Breakfast this morning was quite noisy as the people were excited to begin walking. Some would arrive in Santiago today, but we had a short day of walking and will arrive at the cathedral tomorrow. An important part of the support system for pilgrims are the kilometer/direction markings. We stopped this morning to capture the spirit and the key elements for us.

After a break, we discovered that a local chapel was open…the Church of St. Lucy. So we visited the church and received the stamp of the church.

We arrived at our hotel and were amazed at the size of our room! We could put the last four rooms into the one we are staying in tonight! Tomorrow we will walk the last 10 km (6.2 miles) into Santiago! One of the monuments we will pass is the Pilgrims Monument. If you’ve watched The Way, you’ve seen it. It is one of the first places on the Camino that you can see the spires of the cathedral! We went to see this today as I wanted to photograph in leisure. If you look carefully to the left of the pilgrims, you will see the spires of the cathedral along with the rest of the city of Santiago.

People have spoken about the range of emotion felt when one enters Santiago. We met a man and his wife who were struggling and he said this is the hardest thing they’ve ever done. They walked all 500 miles and began 49 days ago. He said they’ll have the biggest smiles on their faces in the square in front of the cathedral. Others said they would be sad that their camino has ended for they have enjoyed the time to think and the opportunity to meet other pilgrims from around the world. For some it is a challenge met.

For us, we are looking forward to a nice dinner tonight with another pilgrim we have met along the way and then entering Santiago tomorrow. We will have a sense of joy and relief.