The Way to Santiago

I have to say that the walk from Sarria to Santiago had some of the nicest scenary on the Camino.  We walked past Eucalyptus groves, through Woods, throught beautiful little towns, but... the feeling of the Camino was changing.  In order for one to get their Compostela in Santiago, one has to walk the last 100 km.  You can have walked the first  700 but if you don't walk the last 100 - no Compostela.  This is where one meets a different type of Pilgrim.  More of a tourista type Pilgrim, who rushes from Alburgue to Alburgue.  I also noticed that now the "gouging" was starting.  Prices of food were increasing and some of the Alburgues were not as hospitable.  They just wanted one's money.  It's a shame really,because if you were a Pilgrim who only walked the last 100, then you really don't experience the true "flavour" of the Camino.  It has been a wonderful experience and as we were getting closer to Santiago I felt a little sad that my Camino would be coming to an end.  I have met some wonderful people - people I will never forget, people who walked for all types of reasons. People who have courage. The Camino was  a lot easier than I thought it would be, because I could walk the Camino the way I wanted to walk the Camino.  I stopped to smell the flowers, to meet other pilgrims,  to pet the dogs, to look  at the scenary, to admire the architecture and to laugh and dance and sing.  We did a lot of laughing and singing. 

When we walked into Santiago, we wondered which fellow pilgrims we would see, the  retired Major- Bill from England and his walking companion Bill from California.  We hadn't seen them in awhile. Danijila my young Croatian friend who now lives in Berlin. Mike, who walked in tandem with his aunt, Jurgen, who had tendonitis and had to slow down and of course our Canadian friends, Donna, Vicky, Katherine, Gail and Hope.  The six French pilgrims  we would sing with along the way. And many more whose names I don't know, but who were there with us on our journey.

I felt proud when I picked up my Compostela.  I will frame it and hang it on my wall. But really when one thinks about it, it is just a piece of paper.  The experience of walking the Camino was my real gain.  An experience I will never forget.

Oh.. and the pilgrims, I mentioned in the above paragraph, I saw them all in Santiago and that ......... was the icing on the cake.