Stats for today:

• 18.4km
• 0km remaining

After thirty-three days and nearly eight hundred kilometres / five hundred miles of walking, we all made it to the tomb of St James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

The day started out like every other for these past five weeks. Wake up. Put on walking gear. Re-pack hiking packs. Leave without breakfast or coffee. Walk a couple of miles along the Camino to find a hot drink. All the surface elements the same – but the underlying vibe extremely different. The numbers on the milestones, no longer absurdly high figures in the three or five or seven hundreds, now ticking down thru the teens and then into single digits. Almost unbearable the sense of anticipation and expectation and somehow also not wanting this to all be over.

Another break a few miles later. How silly is this? We can’t put off the end forever. But just a little bit more time here. Surely we can linger longer. Then on again along surprisingly pleasing pathways, for a Camino now so close to a city centre. Other cities have had vaguely grim approaches, one in particular which I won’t embarrass by naming but which seemed to have about ninety minutes’ worth of naught but ring roads and industry.

Happily, not today. Today, some roads, but largely still rural and pretty, oft-scented with the ubiquitous eucalyptus reaching their oily leaves skywards. And then, before I was ready for it, the meeting point for the last push into the city of St James.

Monto do Gozo, the Hill of Joy. Just off the official path is a grassy peak, the last wee summit on this Camino which has taken us across the Pyrenees and the Galician mountains. From here, a sweeping view to the west… the city revealing itself to us, with the three towers of the Cathedral now rising in the distance, our first sight of the destination of so many days. The hill’s name supposedly derives from the joy felt by medieval pilgrims upon seeing their goal so near at hand. The feeling’s mutual for the modern peregrino, too.

Down the hill a small ways, past the last albergue before Santiago, an enormous and sprawling Xunta / provincial complex that apparently houses 1,400 pilgrims in the peak season. Into its central plaza and the cervezeria / cafe that we’d set as our final meeting point.

One final rest in the sun, a short walk to the monumento peregrino / pilgrim’s monument overlooking the city, and then a photo of the whole group. And then walking together, one last push of only a few kilometres, down and entering Santiago de Compostela and along the city streets.

Up and around a tangle of medieval laneways, back down and again and thru a small tunnel with a bagpiper playing local Galician music and then into the plaza and then – there it is, right in front if us, the Cathedral of St James / Santiago, rising up against the sky and overshadowing this enormous square and all of us.

Hugging and handshaking, posing for photos, and taking it all in.

After who can say how long, time for the next steps. Around the corner to the Pilgrims’ Office for the final stamp in out credencials / pilgrim’s passports, signifying the End of the Way. Generating our compostelas / certificates of completion. That’s 779km from Saint Jean Pied de Port, at least according to the pilgrimage authority.

And from there, onwards again. All off to our hotels, albergues and apartments. Coming together again for another group photo back in the main plaza that evening, this time a larger group – surprisingly larger! – of every pilgrim who’d finished their long journeys that day, or at least everyone we’d been able to reach by trail telephone (telling everyone you meet, and telling them to pass the message along).

Then off to the evening Mass, to various drinks and dinners, already reminiscing at having all finished this amazing and ridiculous and incredible journey.

The next day, Mass at noon and the amazing Botafumeiro / madly swinging incense holder was in use, a rare treat outside of special feast days. The tomb of St James behind and below the altar. And later, an incredible tour of the Cathedral rooftop, overlooking the plaza, the city, and – back east – Monte de Gozo, Hill of Joy, just visible, and far far behind it, Saint Jean Pied de Port and the journey’s beginning, long ago and far away.

And that’s a wrap. From France to the tomb of St James, via most of northern Spain. Pilgrimages started, pilgrimages completed.

The Camino de Santiago is over. We all go off on our own again, on to new Caminos and towards new Santiagos of our own.