Hey there, blog readers!

I am typing this post now from the Madrid airport where numerous weary pilgrims, your friends and loved ones, are snoozing on benches after a red-eye flight from Santiago de Compostela. As the rest of the class catches some shut-eye, I will fill you in on our last day in Santiago de Compostela. After a bittersweet night filled with cathedral touring and pilgrims' mass, dinner together, and final class presentations, we packed our bags for an early departure at 4:30am from our monastery-turned-hotel situated next to the historic Santiago cathedral.

Our final day in the pilgrimage city was open to us to do and discover as we pleased until our tour in the evening. Many of us enjoyed the glorious freedom to sleep in for the first day in three weeks, though I, thoroughly changed by the trip, couldn't help but get up and about by 7:30 that morning. The plaza that extends from the doorway of our old monastery hotel to the steps of the chapel was bathed in bright sunlight that morning, and I enjoyed watching the city wake up slowly as shops, street vendors and performers gathered on the cobblestone sidewalks to prepare for the incoming crowd of peregrinos that day. As expected, the first pilgrims briskly wound their way through the narrow streets around 10:00am, destined for kilometer zero in the grand plaza at the east entrance of the cathedral.

After a few hours of free time dedicated to wandering, shopping, and sight-seeing, we gathered at the entrance to the cathedral of Santiago for a tour guided by our very own guide, translator, and dear friend we've made over the course of our journey, Iria. This cathedral is the final destination on the pilgrims' path, as it houses the remains of Saint James, the apostle for whom the pilgrimage began. Though the cathedral was going under renovations at the time, we were able to catch glimpses of the central wooden pillar to Porta de Gloria, the grand entrance to the cathedral. Now protected by a metal fence, the ornately carved wooden pillar was once accessible to all pilgrims who entered, and due to years of pilgrims' touch, a centuries-old compiled handprint has dug it's shape into the sculpted wood. We also climbed the rattle tower, which houses the huge wooden rattle that is sounded as a call to the devout on Easter morning. At the top if the staircase we stepped out onto the rooftop where we could observe the cathedral as a whole from above. This building is an architectural mash up of numerous different styles and eras. We noted the Romanesque structure of the building, it's ornate Baroque facade and some Neoclassical period additions on a few towers. Behind the facade is an old stone box marked by a lamb and a cross where pilgrims used to burn their old robes from their travels and were granted new tunics to mark their forgiveness and rebirth from their journey to Santiago. That evening, we stayed for the mass service in the cathedral, which was heavily populated by pilgrims, tourists, and some local Catholics. We witnessed a group of 8 monks fill the giant aerial censor, the Botufumera, with fragrant incense, hoist it high in the vaulted cathedral, causing it to swing wide and and fill the space with the scent of balsam wood and frankincense.

One last delicious Spanish dinner, then we gathered at the hotel to share our final presentations on our experiences. Each of us shared thoughts on a moment or on our entire process throughout the trip in many different forms: poetry, prose, song, shared quotes, scattered puzzle pieces, a few tears shed, and a slice of Torte de Santiago each. Among us hung the bittersweet excitement of the end of a chapter and the start of a new one. Many of us agree, though, that this journey has been a landmark in our lives, and that one cannot avoid measuring our lives pre-Camino and post-Camino.

To my peregrinos, it has been a pleasure hiking and growing with you. All my best wishes to you going forward from Santiago; this journey has been like no other. Keep going, keep growing, and loving life by the minute.
Love,
Suzi Gard