** "Last" day...or where to now? **

How do you put into words, this last day, walking ... It rather reminds me of the line in a song from the movie "To Sir with Love" where she says "how do you thank someone who's taken you from crayons to perfume?" Well, I may not have been quite that young...but...  How do you quantify, measure or even begin to know how much you've changed over these days and weeks and actually months?  For the now, thank you Santiago, for the place, Gracias, Espana and all my fellow Perigrinos, for everything...Gracias, Danke.   Thank you all the angels I met along this way... I am so grateful and happy to say I am not the woman who began this trip...whoever she was.  I can also say, who I am still becoming..don't quite know, but thank you for that too!

Yes, it was this dark when I started walking!  this was probably the only day I left this early.

It took a lot of manipulating to get this picture to show...but the hayloft was so lovely in the near dark, I wanted to crawl up there and wait...for the sun and the rest of the world...

Finally the sun, as always decided to show his face and help me along the way.

At long last, enough light to seen the yellow arrows...and the boots sitting on top of the stele..

So long awaited and now actually dreaded.  This is it, city of my dreams.

A little humor always helps too!  And another one of those tiny notes, which always leave one with that bittersweet wondering, did they meet...did they reconnect?

The equally long awaited words...Monto de Gozo, Mount of Joy.  From there pilgrims can see the actual Cathedral for the first time.  Now mind you, I've been there before, so I wasn't thinking it would hit me....

Well, Duh!! Of course it did...I was trying so damn hard to smile, which only made me cry more!! Of course I can laugh at it now...The Dutch pair who took this for me, and I of them, wound up sitting in the same corner at Mass!  It was a mother being helped by her son...who was only a bit younger than me.  Lovely to see them together.

There they are..smack dab in the middle between the trees, the misty spires of Santiago!  What can I say, the mist matched my eyes this Sunday morning in Santiago.

The road into downtown was amazingly crowded, and it was here I lost the two ladies from Sweden! 

I almost thought the boot was part of the sign.  The couple walking by, in the background, they thought I forgot it!!  He chased me down, and I had to explain in my pitiful Espanol, No mi Zappato and pointing at my feet and my now nasty looking Keens, Mi solo Zappatos.  It was incredibly sweet of him to try and do this...I kinda felt bad...but even for the last 3km, I wasn't carrying another thing!!

When I said on my earlier post about Santiago, about my sitting in a corner and I couldn't believe Enzo and Pepy actually found me sitting  here, my pack tucked into the corner between the sign and the wall, me, as you saw above, all in black!  Apparently the angels were hard at work again.

Stepping into my room at the Monastery, that Enzo and Pepy steered me into, this was what greeted me outside my window!!  My angels...still at it, day and night.

Bliss, aka Room 401.  Those are real cotton sheets and comforter...and a door...that only I can lock or open! and a bathroom..all to myself!  and breakfast too, all for 23 Euros!!!  Ahhhhhh!

Angel of God,
My guardian dear,
To whom His love
Commits me here;
Ever this nightBe at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide.
Amen.     

Sleep tight pilgrims everywhere...don't let the bed bugs bite!!

:-)

Santiago!!

Ok ya´ll, I have a date with a young man from Florida in about 45 minutes...and the computer has only about 25 minutes left, at the moment...so...ya gets what ya gets!!

Where to begin...ok, maybe back in Santa Irene would be great idea? Made that tiny village late on Saturday, along with my beautiful friends from Sweden.  Ingmarie and Evelille (spelling?) started in Sarria, the last major outpost  for those "only" doing the last 100km.  As much as I tried or wanted to look down my weary and old pilgrim nose at this, their joy and delight at being on the road together was infectious! We enjoyed walking sorta together and then meeting up to find an alburgue or hostel.

In Santa Irene, we tried really hard to find the private alburgue, and failed.  Too tired, as we´d just completed a bit over 30km for the day.  So we stayed in the public one we´d stumbled too, and were rewarded with a room to ourselves.  Joy of Joys!  NO Supermercado or anything else, so back up the hill and into one of three restaurants there.  We´ll St. James was looking out for us as it was one of the best meals I´ve had.  The girls ate ensalad mixta, I had a lovely veg soup.  We all agreed to fish, so it came family style.  And oh what style! No Pomme Frites for us.... Real chunks of potatoes, with olive oil, and three kinds of grilled fish!  Salmon, Hake and Calimari! Evelile finally tried calimari and declared it good.  For Postres, we had fruit macerated in orange juice.  Peaches and plums etc.  Absolute perfection..all at the staggering price of 9€.

The girls had also given me another gift, for helping them along the way (that´s a laugh with my un poco Espanol!)  But it was one of the most precious gifts, especially to a woman living out of a bag for more than a month.  It was a tiny bottle of conditioner.  I can comb my hair properly using the small brush that Emmanuel from Stuttgart gave me (lightening his pack and making me feel like a girl again!)

So..anyhow...At five in the morning, with my miners lamp firmly on my head, I left, hell bent on making my way into Santiago in time for the noon pilgrims mass.  It was dark.  Really dark.  However the sky was clear, the moon was out and I simply had to take my time.  So, happily I can report I made it thru the forest without a faceplant and any other untoward  happenings.  Didn´t even scream in the one town where the motion detector sign that talks to you began to greet me in the dark!!  Very proud of myself for that one!

Now my family will find this hard to believe, but I walked nearly 12km before I had  a cuppa coffee (con Leche of course!) But I did it and have to pinch myself from the shock of it.  After this one lonely cup, I pushed on, and to all of Santiago, Mea Culpa!  That had to have been one grim faced perigrina that passed you all on a Sunday morning.

Make it in time for Mass?  You bet I did! Found me a padded seat on a confessional, huddled my now cramping legs and bawled (family, are you surprised?) It was a lovely mass, especially when I looked up and Pepy from Italy was standing over me smiling and telling me he and Enzo had spotted me!

So after Mass, they steered me to a place another friend from the Camino Forum had recommended (thank you Ian!).  I knew it existed but by this point was too tired to even figure out how to find it. Turns out they were all staying there!  So Enzo, my lovely heart transplant friend, literally took me by the pack and gently shoved me over there.  Pepy and he shortened and stashed my poles.  They made sure I got the Alburgue floor which is only 23€ including a fantastic breakfast buffet. So now I too can heartily and joyfully recommend the Semenario Menor (?).  Beautiful, clean, friendly, and.....a room all my own, with a bath of my VERY OWN!! I can stay neeked for more than thirty seconds!  I have white sheets...and a fluffy towel!!

Ok...time for my date with Hunter, touring the Cathedral roof and such!

Tomorrow...Finisterre per Autobus!!  Midsummer on the beach...looking at home and thinking of all of you, at home and all of you elswhere...I love you all very much!!

** Melide **

Left Ligonde quietly in the near dark...alone again.  It felt better than the previous days, and suddenly it began to really hit me..I was days from Santiago.  My epic was nearly over.  Or so I thought at the time.  Journeys like this...they stay with you, in you forever.  Rather like having a child, you are never ever quite the same. 

I was still meeting new and wonderful people.  Some of them long timers..some really new to the road.  It took an effort to remain open to new encounters, but it was worth the effort.  There were the girls from Sweden, Johann from Germany and many others, esp. the cyclist, who really just fly thru our lives.

Making it into Melide I was dragging a little, but feeling fairly contented with my journey.  Just needed to find the Alburgue. No sooner was the thought clear in my head when another pilgrim, neatly scrubbed and ready to see the town, grabs me and points me in the direction, telling me to hurry, but there are still beds!  Well thank you!  I found it, although with a little more direction.  New, large, possibly a little sterile and with a bathroom shower area..designed by a man!  No curtains, no doors..rather like being in gym class all over again.  Although at this stage, I quite frankly didn't give a damn!  The only concession was that the bathrooms were not co-ed!

There was internet in the area..but not in our Alburgue, rather at the little hostel next door.  It took a bit of waiting and standing around to get my hands on one but I was glad I did.  Not only did I get to blog, as you can see by the entry sans pics!  I juiced up my iPod nano!  I had completely resisted the urge to listen to music the entire time.  I felt, for me, that I'd rather be completly aware of everything around me when I was walking.  People are less likely to talk to you if they see earbuds and wires dangling down the sides of your face.  So for the last five plus weeks I had completely given myself to being present to what ever was.  The last few kilometers loomed, I thought a little help might be in order.

Melide was also the site of my Alburgue break IN.  While happily blogging, a fellow pilgrim and I suddenly realized....it's past 10pm.  Like 5 minutes past.  So we scrambled, grabbing our electronic gear and other stuff and bolted out the door like a pair of kids who are about to get grounded by their parents.  We get to the front door. It's locked.  We ring the bell.  No answer. We ring again.  No answer.  So at this point he goes around the corner...and after one more ring I follow.  We find a window to the dining area.  There are several people, including a "slightly" inebriated Frenchman who is sitting right at the window.  He tells us the doors are locked.  Very perceptive!  It takes us about 10 minutes to convince him to close the window, one of those with variable openings...it was open at the top only...and swing the damn thing open so we could climb in.  After we finally achieving this and get ourselves in (I needed a leg up cause of laughing way to much!) what does he do...he jumps out the window himself..to check his laundry.  Not quite sure how he clambered in as I was still laughing too hard and simply headed up to bed.

More and more, people were leaving notes along the side of the road.  Some were fresh..others left you wondering, rather sadly, had they been able to get together again...would they?

And then the reminders  that time is precious and sweet for each of us.

A small dose of humor never hurts!  Noticed a lot of these had funny faces on them.

A Camino version of "no pain, no gain!"

Okay, my mojo is back...flowers everywhere and I am seeing them all and loving them!

Church in Melide...where we never did find out what the correct time for Mass was!

We'd come into this rather swanky restaurant...hoping to eat before the Mass (which we never found!) and had planned on being frugal..till the waitress delivered this to the table next to us.  MEAT...real meat that you need a knife for...with lovely peppercorn sauce..ahhhh!!!

Another of countless roadside shrines.

Dinner...4 k back up and I do mean UP the road.  It turned out to be one of the best dinners.  The soup  and salad were great, the entree...wonderful.  Three kinds of fish, potatoes with olive oil and bread.  For Postre...fruit macerated in orange juice.  The grilled calamari were the best!  These are the two ladies from Sweden who made my last days such a pleasure.

Mangolia!!  Mojo back!!!

Hydrangea....I can hear one friend telling me "this is not a botany lesson!" :-)

A fixer upper....loads of charm though!  Just needs the right person to tame those grapes!