I made it! | Day 28

I left Amenal, the small little village with one hotel and one restaurant at 6:30 AM for our last 10 mile hike into Santiago.

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover from the absolute joy, elation and celebration that took place when we arrived into the Cathedral Square. 3000 pilgrims arrived on Thursday, October 5, the day I walked into Cathedral Square.

It’s really hard to even try to describe the feeling as I walked through the narrow city streets leading towards the cathedral. The first thing that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and goosebumps form all over your body is the bagpipes playing in the arched entryway to the Square. As you may recall from earlier posts, this is the Galician region and there is a very significant Celtic influence here.

Only now, two days later, can I even write about entering cathedral square without choking up and the tears flowing. Seriously, it’s a very moving experience seeing people break down with joy, after walking from wherever they came from and in all sorts of conditions and levels of physical ability.

There was a young girl with no legs, normally in a wheelchair, that we saw on the Camino. She walked in on her hands to the Cathedral, fingers bandaged and taped, her friend pushing the empty chair. There were old people, young people, people with dogs absolutely worn out. They were people laying on top of their backpacks, just staring up at the cathedral. There was crying. There was laughing. It truly is a very special moment that I would encourage each and every one of you to consider, regardless of which Camino route you choose to take on your path to Santiago and freedom from so many things holding us back.

After a period of celebration, I went to the pilgrims office to get my certificate of completion, the credential that represents my own journey on the Camino. If you go on the Camino, I encourage you to pre-register for the credentials. When you do so, you get a QR code you can put on your phone. When you arrive at the pilgrims office, you just show that QR code and you skip the line and get into a very short queue. It seemed like I was getting in line at DMV but the feelings far more emotional :-) I haven’t really even looked at the document yet because the feelings associated with the journey are far more personal than the piece of paper. It may go into a picture frame or may just stay in the protective cardboard tube. Either way, I get to hold onto the very personal experience I have endured and enjoyed immensely.

And then, the special experience… The Pilgrims Mass. Because of my arrival in Santiago early in the morning, I was able to make the noon mass. I was hoping that during the mass they would swing the very special Botafumeiro.

The 'Botafumeiro' is the famous giant thurible or censer in the Santiago de Compostela cathedral. A 'Botafumeiro' has been used since the Middle Ages, originally to clean the air when crowds of pilgrims having completed the Camino de Santiago arrived in Santiago de Compostela after their long journey. Eight men get this thing swinging and it goes from one end of the cathedral to the other. It smelled like frankincense. This whole thing is pretty moving. There are many videos on the Internet about it but it’s something very special to be there with this huge heavy shiny thing swinging back-and-forth right above your head. It’s moving so fast through the cathedral you can hear the swoosh as it goes by.

Immediately after the mass, I went back to the backside of the cathedral to go into view the crypt of Saint James. The crypt houses the relics of Saint James and two of his disciples: Saint Theodorus and Saint Athanasius. The silver reliquary (by José Losada, 1886) was put in the crypt at the end of the 19th century, after authentication of the relics by Pope Leo XIII in 1884.

One of my goals was to place some of Kim and Austin’s ashes with Saint James‘s crypt. I took a little pinch of the ashes and yes, they are there, in Santiago. I feel as if they walked with me here, and encourage me every single step of the way.

After leaving the crypt area, I went back to the Cathedral Square to meet up with many of the friends that we had met along the way. It’s pretty much been a celebration and reflection ever since, the reason why it’s taking me so long to write back for the post.

If you have any questions about some of the pictures posted here, please feel free to ask and I will get back to you as quickly as possible. I will also follow up with two more posts regarding some activities that I had in several very special locations after my arrival in Santiago.