The end of the earth

On our final day, we started at the Santiago market where the highlight again was fish and cheese made in the shape of a female breast. When we finished, we drove out to Finisterra - the end of the earth. This is the furthest point west in Spain and while there is a point in Portugal that is further west, this was the spot that the pagan and the early Christian's considered the end of the earth. We hiked up among the gorse and the heather to the wobbling rocks - legendary in pagan times. Looking out to the Atlantic, we would be looking at NYC, if we could see across the ocean. We walked over to the lighthouse and kilometer zero in the Camino.

French at to Santiago

Heading out for the day we would arrive in Santiago, we saw lots and lots of pilgrims from a variety of nations. The general route was not as pretty as what we had walked through earlier in the week, much of the trail was through functioning towns. We passed a nunnery where a nun was providing stamps for our pilgrims books and hiked through to the auberge which had the Wall of Wisdom posted outside of it. We read through the many quotes and stopped and had some sweets.

We drove to the top of the day mountain overlooking the city called the Mount of Joy. You used to be able to see the cathedral from this point but trees have grown up too make that impossible so we walked down the hill a little bit to see the cathedral in the distance. While this was exciting to us, we imagine it must have been quite the sight for the medieval pilgrim.

We walked into the old city so that we could get the feeling of finishing the pilgrimage. We had some free time to tour the old town, do some shopping and peek around the cathedral. The lines were not too long to climb to the top of the St. James statue and hug him which is what pilgrims do. You also can go down the stairs under the altar to see the silver box holding St. James remains. The line to climb up is much longer than the line to see the sepulcher. We also saw the Botofummiero which is a huge silver incense container that it takes 6 men to swing.

In the evening, we toured the city with a guide who told us that the Camino is actually an example of medieval marketing! Originally when St James's body was brought ashore and buried, only the locals knew where he was. When the Moors invaded and the locals wanted additional help to fight against them, they started to tell people that they needed help to protect St. James remains. We also learned that in 1214, St Francis visited and founded a monastery.