It has been a great couple of weeks and a truly wonderful experience completing this walk; not without its challenges, but worth every blister.
A couple of days ago I wrote about all the amazing people we have met along the way, yet in the last two days we have met so many more, and had such great times getting to know them.
We walked the last 12km to the cathedral in Santiago with Glenn and Julian, two great Irish guys who we bunked with on our last night. We seemed to click straight away, and spent the evening sat outside in the elusive Spanish sunshine chatting and drinking wine.
Despite this, we all set off in the morning with high spirits, excited about reaching our destination. It was a first camino for all of us and I think its fair to say that we weren't sure how we would feel on arrival.
It was uphill most of the way, and it rained, but we allowed neither to dampen our spirits as we watched the waymarkers counting down the final few kilometres. And we couldn't have timed it better; we approached the cathedral, through the narrow streets of the old town at exactly 12noon, just as the bells began to chime for the Sunday pilgrim mass.
There was an air of celebration as we reached the square, with pilgrims arriving from all of the camino routes through Spain, Portugal and France, many walking much further than us, but all congratulating each other on their achievements.
Photos taken, we settled at a bar for a celebration drink and were reunited, over the course of the afternoon, with many people we had met and walked with along the way.
We were also introduced to some of Glenn and Julian's camino acquaintances - Melody, James and Lucy - who we ended up spending a splendid evening with, celebrating again with amazing food and more wine, late into the night.
After very little sleep, and slightly hungover, we visited the cathedral and had a last wander around the old town, picking up some souvenirs, bumping into the boys for one last drink before they left for their return flight to Ireland.
What an amazing experience! I am sure that we will keep in touch with lots of the people we have met - we have even set up a WhatsApp group - and I imagine that this will not be our last camino. Who knows, we may all meet up one day to do one together, wouldn't that be nice.
But first, a rest. Buen camino x
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