** "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!!

Scallops and Scallop Shells

Shell of Saint James

"The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of James, son of Zebedee and is popular with pilgrims on the Way of St James to the apostle's shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Medieval Christians making the pilgrimage to his shrine often wore a scallop shell symbol on their hat or clothes. The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with him, and would present himself at churches, castles, abbeys etc., where he could expect to be given as much sustenance as he could pick up with one scoop. Probably he would be given oats, barley, and perhaps beer or wine. Thus even the poorest household could give charity without being overburdened." - from Wikipedia.

Ok..this wasn't what I was thinking about when I started a quick stroll down memory lane!

Once upon a time, about a hundred years ago..or so it feels some days, my boyfriend and I would go out on these things called dates.  Since I lived on the far side of Philly and he in South Jersey, he'd drive up to visit me (I  didn't even own a car!) and we'd go to dinner near by rather than downtown.  It saved gas, time and money.  I was at the time, living on City Line Avenue and in the strictest, most technical of terms, on the "Main Line", the penultimate suburb of Philadelphia.  Ha!  It was a tiny, bachelor apartment, up three flights of stairs, shared by two good friends. You had to be to survive such tight quarters!

There were perks though, 'bout a mile down the road.  Saks 5th Avenue, Lord & Taylor and a restaurant that for us was the height of sophistication, The Magic Pan.  Mind you, we were poor, my roomie and I.  Count your pennies poor.  She was still a student at St. Joe's, across the street, I was working at Temple University in one of the many libraries.  Our forays to Saks and L&T were sale rack only.  But oh what a sale rack it was!  For a real treat, we'd have lunch in the Tea Room (if we could swing it).  Needless to say we walked the mile or so to the store. Once again, no need to waste gas driving if we could walk. We had a blast living up there.  But I digress from scallops.  The Magic Pan had Coquille St. Jacque and I fell totally in love with the dish.  You could count on me ordering it every single time I crossed the threshold.  I can still smell it, the crepes fresh off the pan, the cheese, the sweet scallops!  Pardon while I wipe keyboard.

Well, it's been a few years,  oh say 33+ years!  Donna, the best room mate ever, is in Connecticut and I'm in suburban Central New Jersey.   I couldn't tell you the last time I had crepes or Coquille St. Jacque.    It just so happens that scallops, lovely large sweet scallops, are in my freezer.  That guy I used to date, now my hubby,  wiped out the local supermarket last week.  They'd gotten a shipment at a terrific price and he came home with six or seven pounds!   So all this is what lead to an internet search for recipes, a Coquille recipe.  Which then brought around the Wiki entry regarding uses of scallop shells as a means of allowing all to participate in acts of charity.  Funny thing how things connect in the strangest of times and places across years and miles.  During those dinners at the Magic Pan, I knew nothing of Sant Iago, nothing of Santiago de Compostella or the Camino.  I remember wondering what the name of the dish meant.  At the time I thought perhaps it was named for a place called St. Jacque.  Little did I know how much time and energy would eventually be given to scallops and scallop shells!

So today I practice making crepes and tonight we'll have crepes with Coquille St. Jacque.  And all the while, contemplating how I'm going to manage a trip to the Camino this year.  I will.  I must. I'm gonna! Sant Iago, it's in your hands!!

Funny thing, I'm back to being relatively poor, courtesy of a job change last fall.  Stranger still, by the standards of most, I've no regrets and am as happy as a clam or is that a scallop!