Night Before Santiago Day: October 7-8

 

Last night there was a spectacular moonrise I watched from the albergue patio.  I was sitting with Bernard, who Has a German accent, so I thought was from Germany. Turns out he was born in Austria but has lived the last forty years in Greece. He’s a potter, married to a Greek woman and raised four children on an island there. 

He walked the French way. In Pamplona he met a group from California who came to do a pilgrimage with their priest, only he got sick and couldn’t come with them. They prayed for a priest, and met a young priest named Father Matthew who came alone to the Camino, and he has been accompanying them across Spain on the French Way. So Bernard has been to lots of masses. He said sometimes they were outside, sometimes concelebrated in the local churches with the parish priest.

Hearing Bernard talk about the California group he walked with reminded me of the Malaysian group I met, they finished yesterday.

Today I will arrive in Santiago. What an amazing and challenging walk it has been. I have spent a lot of the time just thinking, inside my head, marveling at nature, I think of my kids and my grandkids, of the friends wbo sent me notes on the way, I think about God, about all the people I have met. The photos are coming in now from different friends who have already arrived at the Cathedral.

Right now it’s 4:22am in this last, very large albergue where I am staying. Lots of people are already up and packing their packs. I want to leave early but it’s going to be dark for a long time. (Spain is tacked onto a bunch of European countries’ same time zone. The sunrise here is not until 8:30) I am hoping to leave around 7am.