Because of a couple of changes I had to make in the middle of my camino (splitting a stage or two that turned out to be longer and harder than anticipated), I wound up walking into Santiago without enough days to walk to Finisterre and Muxia. That means that I am essentially "stuck" in Santiago for more days than usual. I could have taken a bus or train somewhere for a day trip but on each of the days I had a friend/friends coming into town and we had plans for an evening meetup.
So I did the usual post camino routine. Pilgrims mass, cathedral visit, trip to the park, etc etc. Lots of time to think and process.
It's not every year that the intense personal connections are made but the last two weeks on this camino were extraordinary. In our group were two young guys --a 16 year old from the Canaries and a 19 year old from near Bilbao. Maybe it's because I was the oldest and they were the youngest, but for some reason we had a very tight connection. One of them would inevitably show up when I was dragging, and I was always there to stop their complaining --if I can do this, surely you can too. These photos were taken as we were saying our goodbyes.
No concrete thoughts yet on next year's camino -- I leave that to the grey dreary months of Illinois winters. But I do have a few ideas starting to percolate. 🤗
Home tomorrow.
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