Santiago de Compostela

Most of you know, or at least assume, that I have arrived in Santiago and that my Camino is over. In theory that is completely correct, in practice it is slightly different. Because the arrival in Santiago and the conclusion of my Camino are certainly also part of this trip, I would like to tell you about it. I have to admit that writing this part is the least easy for me. Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy it in an easy chair by the window with a cup of tea or a glass of wine.

The time had come on Friday, September 8. After walking over 3000 km and being on the road for 160 days, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela. The place where they buried Saint James. He was martyred in Jerusalem and taken to Galicia (Spain) in a stone boat to be buried, as the story goes. Only then had they started to built the cathedral over the grave and was the place called Santiago de Compostela. Since the year 825, pilgrims have been walking to this place of pilgrimage to visit the grave of James. Whether his remains are actually buried there cannot be said with certainty, but of course the church claims it so. These days, hiking for personal or spiritual reasons has the upper hand over religious beliefs. More than 1,000 pilgrims enter Santiago every day. Today I was one of those thousand.

Friday September 8 was the first morning on my Camino that I left before the sun rose. I had trouble sleeping that night and woke up very early. I felt like a child on Christmasmorning. Very curious about what was to come. I packed my tent and headed out. Pleased that my headlamp came in handy today.

The last 7 km.

Like all cities, Santiago also has many suburbs where traffic was already in full swing as it slowly became light. As I walked deeper and deeper into the city center, many things crossed my mind. Moments I had experienced along the way, people I had met, but above all curiosity. Curious about how I would feel when I walk into the square and see the cathedral. It was nice to arrive early in the morning so that it was still quiet in the city center. I didn't know exactly where the cathedral was or how far I had to go, but as long as I kept following the yellow arrows, I would arrive there.

The route takes you along one side of the cathedral to the square via a staircase. Praza do Obradoiro. The square is surrounded by several buildings, the first ones you see are the cityhall and a fancy hotel. You walk to the central point on the square, then turn around so that you can see the front view of the cathedral. I experienced this as a strange arrival that immediately took away some emotion. It was still quiet on the square and with about ten other pilgrims I made a memory of my arrival by asking a fellow pilgrim to take a photo. The realization didn't kick in yet and my brain switched to completing tasks modes. Photo - check. Getting Compostela - next.

I joined the queue to get my Compostela. This is the certificate that you have completed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It looked like some kind of tax office where you had to draw a number and enter your details via a QR code. Very strange and quite emotionless, but the certificate is part of it. In 2022, a total of 438,323 pilgrims received the Compostella certificate. Most of these will have slightly different details on them than I do. The lady behind the counter had to make a reprint because she had misunderstood the number of kilometers.

3118 km.

Departed from Venlo on April 2nd and arrived in Santiago de Compostela on September 8th.

I proudly put this certificate in the tube and walked outside. Here I almost bumped into a Dutch sign. Coffee and a cookie? The Dutch pilgrim society welcomed me here with a hot drink and a cookie to have a nice chat. My story was listened to with admiration. Suddenly someone poked their head into the room. Jacqueline! She walked her Camino from Strasburg Germany and we met each other along the way in France and in Spain. She had arrived earlier and came by especially to see me on her way home! We enjoyed a cup of tea at a cafe. Wonderful to talk to someone who has made a similar long journey. It is a completely different experience compared to the pilgrims who started somewhere in Spain. We often heard or saw from other pilgrims that their arrival on the square in front of the cathedral was an emotional moment. Neither of us shed a tear. Could it be our northern European sobriety? Just because the arrival didn't cause any tears doesn't mean it didn't affect me. My emotions consisted mainly of pride, happiness and perhaps a little disbelief. We did it! I walked all this way! Unfortunately, the time came quickly for Jacqueline to go, to make her way home, but with some pilgrims you just know you will see them again one day.

In the meantime I had joined the French couple I had been camping with for the last two nights in the queue for mass. The line stretched deep into the streets bordering the cathedral. I don't know how many people were allowed into the church, but there were a lot. All the benches were full, people stood on the sides against the pillars, sat on the floor in front of the first row of benches and on the floor behind the last row of benches. During this mass, the number of pilgrims who completed a Compostela that day where mentioned, as well as their nationalities and the starting point of their Camino. The mass is mainly in Spanish with some English here and there. In any case, I had heard that the Netherlands was mentioned. At the end we were pleasantly surprised with the infamous botafumeiro "show". Eight men, called tiraboleiros, go to work setting the censer in motion. The botafumeiro was previously used to purify the air in the church as soon as the pilgrims left in the morning after an overnight stay. The barrel weighs 53 kg and is one and a half meters high. Due to the work of the eight men, the censer rises 20 meters into the air and swings from one side to the other at a speed of up to 70 km per hour. A true sensation in the church. And I just love this smell of incense. The request at the beginning of the mass not to take photos was quickly forgotten by everyone. The botafumeiro does not go up during every mass, on special occasions or at times when a wealthy group of tourists or pilgrims makes a large donation for it. Glad that I, along with all the other people in the church, had this good fortune.

Pilgrim mass - check.

Well, by now I had pretty much checked off my to-do list. Time to sit down in the square and let my arrival in Santiago sink in. Opposite the cathedral I sat down on the ground leaning against the cityhall behind me. Meanwhile, hundreds of pilgrims mixed with tourists were crossing the square and it was fun to sit and watch them. Pilgrims arrived in groups, alone, with dogs and I have even seen them arrive on horseback. Tears, hugs, stumbling and jumps of joy. A square full of emotions. Beautiful. The emotions that felt strongly for me were pride and happiness. I had reached Santiago. My feet have allowed me to walk 3118 km. But despite these emotions I didn't feel anything else, it didn't feel like the end of my Camino to me. Perhaps because I knew there was still something to come, but at this moment I felt very strongly that it was never about Santiago. It wasn't about the end goal but about the journey to get there. Everything the Camino has given me along the way is so much more than reaching the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. If there has to be an end somewhere, I will continue my walk to the tip of the tail.

First let's celebrate our arrival in Santiago. At the hostel I met two ladies, one of whom had walked the Camino Portugues and the other the Camino Ingles. Together with them and four pilgrims whom I had met several times along the way, we enjoyed dinner and a couple of drinks. Six people with five different nationalities. It was a very pleasant evening. Everyone shared stories and experiences from his or her Camino. About what the Camino has taught us and what we wanted to take with us into the next chapter in our lives. It was nice to hear that many aspects were similar, but that everyone wants to apply it differently and in their own way.

In the meantime, mom and dad had landed in Santiago late that evening and I had agreed to meet them in the square in the morning. I was early and sat down on the square. Mom and Dad came from the same direction as the arriving pilgrims. A happy reunion with a huge hug. It was a special moment to stand on the square in Santiago with my parents. Still somewhat surreal for myself. Shaking her arm, I said "Mom, I did it, I'm here!" After sitting together on the square for a while, it was time for breakfast and a day of playing a tourist. We enjoyed tea, cappuccino and tortilla baguettes. We visited the cathedral where I, for everyone who asked me before or during my journey, for everyone dear to me, for every pilgrim during my Camino, and for every person who cares for a pilgrim like me on the Camino out of love, lit a candle. The line to visit the tomb of Saint James was not too long so we joined in. In the heart of the cathedral, behind the altar, a small staircase first takes you down to view the tomb, and then you go up a narrow staircase to embrace the large statue of James. I gave James a hug and stood for a moment with my hands on his shoulders. But such a moment still feels slightly uncomfortable when people go in front of you, are waiting behind you and a guard watches if you don't break any rules. My last mission at the church was to deliver the notes I had taken along the way. In some churches or after a pilgrimage mass in France, pilgrims who would walk to Santiago were asked if they wanted to bring a wish that someone had written down to Saint Jacques. I had taken some with me from a number of places and I had some with me from a fellow pilgrim who had stopped the Camino earlier. There was a nice spot in a niche of the church where I placed them with the light of a burning candle.

We strolled around the small streets, marveled at the incredible amount of souvenirs, and enjoyed a glass of wine on the terrace. We visited the Santiago Museum and were given a tour on the roofs and tower of the cathedral. Despite the brief but moderate rain shower while we walked on the roof, this tour was absolutely worthwhile. The view was beautiful, but especially because I had never done it before, the fact that we were standing on the roof of the cathedral, it was especially entertaining.

Before we started looking for a restaurant for wine and dinner, we gathered the necessary information about the route to Finisterre. The tail end of my Camino. Also called 'the end of the world'. I walked this route with Mom and Dad and I will tell you about it in the next blog. Don't panic, you don't have to wait very long. Most of it is already written, but I wanted to keep the stories separate.

That evening in Santiago the rain was pouring down, but it was cheered up by seeing Eva again. After walking some days on the Camino Primitivo together, she had walked ahead of me and arrived a few days earlier. This evening her journey back to Belgium started. She really enjoyed the Camino and I was able to give her inspiration about doing this journey from home. I look forward to the day I receive a message from her that she has started the Camino from Brussels.

It where two beautiful and fun days in Santiago. It is crowded with people and an overload of tourists and tourist shops, but I had prepared myself for it as far as I could and that meant I could deal with it in my own bubble. Seeing fellow pilgrims who you had met along the way and now here again was very nice and surprising every time. Two days felt good, now it was time to move on. Those legs still have some movement in them. To the end of the world!

Just some statistics for those who like this. In any case, I really enjoyed keeping track of it and looking back on it now.

In the 160 days that I was on the road I enjoyed 14 days of rest, days in which I did not walk with my backpack and slept in the same location as the night before. These are also called zero-days, days on which you do not hike any kilometers, although in my case I sometimes did plenty because I went to see the city or walked to the Decathlon that was just outside the city. Excluding these 14 days are the days I stayed in Güemes, which were 7. Here I did volunteer work in the Albergue and I cannot actually count these days as 'rest' days. To calculate how many days I have walked, these days do count as zero-days. From the 160 days, I didn't hike for 21 days and I did for 139 days. That brings me to an average of 22.5 kilometers per day. The shortest distance I walked was 7.6 km (crossing the bridge from France to Spain) and the longest day was 38 kilometers (I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival at the Gite that the fellow pilgrim was also cooking for me that evening - Central Massif - central France).

88 nights out of 160 I slept outside in my tent. Super happy and very proud that I slept more than half of my Camino in my tent. This does not include the six nights I slept in the Land Rover in Güemes. I did wild camping for 49 of these 88 nights. By that I mean without facilities. Although a beach shower or a river in the mountains was sometimes sufficient for a night, I still consider these nights as wild camping. These were the most beautiful places where I could stand completely free in nature, often with a fantastic view of the mountains or the sea and sometimes near the shelter of a church. I think I can say that my tent and the freedom it gave me were one of the most beautiful parts of this Camino.

I managed to stay well under my daily budget of 30 euros. This is a good thing because the budget was calculated for a slightly shorter trip, now there is still some left for the return trip. Sometimes it even became a bit of a sport to see how little money you can get by a day. There where 20 days (excluding the 7 days of volunteer work) where I did not spent any money. Of course this is not entirely realistic because I had done enough shopping the days before so that I had food with me, but it does sound nice. The weeks I spent walking through the Pyrenees were the most low-budget, here I managed with an average of ten euros per day. I thought it was particularly nice to experience how you can live well with little money. A beautiful lesson that I would like to take with me for the rest of my life.

The main ingredients of my diet during the Camino were fruits, nuts, grains and legumes. Especially a lot of fresh fruit, it was not strange to me to eat 5 pieces of fruit in a day. I usually ate most of these as soon as I walked out of the grocery store so I didn't have to pack them in my backpack. Some types of fruit are quite heavy and others are very fragile, neither ideal for a backpack. I can count on one hand the times I ate meat because I didn't want to be ungrateful to the people who cared for me. Dairy or eggs have crept in more often. The cheese and croissants in France are impossible to avoid and in Spain a vegetarian salad comes with tuna as a standard, so I occasionally had the tortilla, a traditional potato-egg pie. I am particularly happy to say that I feel strong, fit and healthy with this mainly plant-based diet. The fact that I lost a few pounds while walking was insurmountable and I do not experience it as annoying. The challenge comes when I stop walking as a daily job, I have to try and adjust my diet accordingly. Not every moment that I'm not walking will be a eating moment anymore!

My wardrobe consisted of 2 pairs of trousers (in the beginning 2 long ones, then 1 long and 1 short one), 2 t-shirts, 2 sets of underwear and 2 pairs of socks. I have worn out 1 pair of Brooke's trail runners and 1 pair of Teva sandals. I walked here and there on my Vivo barefoot shoes and walked barefoot as much as possible, the moments I did not wear my backpack. I can now say that I am not prone to blisters and that I hiked this Caminowithout a single blister. The worst pains I experienced along the way were the tendon plates under my feet and the stiffness in my knees after the tough descents in the Pyrenees. Fortunately, these aches and pains have remained minor through good care such as rest, massage and stretching. During a long physical effort like this the body also needs love and care, my feet feel like 'happy feet', so I think I accomplished this task well.

I'll leave you with this for now. The last part, the tail end of my Camino, the way to the end of the world, is coming soon. Thanks again for reading and in advance for your response. I hope to provide answers to your questions with these two stories. If you have any more for me, I'd love to hear from you. Lots of love