September 26: Lavacolla to Santiago

My brothers’ birthday today. He would have been 68.

I forgot to mention our walk from Melide to Sasebo two days ago. It was fine. No problems. And we heard about our illustrious PM’s latest faux pas about honoring a Waffen SS Nazi soldier as a war hero. Yes it made the news over here and he is a laughing stock internationally. Jerry said that that is about as bad as a fart in a space suit!

After 500 miles we walk into a fog bank on our very last day. We cannot see Santiago. Well we have had torrential rain, rain. sleet, hail  gale force winds, heat so why not fog to top it all off:

Two klicks from the end.

It is over. We made it. Hard to believe we walked across the top of Spain. I Don,t know which sounds better. 500 miles or 800 kilometers. In any event my personal pilgrimage started 5 years ago in Vezelay France so with ending it here I covered 1700 kilometers. I have the official piece of paper to prove it. The Compestella. How do I feel?

A great feeling to share with other pilgrims for sure:

Juicy Lucy and Hans from South Korea. Lucy was an enthusiastic fireball of a personality. Everyone loved Lucy.  And then there is:

Sam from New York City and Kathleen from Vancouver. We think that they are an item now. A Camino romance. And Debra (L) from Tucson and Stella from Zagreb:

There were others, many others9

Other pics:

Cheers Mates and Lassies.

One more Camino blog post tomorrow as a recap and then I no longer have to suffer.

Man, how I love this country.

Read ya later.

 

12 thoughts on “September 26: Lavacolla to Santiago”

  1. What a great accomplishment John. Cudos to you. All the new friends and experiences that you now have forever. It has been fun following you on the walk having the history of every place in my hands.

  2. Congratulations John,

    That is quite the feat. Really looked forward to your daily progress report and loved your writing.
    Cudos my friend and looking forward to swinging the sticks once you return to this side of the pond.

    Tim

      1. Sorry to hear that but hey…you walked the Camino man and you have great stories to share and great memories to fill your heart and head…really, what more could you ask for.

        1. It was a good journey. Glad I did it and met some great people. I don’t know why you always seem to focus on the negative in these posts. If I go out in gale force winds, in rain with temps in the low aughts I am not going to say: ” Oh what a beautiful day”. As I said earlier I write what I observe. Bien Camino.

  5. John,
    Cécile and I just returned home from the Med. Thoroughly enjoyed your numerous reports from your trek across northern Spain. Hope I still will be able to understand your stories with that Irish slant. Gerry certainly gave new meanings to the voice of the pilgrim.! Continue to have a great European holiday with Dot at your side. Gordon & Cecile.

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