there will be another Way for one or both of us in the future, many people seem to return again and again. Perhaps we will feel the need to finish what we started and do one whole route in the future. 

For now though, my legs are thankful. Little do they know that we will be headed out again later to experience a pilgrims mass at the cathedral, so please don't let them know 😁

LHS X