Santiago

This is the day!  I'll finally reach the Emerald City, Santiago.  Last night's alburgue was along the camino, not really even in a village.  Fortunately, there was a restaurant within walking distance.  In the late afternoon, I was talking with a young German man staying at the alburgue.  He spoke very good English as do most young Germans and had worked for six months in Chicago.  He invited me to dinner with the rest of the Germans.  We had a good meal and talked about Santiago.  Next day, I saw them on the way and again once when we reached the city.  We agreed to meet for dinner.  What a great irony that on the last day of the Camino Portugues, after walking through Portugal almost entirely alone, I found my camino "family".

To my left is Sabrina, Christian, Ignacio and Ignacio's daughter Flavia.

According to the guidebook, one of the oldest roadside crosses in Galicia.

Purple heather and yellow gorse.

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostella.  The scaffolding was going up on the left tower when I was first in Santiago in October 2013.  The entire west face of the church is being cleaned of centuries? of dirt and vegetation.  The left tower is beginning to emerge from the wrapping and it looks clean and new.  Of all the relics in the Christian church, this church has one of the most important.  In a silver case under the high altar are the remains of Santiago, cousin of Jesus, the Apostle James.

The Galician fog the next morning.  Santiago is a busy commercial city.  It is also the destination of at least a dozen caminos.  It has a restless energy as hundreds of pilgrims arrive every day, slightly bewildered for joyful, tearful reunions and then began to make plans to leave again to go back to their pre-camino lives.  It's a place for pilgrim families to reunite one more time before separating.  I'm making my own plans to leave on my bus trip east to begin the next phase of my camino.  Stay tuned.