Thursday, September 22, 2011
We started our journey from caldas de Reis around 8:00am with a lovely path through the wooded areas in the direction of Padron. The path was tree lined with soft pine needles beneath our sore and swollen feet. As we were headed through this particularly dark forest part of the path I see these black long things that, at first look, resembled the after effects of a dog´s dinner. They were instead SLUGS--big ones at that. Most of them were at least five inches long and about a big around as a fat cigar. So gross. There were everywhere for a while--each step was carefully placed as to not step on any of them. Again, GROSS!
The path was winding and tree lined. We saw several people out walking their dogs. We´ve found that the animals here are so well behaved and are treated like a family member. It is so amazing to walk along and encounter a dog that isn´t a sniffer, a barker, or just threatening in general. So refreshing.
As we wound our way over this mountain and through the woods we encountered a forest ranger who was waiting at the end of the path we were on. He welcomed us and stamped our Pilgrim Creditentials--a booklet of stamps that we need to prove we actually walked the entire way. We stopped for cafe (I refrained due to the ickiness of yesterday´s cafe) and rested a while.
We were then off to Padron with about three miles to go. They were long miles indeed which is what we find when we know we are close to our destination. It was hot and humid as well which just makes the journey longer. When we finally arrived in Padron we encounted a Farmer´s Market. We strolled through just to see all the pretty fruits and veggies, fresh meants and pastries. So wonderful. We found a bar, ordered a beer and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. They did one by one about ten minutes apart. We had a wonderful lunch of chicken, rice and salad. Ice cream for dessert! YUM. We then made the executive decision to continue on another five miles to Picareña to spend the night. The trip again was long and hot but we made it around 4:30pm. That made for a 16.6 mile day. We were so glad it was over. We encountered Estaban and Christine along the way. They were going to walk the additional ten miles to Santiago--brave young people.
SANTIAGO HERE WE COME!
After a reasonable night´s sleep we started our final day of the journey to Santiago. We left the hotel at 6:30am, walked in the dark over these country roads, some of them dirt and rock, for an hour and stopped for coffee and toast. Rested and anxious to finish our journey we continued on our journey to Santiago. The final road to Santiago is up one high hill, down the other side and then up one more steep climb hill to arrival. We arrived in Santiago around 10:00am. My traveling companions had cafe--I had one hard earned beer at 10:02am. It was so good!
We found our hotel, dropped the stuff we didn´t need to carry anymore and proceeded to the square where the church is. We had our picture taken by the center stone of the square so grateful that we had finally made it. We then went to the pilgrim mass at noon--entirely in Spanish in a beautiful old cathedral. After church we went to the Pilgrim Office in order to collect our certificate of accomplishment. It was an awesome feeling and we found that we could have made the journey via bicycle or horse--perhaps horse for me next time! Then it was off to lunch whereby we drank wine, ate wonderful food and finally begain to relax realizing that we had accomplished what we set out to do.
September 12 seems like a long time ago. The second day of our journey I was frustrated, hot, and hurting. I wanted to quit--that was on day 2! BUT we slogged on. The countryside was beautiful. We enjoyed meeting our fellow Pilgrims along the way. The people in Portugal embraced us. The Spanish weren´t as gracious. The older people smiled at us. The younger ones rushed along. One older Spanish lady saw us walking one early morning--she leaned out the window and said "Pst, pst" We looked up and she smiled and waved. Had I given up I would have missed that small gentle jesture of friendship.
Tomorrow we leave Spain behind and rejoin our regular lives. I am happy that I made this journey to prove to myself how strong I really am and to realize how important my life back home is.
Today is my friend Adrian´s birthday. Happy Birthday Adrian and thank you for making the journey with me. I called on you many times for strength...that´s how I made it through.
Sending love...
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