Monday, August 29, 2022 – The Last Stage- Lavacolla to Santiago.

Travel Blog 4 Minutes

We got up at 5:00 AM this morning and started walking at 5:45. We had plenty of headlamps so the Way was well illuminated. It was so nice walking under a canopy of stars in the cool of the early morning.

This is the group leaving Lavacolla.
We reach the 10 kilometer marker just west of Lavacolla.
This sign marks the east end of the City of Santiago de Compostela.
Now we are really close. This is the 1 kilometer marker.
Once again in Obradorio Square in front of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. I felt a real sense of accomplishment walking into Obradorio Square this morning after completing the Camino del Norte. I also felt a real sense of thankfulness for God giving me the physical and mental and emotional health to complete this arduous Camino.
Group picture. Ann from France, Marco from Italy, Teresa from Spain, Tarek from Palestine and now London, Irene from NYC and now London, and seated is Sahand from Iran now London.
This is the group of equestrian pilgrims that have been leaving the Way littered with horse apples since we joined the Camino Frances at Arzua.

After we finished our celebration in Obradorio Square we went down to the Pilgrim office to present our Pilgrim Passports filled with stamps showing where we walked and the accommodations where we stayed at the end of each day.

This is the front side of my Pilgrim Passport.
This is the back side of my Pilgrim Passport.
This is my Compostela. It basically certifies that I walked at least 100 kilometers on a Camino and finished in Santiago. You need to present your Pilgrim Passport to the registrar at the Pilgrim Office and the stamps in your Pilgrim Passport that you get when you spend the night at an alburgue, pensión or hotel to document your journey.
This is a Certificate of Distance. The stamps in your Pilgrim Passport document where you started and then the registrar looks at the chart and figures out the distance you walked.

My Certificate of Distance shows that I walked 828 kilometers. I started in Irun at the beginning of the Camino Del Norte in July of 2019 and got as far as Santander. I was in Santander on August 8, 2019 when I got word that Anna, my sister, had passed away after courageously battling Non Hodgkins Lymphoma for two years. I immediately decided to pause my Camino Del Norte and fly back to Springfield, Illinois to be with my family to celebrate Anna’s life and mourn her passing. I had planned on resuming my journey in 2020 but COVID intervened and I was not able to even think about resuming my journey on the Norte until 2022.

I got credit for walking the entire distance from Irun to Santiago but if you have been following this blog, and you should be following this blog, I used taxis, trains, ferries, and buses to cover some of the distance on my journey along the Norte. Still, I estimate that I walked 650 kilometers of the 828 kilometers on the Norte in 2019 and 2022. Not bad for an old man.

After we finished at the Pilgrim Office we hustled over to the Cathedral to attend the 9:30 Pilgrim Mass. We got a special blessing from the bishop but the Botofumiero did not swing.

This is the Botofumiero. It is a huge incense burner that they shovel hot coals and incense into and then they swing it from one end of the Cathedral to the other. It is an experience to see the Botofumiero swing.
Swinging Botofumiero from 2018.
After Mass we walked down to the crypt where, legend has it, the remains of Saint James are entombed in a silver casket.
I lit a candle and said a heartfelt prayer for everyone.
One side of The Door of Forgiveness.
The other side of the Door of Forgiveness.

The Door of Forgiveness is only open during a Holy Year, that is a year when the feast day of Saint James falls on a Sunday. The Holy Year was last year but the Pope extended it through 2022 due to COVID. According to the Pope if you walk the Camino and walk through the Door of Forgiveness and go to confession and pray at the tomb of Saint James all your past sins will be forgiven and your time in purgatory for those past sins will be remitted.

After we finished our business at the Cathedral we found a bar and had a Radler celebration.

After a few Radlers we decided to grab lunch.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Santiago.
This is a great wok place where you pick out your choice of noodles and ingredients and sauce and in no time they stir fry it and it arrives at your table in a big bowl of deliciousness.
I was so hungry that I ate first and took this picture after I had almost finished my shrimp and veggies and udon noodle bowl.
This is our pension for the next five days
We have a very nice room in the Pension Pumar.

That’s it for today. We walked 19,000 steps. 13 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 17 flights of steps.

I hope you are having a good day wherever you are. Good evening from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Unknown's avatar

Published by abeandmarkonthecamino

I've been retired from the Union Pacific Railroad since 2017. I've been planning to walk the Camino for about 6 months and can't wait to get started.

Published

3 thoughts on “Monday, August 29, 2022 – The Last Stage- Lavacolla to Santiago.”

  1. Congratulations on completing the Camino. I really enjoyed your daily journey journal. Have safe travels back home. Cinda and I are selling our home in Idaho and are moving to Tennessee to be close to our grand children. We have a new grandson on the way, due in September. Eli our 4 year old will have to get use to having a younger brother. Please stay in touch.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to William Warburton Cancel reply