From our hotel outside of Pedrouzo to the entrance of the cathedral of Santiago was 13 miles. Our total, from St. Jean Pied de Port to this cathedral works out to 492 miles. That is roughly the distance from Danville, Calif. to San Diego, Calif.

Tomorrow, we plan on attending the pilgrim’s mass at noon. There are no plans beyond that. There are no miles to walk tomorrow. There is no pack to pack first thing in the morning. Just sleep, eat, mass, eat, talk, eat, sleep. We might get used to that!

Today broke foggy, making it 6 for 6 foggy mornings in Galicia. That’s okay, it makes it somewhat mystical.

We had been warned that many, many additional tourists would join the walk on the last day. Expect crowds. We’d seen the numbers of Peregrinos increase significantly in Leon, then in Astorga, then very significantly in Sarria, so we were braced for crowds. Our journey unfolded differently. For nearly an hour we walked through a beautiful forest with birds chirping, streams flowing, and not a sight or sound of another human besides ourselves. We mostly stayed silent ourselves and listened to God’s symphony. We were blessed.

One we started encountering people, we saw literally scores of friends we’d made over the last 5 weeks.  We can literally say we’ve walked a mile or more with each of them!

Eventually, we reached the city limits of Santiago.

Now, the city of Santiago was never the goal, the cathedral of Santiago was the goal. So, we had more walking to do.

We finally made it just before the sky let loose with a significant downpour.

(Note that, because they are refurbishing the cathedral exterior, there are “facades” over much of the actual building).

The final step in completing this pilgrimage is obtaining a compostela from the Peregrino office. Once again, we saw many of our buddies in line there. After about 20 or so minutes, we also had our compostela.

We have completed this journey.

Tomorrow we rest, we reflect, then we decide if we go on to Finisterre. For now, we are very tired and very content.

Now, on to possibly the last afternoon of chores …