Life's a Stitch

This morning C brought me breakfast in bed, which included an ensaïmada, a pastry famous on Mallorca, but supposedly not replicated elsewhere. People have tried but they never seem to turn out well whether it's due to the type of flour, the sea air or differences in the "mother" dough. Or perhaps it's a key ingredient, difficult to find elsewhere, reduced pork lard. Of course something this good can't possibly be healthy:

It is delicious and light as a feather.

I thought I'd write some reflections starting with the items I brought that I couldn't live without:
1. Rain pants. I am miserable if I'm cold or wet, which is one of the reasons I'm not cut out for skiing. I lost my first pair, which by the way have been found and may make it back to me after the fact, and bought a second. I was a happier hiker for them. C doesn't mind wet legs so he was fine with just a jacket.
2. Tools: my Slip 'n Snip made in the USA scissors. No foldable scissors I've seen matches their quality and we used them every day. Also a sharp pocket knife and a mini multi-tool, thank you KC, who made sure we had both those items.
3. High Goretex hiking boots. Your feet will stay dry and your ankles will thank you on downhill loose shale. As a alternative I wore trail runners and ankle braces on both legs due to my ankle fractures, existing and past and felt I had more stability than my boots offered.
4. Hiking pants with zip off legs. The weather changes quickly.
5. Toe sock liners: although they caused the only blister of our Camino, it was my own fault as didn't put them on correctly on one day and the rubbing caused the blister. Ours were Injinji brand and for most of the Camino these liners served as my only socks and I am convinced saved our feet.
6. For me, a sarong was perfect for accommodation with shared bathroom, to wear to and from the shower. Also handy when doing all your laundry at once.
7. I brought along a Punktar ball, a spikey massage ball that was gifted to me a few years back by cousin Joan in Denmark. It was a pain saver and C gave me a hard time about toting it along.
8. Nail clipper and other foot care items: bandaid blister patches, corn pads, tape.
9. Antibacterial wipes: bring enough as they not available in Spain.
10. Duct tape, a small supply wrapped around our hiking poles came in handy. Some people swear by using duct tape as soon as you feel a hotspot on your feet as a way of avoiding blisters. The toe socks worked well for us, so we didn't try it out, but we used the duct tape many times.
11. Hiking poles for steep rocky surfaces.
12. A hat that keeps the sun off your ears and neck, also useful for the rain.
13. Sunscreen
14. Small and medium carabiners, a length of cord, a couple of S hooks, clothes pins and large safety pins – all used.
15. Our iPhones, with 15e Vodaphone SIM cards, also served as our camera, books and computer. The Buen Camino app was quite helpful, but so was Google maps in the larger cities to navigate off the Camino. We used booking.com frequently.
16. A large heavy plastic bag or a foldable "Kitchen Sink" for ice water dips for your feet. I didn't meet anyone who walked 750+k who didn't experience foot pain of some sort.
17. The one item for which we were most thankful were our Aarn body packs from New Zealand. There was absolutely no pressure on our shoulders and necks and the load was equally distributed in front and back allowing us to walk with good posture. The front pockets allowed easy access to snacks, trail guide, phone/camera.

C put a couple of the items to use when drying clothes:

A good use of the multi tool:

One item I really wished I had brought were my Transitions glasses instead of regular sunglasses. Transitions are not polarized and it would have been easier to take pictures using the screen as it is impossible to see it through polarized lenses. I ended up not wearing sunglasses at all, but had a good wide brimmed hat on the sunny days.

More thoughts from Mallorca tomorrow.

Cluelessly we took an early bus back to Santiago. Clueless as we thought we were trying to get to the airport for a 5:00 flight and we weren't aware that the bus wasn't an express. Both errors worked out well as the bus took the beautiful coastal route and arrived in plenty of time to enjoy the city in the sunshine.

We had our last lunch as pilgrims in our favourite restaurant where we said goodbye to Denise and Greg last week. Then we hit our regular bar for a Serrano ham bocadillo-to-go and a huge hunk of chocolate chip cake to take with us for dinner on the plane.

At the airport it's easy to recognize flight bound pilgrims in their uniforms – zip off pants and quick dry t-shirts. We're all experiencing the shock of re-entry back into a fast and noisy world.

There were fascinating realistic miniature replicas of Santiago long ago and the cathedral.

If we wanted to we could photoshop ourselves in and replicate our arrival sans scaffolding.

Keeping costs down, we're at an "A" for adequate hotel in the city with a cruise terminal/water view within walking distance to the city and beach. The nice woman at the desk gave us their best view room knowing we were in Camino recovery mode. Yes, the view is nice but the noise of traffic and the city will take some getting used to. I'm missing my donkey and roosters.

You might ask what's walking distance after walking 20k per day? C jokes that after walking for 750k, sometime I'm going to say I'm going out for a walk, and he won't see me for a few days. In this case we have about an hour's radius as our target for exploration. We'll also do some hop on hop off bus touring.

The cab driver, seeing our back packs and poles, told us she had done two sections of the Camino. Then, from what I could get from her Spanish, she has friends who have done many pilgrimages, that walking has become their full time occupation. I really enjoyed it but my toes are not ready for that!

Tomorrow I'll post what we carried in our packs that we couldn't live without. If you have to live with only 15lbs of stuff, what would you choose to carry?

A beautiful morning walk took us to the lighthouse at Finisterre, where some pilgrims choose to end their pilgrimage three or four days past Santiago. It's generally a place of serious reflection, but today's mood was somber. The area was crawling with National Guard, police and news crews due to yesterday's incident involving a missing police officer swept into the sea while fishing, still unrecovered.

Returning to town we stopped often to admire the view.

Enjoyed another fish dinner along the harbour in time for the sunset, sitting with a Camino couple from Boston and had a good post pilgrimage debriefing.

C stopped into a bar tonight to ask for some ice for my foot. The woman behind the bar was very understanding. Just then a man came out of the kitchen and offered C a bow saw to cure the problem permanently. Humour is difficult to translate, but this time it was entirely effective.

This is our last day on the Camino. Tomorrow, posting from Mallorca, I'll start with reflections of this amazing experience.

Leaving Santiago by bus was the first step in letting go of our Camino pilgrimage. Soon we caught our first glimpse of the sea, the entrance to the end of the world, as believed by ancient mariners. It took Columbus, in 1492, to disprove that theory, but we know today that there were many prior to his voyage.

It was an unusual day of gusty wind, probably the remnants of a tropical storm from the east coast of the USA blown right across the Atlantic. The sound of a rescue helicopter and the hospitalero of our pension told us of the sad search in progress for a police officer, missing while fishing off the rocky outcrop near the lighthouse at mile zero of the Camino, giving credence to this area's name, the Coast of Death.

Finisterre is a place where you can eat seafood while the boat that caught it bobs in front of you moored in the tiny harbour. We tried the razor "smell" clams (see photo below), more meaty with fewer slimy stringy bits than the traditional kinds of steamers.

I'm wanting to try the percebes, goose barnacles a local delicacy, supposed to tasted like crab once you learn which parts to eat. C's not so keen after trying the "rosa" of a whole scallop yesterday. Really, though, can you imagine eating barnacles? How often can you say you've done that? Maybe it's because he read that the reproductive bits of the barnacle are tremendously out of proportion to their bodies, the largest of any creature, and they are not amongst the parts you discard prior to consumption. Best to leave that knowledge at the restaurant door.

It looks like we're the only ones here in a pension way up a hill in a room with a shower that has digital controls.

After the Camino, I think some people are hill intimidated. Although long, I didn't find this one bad at all.

We had hoped for the sea view rooms that were advertised, but ended up with a shrub, donkey, goat and chicken/rooster view room with a wee slice of water if you stand up to the side of the window and look through the far corner. It's different from home and not bad so we'll enjoy it.

That donkey and one particular chicken had a game going. He would chase the chicken until she squawked so loudly he would back off and she would run past him. And then they would do it again. And again. This was entertainment that would have been missed in an ocean view room.

Tomorrow we'll hike to the lighthouse where some pilgrims burn the clothes they've worn for many days of trekking.

Fruitless efforts to book flights on Ryan Air with a Canadian credit card lead us to a travel agency. Learning that Ryan Air charges 45e for printing boarding passes at the airport was worth the fee charged by the agent. 

I'm relieved to report that our post Camino plans have been solidified. Tomorrow we'll head to Finisterre, the Atlantic seaside town that in medieval times was believed to be end of the earth. Two nights later we'll fly to Mallorca for some r&r. 

We shopped for a couple of souvenirs, the criteria being items light in weight and unbreakable. More on that at another time. 

We didn't buy anything at the hotel/monastery gift shop, but it was interesting to see that they preserved original ceiling:

Then we stopped for what was probably our most expensive Camino meal. Not that it was terribly extravagant, but out of line with our budget. The best tapas bar we've encountered:

Holy St. Nicholas, look at that beard!

Well, you know you're no longer on the Camino when you're sitting next to an English couple at the tapas bar and you ask them if they just completed their Camino and they reply "What's that?" Or meet resistance from the bar man when you ask for a small bag of ice to take to your hotel for your sore parts, a request accepted and well accommodated on the Way.

Sorting through the stuff in our packs we were surprised at how much needless weight we were carrying: soaps from pensions, receipts, brochures, and unnecessary junk. The monastery hotel must be used to pilgrims leaving behind their excess weight at the end of the Camino.

We took a break at 10:30 p.m. to see who we might find in the pilgrim lounge and that's where we met Alexandra, from Idaho, putting us all to shame at 75 years old. Next to her is Liliana from Colombia, whose uncanny story was in yesterday's post. Their friend on the end is from Korea. They had hiked together for many days. This is the kind of eclectic trio that the Camino encourages. 

It poured heavily today and we thought of pilgrims on the trail when we saw those arriving drenched, no doubt glad to have reached their destination. Tomorrow: to the end of the earth in the sunshine.

Can't seem to get plans nailed down; still basking in the Camino afterglow/letdown. It feels particularly good to be in one place not repacking each day, but I'm missing the act of moving forward. My foot, however, is appreciating the rest.

We enjoyed lunch in the monastery's huge dining room while listening to a free live concert of the Lugo philharmonic orchestra in the cloisters. The acoustics in the monastery are marvellous.

The afternoon included two post Camino rituals, practiced for centuries. We hugged the statue of the apostle St. James in gratitude for arriving in Santiago and filed past the location of his remains.

Reading our Camino experiences you must wonder if we're the only ones with stories of unlikely synchronicity. Tonight we met Liliana from Colombia. She told us of her most difficult day on the trail, feeling as if she couldn't go another step. Just then she saw a Camino mileage marker and on it her brother's name, Adolfo, followed by the Spanish word for "walk."

Her brother had died in an accident at the age of 21. These Camino stories are bewildering.

A day of fun and rest. We transferred to our accommodation for two nights at the Hospederia San Martin Pinario, a renovated monastery located across the street from the cathedral.

It seemed fitting for the end of a pilgrimage. Elegantly simple rooms and facilities. Fluffy towels, machine dried, instead of stiff ones dried on a clothesline, in a great location for 52e nightly. We learned, thank goodness after the fact, that they have monk's cells on the top floor, much more basic with tiny clerestory windows, for pilgrims for 25e.

The dining room reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter.

We headed to the pilgrim's office to receive our compostelas, certifying our mileage and the end of our great adventure. I couldn't get through it without more happy tears. The final arrow:

I'll post a picture of the certificates when we get home as they are safely sealed for travel.

Met our friends Denise (West Vancouver) and her brother Greg (Australia) for a farewell lunch as they are flying out tomorrow. I gifted her a fridge magnet appropriately showing bandaged feet on the Camino.

Now we're planning the next phase of our trip, some time for foot recovery and sightseeing.

A huge thank you to all who followed us on our pilgrimage. You thoughts, prayers and good wishes, without doubt, helped us along the Way. I will continue to post afterthoughts and more as we continue our journey.

Tomorrow we'll visit the cathedral for traditional pilgrim rituals.

A million (!) steps behind us, after 40 days of walking, 2 rest days, 2 touring days, and one day of errands, we arrived in Santiago. Holding back the tears of joy:

The feelings are overwhelming: joy, sadness, gratitude and accomplishment. Although having successfully completing the Camino, I'm incredulous that I and so many others finish this pilgrimage, through pain, rain, up and down steep hills, putting one foot in front of the other until it's finally over.

The final day was tough, the bottom of my foot so swollen with tendinitis I no longer needed my orthotic, my foot forming its own padding. Denise, with an infected blister requiring her to walk in her Keene's, also hobbled into Santiago earlier in the morning.

We pushed our arrival in order to attend the pilgrim's mass, officiated by the bishop and seven priests, where the botafumiero (giant incense burner) is swung across the width of the cathedral, appearing to almost hit the ceiling. In the old days its purpose was to fumigate the smelly pilgrims, today it's only scheduled to be swung once per week and is purely spectacle.

We walked almost 500 miles and were never lost. Tonight, without the aid of arrows and pilgrims, we ended up a 51 minute walk from our hotel, following Google Maps to the Hotel San Lorenzo instead of our Hotel San Lazeron. It was late and very dark so we gave in and cabbed to the proper place.

Check back as tomorrow we head to the pilgrim's office to receive our compostelas, our certificates of completion. We'll be staying two nights in a converted monastery, a fitting end to an ancient pilgrimage.

Last night the address was technically still in Arzua, but it was quite a ways from town. We walked 1k to get back on track and once we did, we saw dewy fields at 9:00a.m., shortly after the usual astonishingly late sunrise.

We passed rows of trees,

a wall of beer bottles,

and mounds of mushrooms.

We walked all the way to O Pedrouzo with Denise and Greg, who left to get one town closer to Santiago.

We passed a memorial for a Dutch woman, who lived in Ireland, who upon completing her second Camino in the 1920's, died in her sleep in Santiago. Sadly two people have died on the Camino during our time here, both men in their 60's. One was a Canadian doctor from PEI, hiking with his wife. How very sad.

The unthinkable can also strike in what you think is a safe and insulated Camino world. While here in Spain the body of an American woman pilgrim, lured from the path earlier in the year, was found. A violent man with mental illness is in custody. Some pilgrims carried an extra scallop shell on their pack in her memory, but at some point I think she was in everybody's mind and heart.

Upon arrival at our pension, called the 9th of April, we were welcomed by the high energy host, who asked us how many kilometres we've walked. When we answered over 700, he shook our hands, dubbing us true pilgrims, not as he said, tourigrinos. He sent two beers with us to our room on the house.

I asked him about the name of the pension and he said it was the birth date of his son, born 18 months ago. Sweet. The room next to ours is the 29th of February. I wonder who the lucky leap year baby is.

Thinking about tomorrow being our last long day made me quite emotional. My foot is ready for the end but my head isn't.

The Camino wasn't going to let us off easy. It needed at least one more day of chewing us up prior to spitting us out in Santiago. The guide book showed a 100 meter incline over the 20k. My question is how many 100 meter inclines? I would guess 80% of today's path was heading up or down. The Brierly guide states one steep climb and a number of shallow river valleys.

We started the morning catching up with Denise and Greg and walking with the cows.

Past eucalyptus forests:

And many shades of green:

We had lunch in the sunshine at a quirky Celtic bar, playing Irish music and serving pizza.

We ended up in a pension off the path, but along a busy highway, not near anything. Looked like frozen lasagne, pizza, poor quality microwaveable paella and sandwiches were the choice. It's only for one night, I figured.

Chuck to the rescue. He noticed a veggie patch and asked if he could pay to pick some lettuce. He would have helped himself, however my Catholic girl background influenced by the Camino, turned him into an honest man. And I'll admit we've been carrying mini olive oils and balsamic vinegars across the Camino, which came in handy.

Voila! A beautiful fresh salad. Hey, where did the broccoli, kale, green onion, peppers, grapes and strawberries come from? Camino magic.

The scallop shells, hand picked from Australia's Gold Coast by Denise and Greg, were gifted to us.