Day 13: O Pedrouzo to Santiago

Today marks the last day of walking this Camino.  Yesterday I decided that I have to come back and walk from St Jean to Santiago as soon as I possibly can.   I now understand why you have to walk the whole Camino and not just a part of it.  It takes about 10 days to figure out how to deal with the pain and on this trip I only had 3 good walking days.  The first one before I got any blisters and the last two days once I figured out how to prevent them.  Yesterday and today I felt like I was floating along the Camino and the feeling is simply undescribable.  

This morning I had an early start out of O Pedrouzo, but then stopped at the next town to enjoy a cup of coffee.   Eventually I caught up to Mat (the lovely man I met from NY yesterday) and we walked the rest of the last day together.  Before I knew it, the walk was over.   

But not before a Camino miracle happened.  They say be careful what you wish for, the Camino will make it happen.    My miracle today presented itself in the form I Andres, or to be exact what he had for me.   

Last week when I was in gorgeous O Cebreiro, I met an Italian man, Ronaldo, who sang a peregrino song to the tune of La Bamba.  Because he was running late to his albergue and didn't want to get locked out, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the lyrics to the song, and was hoping that I will see him on te Camino again.  My Camino was almost over and I have not run into Ronaldo yet. Today, however, while Mat and I were walking the last 10km, a girl I met a couple of days ago, Elizabeta caught up to me with a young man named Andres.  In the short time we spent walking together, the Ronaldo and the song came up in our conversation.  Andres dug into his backpack, and presented me with a piece of paper with the lyrics to the Peregrino la Bamba song.  How awesome is that. Andres made my day today.  The day just keeps getting better and better.  

Here is a picture if Elizabeta singing the Peregrino La Bamba song from the sheet of lyrics that Andres had.   

Upon our arrival in Santiago, Mat and I went to get te Campostella, and to dplitnup to find our accommodations for the evening / weekend.  On the way to the hotel I intended to stay at, I walked past the Parador, and decided to give myself a weekend of pampering in the castle before I have to get back to my normal life.   And let me tell you, this place is absolutely beautiful.   Here are some photos of the Parador.   

One other thing that I feel I should mention as I did not expect to see anyone that I knew from NY here in Santiago.  When Mat and I for together later in the afternoon for a celebratory glass of vino and some seafood (Galicia is all about seafood, and it's delicious), we began working on the first bottle of wine, and I looked up to see Bill walk buy.   Bill lives in NY, and is one of the directors of the American Pilgrims on the Camino.   I knew that he was walking the Camino Portugese, but I didn't think that we would arrive in Santiago on the same day.  Bill, Mat and I had a wonderful evening with 3 bottles of Albariño vino.  It's a great end to the Camino.  

Here are some more pictures from today.