We didn't have an early start this morning as we had a late night last night. The sociable Nowegians kept us talking in the restaurant until late, then we had diaries to write and posts to finish so it was nearly midnight before we went to bed.
As a result we had our latest start of this leg of the Camino and didn't set off until nearly 9.00 am. We started with quite a steep climb through eucalyptus woods, the first of many climbs that faced us today. We didn't mind though, as every step was taking us closer to Santiago.
The first major landmark was the airport and we skirted the runway on 2 sides. We will fly out of it on Sunday, and it was strange to be there before we'd even reached Santiago.
A little while later we had a fairly late but decent breakfast, with reasonably sized bits of toasted baguette. After this, we were ready for the final approach.
Monte del Gozo was the next stop. We climbed up to the modern sculpture, from where we should have had our first glimpse of the towers of the cathedral of Santiago. There was nothing to see but the modern suburbs of Santiago. Too many trees have grown since Medieval pilgrim times! The big excitement for us was that Galician TV were there filming pilgrims. Yorkie had let slip that this was a very special day for our pilgrimage leader Gio.
We started to descend into Santiago, passing the huge albergue which can accommodate 3,000 pilgrims at busy times. It all started to remind us of the walk into Leon. Although Santiago has a very small historic centre, it has extensive modern suburbs.
Eventually we reached the town sign ...
... next stop the cathedral. It seemed an awful long time until, at last, we had our first glimpse, then, just minutes later we were looking not just at the cathedral in all it's glory, but many of our friends that we'd met along the way: what a great moment.
The midday pilgrim mass had just finished, so it was quite busy in the square, but was a good time for us to join paws and enter the home of St James who has been inspiring and motivating us for so long.
We'll tell you about the rest of our day in our next post.
Lots of love, the Compostella bears xxx
2 comments:
Hurrah! Love that last photo of Gio - very spiritual! Hope the pilgrim mass today is very special. Thinking of you.
Well done!! what a thrill for you coming into sight of the cathedral at last. We will think of you at Mass today while we are struggling u our last & biggest ascent @ 950m At least it will be cooler at 26. It has been 29. Yesterday we took a short boat trip to Dragonera,now a nature reserve but onetime base of Barberossa home of dreaded pirate. Enjoy your trip to the sea & a. Safe journey home. Love from Midland branch.
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