It's a Wrap!

After 15 days away, I arrived back in Pawleys Island on Thursday evening. Charlotte completed her travels safely as well, traveling from Santiago to Madrid to Rome to New York! We are truly blessed to have had this experience together, and I will forever cherish the memories of this journey.

Thank you for your prayers and well wishes, and we hope you have enjoyed following along on our adventure!

Ed & Charlotte

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Yesterday morning was bittersweet as I said goodbye to Charlotte and then one last goodbye (for now 😊) to the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela.

Next it was a comfortable bus ride from Santiago to Porto. I’m not even going to dwell on the fact that it took less than four hours to drive back the distance that we just walked over 11 days!

After checking in to my airport hotel, I headed into Porto and had one last delicious meal of polvo à lagareiro before calling it a night. I’m going to miss this food!

Next stop - USA!

How About a Little Sightseeing?

Our arrival into Santiago yesterday was a day earlier than initially planned, so we decided to take the day today to do a little sightseeing! We booked a bus tour from Santiago to Cape Finisterre about 90 km west of Santiago. This area of Galacia is filled with history dating back to Celtic occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the 5th or 6th century BC.

This area is known as the Costa de Morte, or Coast of Death, due to the large number of shipwrecks along these shores.

We visited the town of Fisterra which translates to “land’s end”. This area is the westernmost point of the region and was considered the “End of the Earth” in earlier times. Many pilgrims in ancient times, and still today, would continue their pilgrimage from Santiago to Fisterra to worship at the shore. We opted to skip the additional four days of walking and book the bus tour!

There is a zero kilometer marker at this point to signify the absolute end of the Camino de Santiago.

There is a brass boot on the rocks to mark the tradition (now discouraged) of pilgrims burning their shoes or casting them into the sea at the conclusion of their pilgrimage.

We also visited the remarkable Santuario de la Virgen de la Barca, or Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Boat. This church dates back to the twelfth century and marks the location where Mary reportedly revealed herself to St. James to encourage him in his evangelization across the peninsula.

Our tour also took us to several lighthouses that guide ships around this treacherous coastline.

And we visited the beautiful Fervenza de Ézaro which is famous for being the only waterfall in continental Europe that plunges directly into the Atlantic Ocean.

Lastly, upon returning to Santiago, Charlotte and I celebrated our last night together with a pitcher of sangria and some of the most amazing paella you could imagine!

That’s all for now!

Our Final Day on the Camino

Today was an amazing day. The energy in our albergue this morning was different; you could feel it in the air. There was a level of excitement, everyone smiling, people wishing each other good luck and buen camino with just a bit more enthusiasm than most days. We were just shy of 20 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela, and everyone knew what was coming next!

We still enjoyed beautiful scenery, like this church in A Escravitude, just a few hundred meters from our albergue.

Or this beautiful church and cemetery near Cruces.

And walking along another section of Via Romana XIX was amazing, just thinking about those who have come before us.

One more little church on the outskirts of Santiago.

Finally, the moment had come. As we approached the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, there was an electricity in the air unlike any previous day on the Camino. We did it!

We had just enough time before the noon Pilgrim’s Mass to get to the Pilgrim’s Office to collect our Compostela. The Compostela is the certificate that confirms that you’ve officially completed your pilgrimage.  They first inspected our credentials to ensure that we had an appropriate record of our journey before giving us the final stamp to certify our Camino.

Then they presented the Compostela! The Compostela is written in Latin and, in keeping with the tradition, the pilgrim’s name is translated to Latin too.

We then attended the Pilgrim’s Mass in the Cathedral which was packed with both pilgrims and tourists. The celebrant recognized the pilgrims in attendance by announcing every nation from which pilgrims had come in the last day, and the Mass itself was beautiful. We were surprised by the swinging of the Botafumeiro since it is only typically used on special occasions. Witnessing the use of one of the largest incense burners in the world as part of such a special Mass was remarkable!

After Mass, we paid our respects to St James for keeping us safe on our journey. We did this first by taking the steps under the altar to visit his tomb, where I knelt briefly and prayed. Then we ascended the steps behind the altar where there is a statue of St. James which pilgrims embrace. These were powerful moments for me, and sorry, no selfies with St. James. 🙂

After spending some more time in the Cathedral, we enjoyed lunch with some Camino friends we had met along the way. Then we checked into a nice hotel here in Santiago for a few nights, and after showers and some rest, we headed out to celebrate in style with wine and tapas of course!

It’s been a terrific journey and we hope you’ve enjoyed following along. We’ll continue to post for a few more days, so let us know if you have any questions or comments about this amazing experience!

We Made It!

This morning, Charlotte and I completed the final 20 kilometers of our pilgrimage to Santiago, arriving at the steps of the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela just in time for the noon Pilgrim Mass!

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes along the way, and God bless! 

Now these guys know how to do incense! It was a special treat to see the swinging of the Botafumeiro in the Cathedral!

More later.

Is It Really Day 10?

Today we walked 25 km from Caldas de Reis to A Escravitude.

After a good night’s sleep in our air conditioned private room, we hit the road at about 7:30 am. We made it close to 10 km before stopping for a nice breakfast.

The scenery continues to be breathtaking.

The Camino wound through an enormous Sunday market in Padron.

We got to our albergue around 2:00 pm and were glad to see this great backyard AND great laundry facilities!

Since I’m sorting and repacking clean clothes, this is a good time to talk about gear! This picture was taken about three weeks ago as I was getting organized.

Now let’s talk about things I forgot or wish I’d brought with me - Nothing! Honestly, there’s not one piece of gear or clothing that I wish I’d brought. Good planning!

The all-stars included my Tilley hat, the hiking poles, and the buff. The hat was great for the rain and the sun, the hiking poles were amazing for taking the weight off and keeping me sure-footed, especially on the climbs and descents, and the buff was great to pull up over my ears on cold, windy days, and to keep the sun off my neck on sunny days.

I loved having the water bladder in my backpack as well and not having to carry water bottles.

I feel like I was prepared in the footwear department too. I wore merino wool socks every day. I also brought some waterproof socks, but fortunately have not needed to break those out. The hiking shoes were great for the first week or so, but blisters and some other toe issues started to set in, so I switched to sandals for much of the rest of the journey. They’ve honestly been great, and I don’t think I’ll switch back to shoes unless we get some rain, which looks unlikely at this point. And flip-flops are great for the showers and around the albergues.

Speaking of rain, we were well-prepared, but because we were fortunate with the weather, the ponchos and waterproof socks have gone unused so far. I’m not going to say we overpacked these items; it’s better to have brought them and not needed them than the other way around.

Now let’s talk about what I should not have brought at all. My biggest mistake was overpacking clothes. I could have easily gotten by with a couple of shirts and a single pair of hiking pants, but I doubled up on all those things. I also brought a couple of pairs of shorts which I haven’t worn at all, opting instead for the lightweight pants to keep the sun off my legs. Most of these clothes just added extra weight.

I also have all sorts of gear that I packed based on published lists and “just in case” scenarios - cord for clotheslines or miscellaneous uses, clothespins, extra carabiners, ziplock bags, safety pins, zip ties, spoon and fork (TSA took the butter knife off my hands), tissues and wipes, etc. I’ve used very little of these things since all our accommodations have been pretty well equipped, and we haven’t really had any significant equipment failures. I didn’t use the journal either, opting instead to just use the blog to record my thoughts. I also didn’t use the sleeping bag at all. All of the albergues where we stayed had great bedding. All of this stuff could have been left at home.

A few other mentionables. We are well equipped for the few medical issues we’ve had - mostly foot care - so the first aid kit was appreciated.

I liked having the eye mask and earplugs. The portable charger was also very convenient to have. I could fully charge it overnight and then charge my phone and watch from that as needed without any concern about running out of juice. And the headlamp was great at night in the albergues, especially using the red lens so as to not disturb the sleepers!

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions about our gear or preparations!