What a day. You may say and hear a lot of things about the way being more important and worthy than the destination sometimes. Not to argue with that, but the final several hundred meters before the Cathedral in Santiago, when you can hear the bagpipe playing in the underpass, that’s emotional, man.
Even though it wasn’t the toughest of adventures this time, nevertheless, the feeling of achievement is truly overwhelming. Being able to share it with literally hundreds of people all being touched to tears – that’s priceless and that might be the addictive part of the whole thing.
At the plaza it just hits you on the emotional level, but when you’re talking to the official issuing your Compostela, they also put it into words for you. The lady at my counter was fantastically generous with her time and explained thoroughly how we are now a part of this hundreds of years old community of people who have completed this pilgrimage after having left their homes and having wondered for a long or short time. She says only the people who have done it themselves understand how it is obviously something important, while the rest of the world thinks them crazy. Yeah.
The way from Sigueiro is not remarkable. It is nice, yes, you have options to choose from – forest and gravel or villages and asphalt. There’s more and more people on the way, converging to SdC and most of them are smiling in anticipation. The northern part of town is a bit industrial with a thin residential belt. Allright to walk, just watch for the traffic. Also, try not to run when you see the bell towers of the Cathedral for the first time.
